Grenoble

Alpine city and administrative centre of the Isère département, Rhône-Alpes region, southeast France, situated on the rivers Isère and Drac; population (1999) 153,400, conurbation 419,500. Industries include electrometallurgy, engineering, nuclear research, hydroelectric power, computers, technology, chemicals, plastics, cement, textiles, foodstuffs, paper, and gloves. Grenoble was the birthplace of the novelist Stendhal (1783), commemorated by a museum, and the Beaux-Arts gallery has a modern collection. There is a 12th-13th-century cathedral, a major university (1339), and the Institut Laue-Langevin for nuclear research. It is the site of the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility), the brightest X-ray machine in the world, inaugurated in 1994. The 1968 Winter Olympics were held here.

Features Grenoble is the chief tourist centre of the French Alps. The Roman emperor Gratian founded the town as Gratianopolis. It was the capital of the Dauphiné before it passed to France in 1341. Features include a Renaissance palace of the dauphins (now a court), and fine galleries and museums. The 13th-15th-century church of St-André contains the tomb of the French knight Pierre de Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard (1476-1524), known as the chevalier sans peur et sans reproche (‘fearless knight beyond reproach’).