Agde | ||
|---|---|---|
 Hotel la Galiote in front of the cathedral | ||
| ||
| Country | France | |
| Region | Occitanie | |
| Department | Hérault | |
| Arrondissement | Béziers | |
| Canton | Agde | |
| Intercommunality | Hérault Méditerranée | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor (2008–2014) | Gilles d'Ettore (UMP) | |
Area 1 |
50.81 km2 (19.62 sq mi) | |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | ||
Agde (French pronunciation: [agd]; Occitan: Agde [ˈadde, ˈate]) is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi.
Location[]
Saint-Joseph Bridge over the Canal du Midi
Château Laurens and the Hérault River
Agde is located on the river Hérault, 4 kilometres (2 miles) from the Mediterranean Sea, and 750 kilometres (466 miles) from Paris. The Canal du Midi connects to the Hérault at the Agde Round Lock ("L'Écluse Ronde d'Agde") just above Agde and flows into the Mediterranean at Le Grau d'Agde.
History[]
Fountain of the Republic in town centre
Town centre, pedestrian area
Foundation[]
Agde (525 B.C.) is one of the oldest villages in France, right behind Béziers (575 B.C.) and Marseille (600 B.C.).[1] Agde (Agathe Tyche, "good fortune") was a 5th-century BCE Greek colony settled by Phocaeans from Massilia. The symbol of the city, the bronze Ephebe of Agde, of the 4th century BCE, recovered from the fluvial sands of the Hérault, was joined in December 2001 by two Early Imperial Roman bronzes, of a child and of Eros, which had doubtless been on their way to a villa in Gallia Narbonensis when they were lost in a shipwreck.
Development[]
Maréchaux Bridge and the Hérault River
In the history of Roman Catholicism in France, the Council of Agde was held 10 September 506 at Agde, under the presidency of Caesarius of Arles. It was attended by thirty-five bishops, and its forty-seven genuine canons deal "with ecclesiastical discipline". One of its canons (the seventh), forbidding ecclesiastics to sell or alienate the property of the church from which they derived their living, seems to be the earliest mention of the later system of benefices.[2][3]
Population[]
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1793 | 6,744 | — |
| 1800 | 6,744 | +0.0% |
| 1806 | 7,639 | +13.3% |
| 1821 | 7,726 | +1.1% |
| 1831 | 8,202 | +6.2% |
| 1836 | 8,230 | +0.3% |
| 1841 | 8,251 | +0.3% |
| 1846 | 8,884 | +7.7% |
| 1851 | 9,115 | +2.6% |
| 1856 | 9,439 | +3.6% |
| 1861 | 9,747 | +3.3% |
| 1866 | 9,586 | −1.7% |
| 1872 | 8,829 | −7.9% |
| 1876 | 8,251 | −6.5% |
| 1881 | 8,170 | −1.0% |
| 1886 | 8,446 | +3.4% |
| 1891 | 7,389 | −12.5% |
| 1896 | 8,478 | +14.7% |
| 1901 | 9,533 | +12.4% |
| 1906 | 8,435 | −11.5% |
| 1911 | 9,265 | +9.8% |
| 1921 | 8,325 | −10.1% |
| 1926 | 9,360 | +12.4% |
| 1931 | 9,605 | +2.6% |
| 1936 | 9,242 | −3.8% |
| 1946 | 7,592 | −17.9% |
| 1954 | 7,897 | +4.0% |
| 1962 | 8,751 | +10.8% |
| 1968 | 10,184 | +16.4% |
| 1975 | 11,605 | +14.0% |
| 1982 | 13,107 | +12.9% |
| 1990 | 17,583 | +34.1% |
| 1999 | 20,066 | +14.1% |
| 2008 | 22,487 | +12.1% |
Its inhabitants are called Agathois.
Architecture[]
Map
Amphitrite in the place de la Marine at the river, by Léon François Chervet[4]
Agde is known for the distinctive black basalt used in local buildings, for example the cathedral of Saint Stephen, built in the twelfth century to replace a 9th-century Carolingian edifice built on the foundations of a fifth-century Roman church. Bishop Guillaume fortified the cathedral's precincts and provided it with a 35-meter donjon (keep). The Romanesque cloister of the cathedral was demolished in 1857.
See also[]
- Cap d'Agde, the seaside resort of Agde
- Ancient Diocese of Agde
- List of traditional Greek place names
- Communes of the Hérault department
References[]
- ^ Ludovic Trabuchet. "Des révélations sur le passé grec de Béziers". Midilibre.fr. http://www.midilibre.fr/2013/03/11/beziers-la-grecque-des-fouilles-au-livre,658082.php. Retrieved 2013-03-25.
- ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Council of Agde". www.newadvent.org. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01206b.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- ^ "Medieval Sourcebook: Council of Agde: Concerning Slaves of the Church, 506". www.fordham.edu. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/506agdechurchslaves.html. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- ^ The sculpture rebaptised Amphitrite formerly stood on the façade of the Palais du Trocadéro, built for the Exposition Universelle (1878) and demolished to make way for the Exposition of 1937. She was preserved and offered to the city, where she now symbolizes Agde's maritime vocation. (Patrimoine français; Hérault Tribune Découvrir Agde)
External links[]
- (French) Agde Town website
- (French) Agde (official site)
- (French) Agde has one of the biggest naturist centres of Europe
- Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopædia of Classical Sites, 1976: "Agatha (Agde) Hérault, France"
- Recent undersea find of bronzes
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