Lunel

See also: Lunel (homonymy)

Lunel (in Occitan: Lunèl , version of Provence Lunèu ) is a common French, located in the department of the Herault and the area Languedoc-Roussillon.

Its inhabitants are the Lunellois . They are also called the Pescalunes , literally the Pêcheurs of the Moon in Occitan. The history goes back to time when one could travel by a boat and to move towards the Grau-of-King by the Waterway. It is a fisherman who wanted simply fishing R the moon with a bow net perforated at the edge a channel lunellois

Geography

The commune, more at the East of the department of Herault, is located at 21 km in the east of Montpellier and 28 km in the south-west of Nimes (Gard), on the railway and the Trunk road RN113 connecting the two prefectures of department.

On Right Bank and héraultaise of the Vidourle, its territory is mainly made up of an alluvial plain between the plain of Mauguio and that of Petite Camargue. This plain accommodates activities Viticole S and arboricolous, as well as the town of Lunel. The south is increasingly wet in direction of the communes of Marsillargues and Saint-Nazaire-with-Pézan. In north, the hills of Garrigue to the foot start of which irrigation the Canal of Low-Rhone-Languedoc is which allowed the development of the fruit-bearing activity in the oriental party of Herault.

Administratively, the commune is bordering on Saturargues and Villetelle in north, the Vidourle, Gallargues-le-Montueux and Aimargues (Gard) in the North-East, Marsillargues in the east and the south, Saint-Nazaire-with-Pézan and Saint-Just in south-west, and Lunel-Viel in the west. All these communes belong to the Canton of Lunel.

History

As any city installed in an area which was marshy, it is difficult to go back with precision the birth to Lunel. The legend wants that it is been founded in 68 by a group of Jews originating in Jericho. Lunel was a very great Jewish philosophical center with the Middle Ages: it was called " small the Jerusalem médiévale". Today there does not remain any trace of this presence in the city. A certainty, in 888 Lunel is set up in baronnie gathering 13 villages. To the threshold of the year 1000, it belongs to Bernard d' Anduze, baron de Sauve who yields it to the family of Gaucelm, lords of Lunel. In 1632, following the Peace of Ales , the fortifications are dismantled. One century later, in 1728, work of a channel and a port connecting Lunel to the coast is completed. This work, used during nearly two centuries, will be partly filled in 1941 and 1972, victim in particular of the competition of the rail-bound transports.

Today, the many residences and private mansions of the center town attest of this rich and prestigious past.

Administration

Demography

Sport

• It is in Lunel that in 1860 the first club of Balle to the tambourine was created, sport derived from the Jeu of palm.
• Olympic Rugby Lunellois, boarder of the second federal division
• the Gallia Club, football team evolving/moving in DH, which exists since 1916.
• Each year is held in Lunel and in its surroundings tourist-cycling race sponsored by Luc Leblanc, the Cicada Luc Leblanc. This year the race will take place on Saturday, May 5.

But Lunel, it is also an open door on the Camargue and it is organized there each years of famous races camarguaises, where the men face the bulls.

Places and monuments

• a reproduction of the Statue of Freedom had been bought by the town of Lunel. This miniature belonged to a series of the Gagets company. It was molten during the second world war.
• covered markets built between 1908 and 1910.
• Organ Aristide Cavaillé-coll, Notre-Dame Church of the Lake.
• the beginning of the XXIe century sees the old railway which skirts to North transformed into Green lane of Vaunage: Caveirac - Calvisson - Sommières for all not motorized: pedestrians armchairs shoes and bicycles.

Personalities related to the commune

• the scenario writer Louis Feuillade was born in Lunel the February 19th 1873. One owes him for example the Fantômas, or the Vampires. It gave its name to the Lycée of the city.

• the tradesman and bibliophile Louis Medard who bequeathed, in 1841, an exceptional collection with its commune of birth. Today still, this Fonds Medard is preserved in the buildings of the Public library, in a room, where it was installed in 1858.

See too

• Common of Herault