History of Gard

The Département of Gard is rich culturally. It is an extraordinary point of meeting between the Provence, the Languedoc, the the Cevennes and the the Camargue, and borders the the Mediterranean.

The March 4th 1790, the department of the Gard is created pursuant to the law of the December 22nd 1789, starting from part of the old province of Languedoc.

13th-1st front century J. - C.

This country was, says one, originally occupied by Ibères. Those were driven out by the Celtic people of Volques which took, while being established in this region, the nickname of Arécomiques, i.e. Volques of the flat country, to be distinguished from the Volques Tectosages, which occupied the mountains on the side of Toulouse. Eastern civilization was brought on these shores by the Phéniciens, which, of 13th at the 11th century before Jesus-Christ, founded many counters there; by Rhodiens, which, towards -900, founded Rhoda with the mouth of the the Rhone; finally, by the Phocéens, founders of Marseilles. One remembers remote forwardings which joined Arécomiques, under Sigovèse, Bellovèse, Brennus. Trained undoubtedly by Massaliotes in the party of Rome, Arécomiques were opposed in the passing Hannibal and tried to stop it on the edges of the Rhone. It overcame them and passed (- 218). Towards -154, the Arvernes subjected all the country of Arécomiques; but their stay was little of duration, and already they had disappeared when the Romains were shown. The influence of Marseilles decided Arécomiques to be voluntarily submitted (- 121) to the proconsul In. Domitius; in reward, the senate allowed Nimes and the twenty-four boroughs placed in its dependence to preserve their laws, their religion and their uses. Rome found since in Arécomiques from the subjects always faithful and always abroad to the movements which agitated the Gaulle. A few years afterwards, the Cimbres and the Teutons crossed, with the impetuosity and the devastations of a storm, all the country between the the Rhone, the the Cevennes and the the Pyrenees, and melted on the Spain to then return to be made beat by Marius.

The attachment that Arécomiques consequently dedicated to the winner of the barbarians of North and his heir Sertorius was worth them the hatred of Sylla and Pompée, which gave part of their grounds to the Marseillais. Consequently reason, they were favorably treated by Jules César and Auguste (which more is, of origin nîmoise). Their country was included/understood in the Narbonnaise, later, in the Narbonnese first, and covered Roman monuments which make of Gard the department richest in antiquities of this time.

IV-VIIIe century

The cruel invasions, stopped since Marius by the Roman power, started again in 407. Crocus, king of the Vandals, devastated the Narbonnese and reversed several Roman monuments. It was overcome by the second Marius. The Vandals the Visigoths succeeded to which the country of Nimes was subjected. Clovis theirs removed one moment. But the victory of Ibbas, general Ostrogoth, theirs returned, and their domination was disturbed more there only by the revolt of the duke Paul under Wamba (672).

In 720, the Buckwheats, under the emir Zama, are spread to the Rhone; they are overcome two years afterwards by Eudes. Iousouf takes the same way in 737; Charles Martel beats it in its turn. For the third time the country of Nimes is invaded by Buckwheats in 752; but he revolts, form a league and drives out the foreigners. The chief who had been carried to the head of this kind of republic, Ansemond, not feeling enough forces to resist to the Moors a long time, put under the protection of Pépin the Brief and delivered to him Nimes in 752. Pip gave the government of Nimes and Uzès to Radulfe, which was the first count (753).

The Middle Ages

The counts of Nimes became hereditary after Charlemagne, in these times of disorder where the Normands were made so frightening. These pirates unloaded in 858 in the region which occupies us; the Hungarian appeared to with it in their turn in 924 and made dreadful devastations there. But soon Nemosez had lords able to defend it; it was in 956, when the Cécile heiress married Bernard II, Viscount of Albi, whose descendants, become Masters of Béziers and Carcassonne, were so powerful and so famous under the name of Trencavel. The Viscount of Nimes was however detached from the fields of Trencavel, in 1130, to become the prerogative of Bernard, wire junior by Bernard-Athon IV. It was sold in the same century (1185) by Bernard-Athon VI to Raymond V, count of Toulouse, already Master of this part of the region which one called the county of Saint-Gilles. At the beginning of the next century, Simon de Montfort was made it allocate, and its successor gave it to Louis saint, who finally joins together it with the crown of France. Since this time, Nemosez, directly submitted to the royal officers, did not change Masters any more.

The stronghold of Went (Alès) belonged, with the Middle Ages, the house of Pellet, downward of the former counts de Melgueil, who had themselves as authors the first Viscounts of Narbonne. The Pellet, which always claimed in vain the county of Melgueil and the Viscount of Narbonne, were even obliged to be satisfied with half of Went when Simon de Montfort had seized the different one. They kept this half, under the title of baronnie, until the middle of the 17th century. The other half, become part of the field of the crown by the transfer of Amaury de Montfort, was set up in county and passed successively by marriage or sale to Beaufort, Montmorency and Conti.

The Viscount of Uzès, at the beginning of the 16th century, was won over by a marriage with the baron de Crussol; the grandson of this lord made it set up in duchy (1556), then in peerage, and, at the 18th century, the duke of Uzès was already the oldest par of the kingdom, all other peerages being itself extinct before.

