About this place
Place Saint-Georges is now a sun-trap of cafe terraces and chatter, pedestrianised and framed by pink-brick townhouses, but its history is far grimmer than its mood. For generations this was where Toulouse carried out public executions. In 1762 the Protestant cloth merchant Jean Calas, falsely accused of murdering his son to prevent a conversion to Catholicism, was tortured and broken on the wheel here before a crowd. The case so appalled Voltaire that he campaigned for years, publishing his Treatise on Tolerance in 1763, until the verdict was overturned and Calas declared innocent in 1765. The square that once witnessed such intolerance has become a symbol of Toulouse's easy outdoor sociability.
Key facts
- 1762 year — Merchant Jean Calas was tortured and executed on this square on a false charge
- 1765 year — Calas was posthumously exonerated after Voltaire's campaign
- 64 years old — The age of Jean Calas when he was wrongly put to death
📍 Place Saint-Georges 5, 31000, Toulouse