Grenoble

Grenoble began as Cularo, a village of the Allobroges near a bridge over the Isère; the emperor Gratian, touched by its welcome, made it a Roman city. After Burgundian rule it grew in the 11th century when the counts of Albon made it their capital, and when they took the title of Dauphin it became the capital of the Dauphiné. The last Dauphin, Humbert II, founded the university in 1339 and, deep in debt, sold his state to France in 1349 on condition that the heir to the throne bear his title. The future Louis XI created the Parlement and its palace.

The city suffered in the Wars of Religion, when the Huguenot leader the baron des Adrets pillaged the cathedral. Lesdiguières, who governed the province from 1591 to 1626, began the Bastille and new walls. On 7 June 1788 townspeople attacked royal troops in the Day of the Tiles, an early sign of the Revolution, and in 1815 Napoleon, returning from Elba, won over the troops sent to stop him near Laffrey and entered the city in triumph.

Glove-making reached its golden age in the 19th century, the railway arrived in 1858, and Aristide Bergès's work with hydroelectricity from 1869 drove new industry. The 1925 Exhibition of Hydropower and Tourism drew more than a million visitors. Grenoble was a centre of the Resistance, and in November 1943 the occupiers killed members of its organisations in a crackdown remembered as "Grenoble's Saint-Bartholomew". In 1955 Louis Néel founded the nuclear research centre that began the city's model of research and industry, and the 1968 Winter Olympics brought an airport, motorways, a new town hall and a new station.

Science shapes Grenoble's identity. The Nobel laureate Louis Néel's research centre was followed by international laboratories such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the Institut Laue-Langevin, and one in five inhabitants works directly in research, technology or innovation. The universities, with tens of thousands of students, give the city a young population and a busy cultural life.

Its museums are strong for a city of its size: the Museum of Grenoble is considered by many the best museum of modern art in France, the Musée dauphinois tells the story of the old province, and Le Magasin shows contemporary art. The MC2 cultural centre stages music, theatre and dance, and festivals include the Détours de Babel in March and an outdoor short film festival in the Jardin de Ville each June. Memory of the Revolution is kept alive by the Fountain of the Three Orders on Place Notre-Dame, which commemorates the events of 1788.

The mountains are part of daily life: residents hike, mountain-bike, climb and ski in the backcountry, and there is a via ferrata on the Bastille hill. The Tour de France regularly passes through, and the city supports FC Grenoble in rugby, the Brûleurs de Loups in ice hockey and Grenoble Foot 38 in football.

About 156,000 people lived in the commune of Grenoble in 2023, and about 727,000 in its metropolitan area, the largest in the Alps, ahead of Innsbruck and Bolzano. Almost the whole city is built on the alluvial plain of the Isère and the Drac at about 214 metres, and suburbs such as Saint-Martin-d'Hères, where the main university campus moved in 1965, Échirolles and Fontaine spread across the valley floor.

The economy rests on high technology — semiconductors, electronics and biotechnology, with STMicroelectronics, Schneider Electric and Soitec among the big employers — alongside heavy equipment and chemical companies. Grenoble is the largest research centre in France after Paris, and a few small firms still make luxury gloves.

The city has long promoted ecological policies: most streets have a 30 km/h limit, the tram and cycle networks are extensive, and former barracks and factories have been rebuilt as eco-districts. A rise in drug-related violence in the 2020s, especially around Saint-Bruno, has drawn political criticism, and a police operation was carried out there in 2023.

Grenoble is known for its walnuts: the noix de Grenoble have their own appellation d'origine contrôlée. The region's best-known dish is gratin dauphinois, sliced raw potatoes baked in cream, named after the Dauphiné of which Grenoble was the capital.

From the mountains to the north comes Chartreuse, the herbal liqueur made by the Carthusian monks since 1737 and named after their Grande Chartreuse monastery. The Grenoble area is one of the places named as a possible birthplace of the French tacos, a flour tortilla grilled and folded around chips, cheese and meat, and the O'Tacos chain was founded in the city.

Markets are central to eating in Grenoble. Several food markets run daily in the centre: Les Halles Sainte-Claire near the cathedral has a covered hall of cheese and butchers' stalls beside an outdoor fruit and vegetable market, Place aux Herbes has its own market, and L'Estacade, under the railway tracks by Cours Jean-Jaurès, runs six days a week. Restaurants and bars cluster in the Notre-Dame quarter and around Place Grenette.