Xvi-XIXe century

In XVIe and the 17th century, the dioceses of Nimes, from Went and of Uzès were agitated by the religious wars. Although unceasingly persecuted (as of 1660 with the dragonnades), the Protestants were very numerous there, when the revocation of the edict of Nantes (October 18th 1685) struck them of a general proscription. Then, indeed, one sent missionaries and soldiers to them, who converted some of them; but the greatest number loved expatrier better or to suffer for his beliefs.

They were only reversed temples, pastors put at died or sent to the galères, old men, women, children thrown in prison (as with the Tower of Constancy to Acute-Dead where this Protestant woman had engraved on the walls " resist! "). Much took refuge in the the Cevennes in the north of the department; but, there still, the enquiry continued them, and of the thousands perished there on roughing-hew it or the wheel. Despaired, some Cevennes mountain dwellers armed themselves, the ones of forgery, the others of forks, others of swords or rifles; and, of the mountains of the Gard, the Lozere and the Vivarais, the revolt was propagated in the country of Went. Thus started the Guerre of Camisards (1702).

Like all the men of party, the Camisards were badly judged: the ones made of them brigands, others of the heroes, those of the saints and prophets, these of the sacrileges and irreligious people. They was the honest country poor which, tired to be held to ransom and upset by people of war, simply fought for the defense of their goods, their values, their freedoms and their lives. They wanted some especially with clergy, whose intolerance and fanaticism unceasingly requested against them new persecutions. The catholics reflect very with fire and blood in this country, not saving neither the age nor the sex. One quotes villages where several expectant mothers were cut the throat of and of which children, snatches of their center, were carried in procession with the point of a pile.

It is known that this war of extermination lasted three years. But repression lasted until 1744, even 1787 (date of the Edict of Tolerance) and even the French revolution (1789) with the declarations of the rights and its article on freedom of religion (written by Gardois Protesting). The Camisards went day and night, and by bands; they called brothers their chiefs. Jean Cavalier, which ordered the bands of the plain or from the country of Went, was hardly a butcher's assistant twenty years old. Burning and courageous, it passed for a prophet and had on his companions an absolute capacity. It had to fight the marshal of Montrevel, which it did successfully; but it went to Villars. It is said that the large king being made present, the young hero, with the sight of his weak air and his small size, it raised the shoulders and the back turned to him.

After these bloody wars, the country of Nimes, from Went and Uzès enjoys a long rest; but the Revolution there awoke old religious passions: the history of the department counts sad pages at that time.

With the Rebirth, and especially at the 18th century and 19th century, Gard makes impressive great strides. In particular, of great fabric manufactures develop in particular in the Cevennes - thus, and it is not a legend, the first jeans (Levi's) were carried out with Nimes with a resistant fabric, initially designed for the Cevennes shepherds and the Gênois sailors, then for the colonists of the American west, gold diggers and " cow-boys". From where the terms “Jean (Genoa) Denim (Of Nimes)”. Weaving looms this fabric are visible with the Museum of Old man-Nimes. Soon the production of fabrics and the silk stocking is exported in Europe and in the Spanish Indies. Two thirds of the active population of Nimes are employed in the textile. The city and the department grow rich. Gard changes.

Here what appears superb private mansions in the cities and villages, here that takes shape an urban revival. With Nimes, by chance, at the Age of Enlightenment, one redécouvre the Roman sanctuary of the Source. One makes a great project of town planning of it. The industry of silk is reconverted into the clothes industry of shawls thanks to the first Jacquard looms initiated by Turion, a workman nîmois. Thirty years of fulgurating success place Gard and Nimes the industrial one at a European row.

End XIXe century

But Lyons competition is hard in this second half of the 19th century. Very quickly, before losing money, one reinvests the capital of the textile in the vineyard. The culture of the Vigne is facilitated by the construction of the Canal of the South, the transport of the Vin by that of the railroad, very developed in Gard as of half of the 19th century (in particular thanks to the industrialist Paulin Talabot and with the engineer Charles Dombre).

It is a new era of prosperity. The cities cover private mansions. Lastly, the central station of Gard with Nimes becomes the center of transit of Cevennes coal towards Beaucaire, the the Rhone and Marseilles.

It is to be stressed that this department always was inspired by multiple cultures, this being in particular due to its exceptional geographical location: culture Latin, of Provence, Protestant, Cevennes, camarguaise - and in particular bullfighting -, Languedocien.

XXe and beginning XXIe century

Today, Gard is reorganized. In a deliberated dash, its capital, Nimes, combine since a score of years the contemporary art most pointed to the richnesses of the past. She rehabilitates her old districts and extends towards the south. She entrusts her projects of town planning and architecture to the greatest international creators: Norman Foster, Vittorio Gregotti, Kisho Kurokawa, Jean Nouvel, Martial Raysse, Philippe Starck, Jean-Michel Wilmotte…

Technical prowess between all, Fine Geipel and Nicolas Michelin offer to the arenas nîmoises cover of a inflatable, removable fabric at the beautiful days. Winter like summer, Nimes organizes spectacles in the arenas.

The vine growing there is always important but privileges from now on largely quality with the quantity. The cultural life is dense there and of many festivals take place in the department during all the year. Lastly, the passion for the south-east of France and the arrival in 2001 of the Line at Mediterranean high speed, putting Gard at 2:52 of Paris in the TGV, give a new dynamism to the department and contribute for a good portion to its important demographic and economic rise.

Historical or famous characters mark out the history of the department.

External bonds

Nemausensis Occupation of Buckwheats in Septimanie

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