Agde

Agde (occitan: Agde ) is a common department of the Herault, in the area Languedoc-Roussillon, in France. Its inhabitants is called Agathois.

Ethymology

  • the name of “Agde” derives from the Greek name of the colony that of origin, Agathé Tyché , “good fortune”. The inhabitants are called Agathois or Agathais . However, only gentilé the Agathois remains in the everyday usage.

Geography

  • Located at the edge of the the Mediterranean at the mouth of the Herault.

History

Antiquity

  • the town of Agde was attended by Phocée NS come from Marseilles towards 600 av. J.C. From 400 before J. - C. the city deviating colony massaliète. The habitat phocéen is built in a quadrilateral of 150 and 200 meters on side to the site of the current old city. The territory ( will chora ) city is quickly registered by the new inhabitants. The counter quickly becomes prosperous and contacts the oppida area and more largely of Celtic Mediterranean, in order to trade with them (Ensérune, Saint-Thibéry, Castelnau…). The Greeks get Céréale S, Laine, grinding stones in Basalte and perhaps of the slaves. They introduce the production engineering of the olive oil and the Vigne. They also draw from large benefit of the traffic of the abundant salt along the pond S of the area. The relations with Marseilles are constant and the city of Agathe Tyché sends to it emissary (théores) at the time of the special occasionss. To the IV E, Agathé Tyché is a warehouse allowing an important and remote traffic. The Greek authorities work out a cadastration of the territory which extends beyond the walls from the city and which will be re-examined only three centuries later. The activity of the city east then in full rise. The presence of basalt makes it possible to the Greeks to produce grinding stones which will be, thereafter, sold in a good part of the Mediterranean basin. In 118 before the Christian era, the Consul Cneus Domitius Ahenobarbus seizes all the south of current France and founds the province of the Narbonnaise. To structure this zone and to facilitate the Roman penetration it makes build famous the Via Domitia. This last master key with a score of kilometers in the north of the Greek counter. Moreover, to compete with this one, the Romans base Forum domitii (Montbazin) on their way.

The Middle Ages

  • In 859, Agde is plundered by the Viking S of the chief Hasting, which come from Nantes and had wintered in the Camargue.

  • Évêché until the Revolution (the last bishop and Count d' Agde, Charles François de Saint Simon Sandricourt was guillotine in Paris on July 26th, 1794). To the the Middle Ages, the Vicomté of Agde belonged to the Maison Trencavel, before being annexed by the kings of France following the Albigensian Crusade. cathedral Saint-Etienne, strengthened, of the 12th century in basaltic Lava .

Second world war

  • the modern history of Agde is marked by a painful episode: in 1939, at the end of the war of Spain, tens of thousands of republican S crossed the border and were locked up by the French authorities in a true concentration camp, which became then, under the Régime of Vichy, a Center of Gathering from Abroad.

Administration

|- | align=right| March 1971 ||Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu ||align=" center" | RPR || |- | align=right| March 1989 ||Governed Passerieux ||align=" center" | PS || |- | align=right| March 2001 || Gilles d' Ettore ||align=" center" |Without label then UMP ||

Demography

Places and monuments

  • Cathedral ST Etienne.
  • the Beautiful young man of Agde remains an emblem of city; rule ancient found in Herault and inaugurated in 1986 by the minister with the culture of the time: François Léotard.

The volcano of Agde

  • the volcanic complex of the mount Saint-Wolf has been a extinct Volcan for approximately 500.000 years, extending on approximately 1,5 km ², which is at the end of a volcanic series laid out according to a North-South axis since the Cantal, the Devès, the basin of Puy, the Aubrac, the Causse S and the Escandorgue in the Herault) to finish on Mediterranean bank. It is a volcano of the Strombolian type which seems to have three eruptive cones, whose vestiges are the mount Saint-Wolf (112 m of altitude), small Pioch (35 m, but this top was pickled mainly by a career of exploitation of the Pouzzolane, currently transformed into discharge of waste) and the mount Saint Martin's day (55 m) partly included in the urbanization of the seaside resort of the Cape of Agde. For some, they would be the vestiges of only one eruptive cone. A basaltic casting is visible with height of the beach of the conch (black blank, the sand there making up of basaltic remains), whose concave form, in conch, is the result of erosion between more resistant basaltic reliefs which are the remainder of Dyke S, of which in the south rocks of the two brothers very close to the course itself. The Basalt, rock black and heavy, lasts (silica 50%), was in particular used to build the Saint-Etienne cathedral of Agde as well as the majority of constructions of the old city.

Downtown area

  • remarkable Buildings downtown: old strengthened Cathedral Holy Etienne (XIIe) retable, paintings and main furnace bridge XVIIe and XVIIIe; houses XVIIe and XVIIIe in the historical center; fountains (XIXe): " The Town of Agde" and " The Glory of République" ; Neo-classic Laurens castle and art nouveau beginning XXe

The round basin

  • the Canal of the South passes to Agde where a remarkable lock is equipped with a round basin. This lock formerly perfectly circular, built out of basalt, allows the boats coming from the sea to join the channel and conversely. So it is the access to the waterway which connects the the Mediterranean to the Atlantique.
  • So that the Batelier S (or Barquier S) continue to make their trade, this lock was modified to make possible the passage of the Péniche S of 36 Mètre S. Hélas, once finished work one realized that the trade of boatman of the channel of the South did not exist any more: this work was thus useless and disfigured the only round lock of the Channel.

Economy

Seaside resort and port of pleasure thanks to the Cape of Agde, the Tourism and the Commerce are the independent sources of incomes of a city formerly primarily founded on the fishing and the Viticulture. Tamarissière and the Grau of Agde, built they as on the territory of the common of Agde, are seaside resorts much family as the Cape of Agde, with many camp-sites. The fishing remains important there (shouted of the Grau of Agde).

The commune has an antenna of the Chamber of commerce and industry of Béziers Saint-Pons.

Twinnings

See too

External bonds

  • Town of Agde, official site
  • the local newspaper of the Country Agathois
  • the Community of agglomeration Herault the Mediterranean
  • Cyberflag: Flag of Agde
  • Tourist office of Agde, Tourist office of the Friendly Cape of Agde
  • of the organ of Agde

Sources of the article

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