Agde
Encyclopedia
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
in the Hérault
Hérault
Hérault is a department in the south of France named after the Hérault river.-History:Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...
department in southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It is the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
port of the Canal du Midi
Canal du Midi
The is a long canal in Southern France . The canal connects the Garonne River to the on the Mediterranean and along with the Canal de Garonne forms the Canal des Deux Mers joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The canal runs from the city of Toulouse down to the Étang de Thau...
.
Location
Agde is located on the river HéraultHérault River
The Hérault is a river of southern France. Its length is . Its source is in the Cévennes mountains. It reaches the Mediterranean Sea near Agde...
, 4 km from the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, and 750 km from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The Canal du Midi
Canal du Midi
The is a long canal in Southern France . The canal connects the Garonne River to the on the Mediterranean and along with the Canal de Garonne forms the Canal des Deux Mers joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The canal runs from the city of Toulouse down to the Étang de Thau...
connects to the Hérault at the Agde Round Lock
Agde Round Lock
The Agde Round Lock is a canal lock on the Canal du Midi that connects to the Hérault River in Agde France. It is almost unique because it is round, which allows a boat to turn around, and the fact that it has three sets of lock gates, each with a different water level...
("L'Écluse Ronde d'Agde") just above Agde and flows into the Mediterranean at Le Grau d'Agde.
Foundation
Agde (Agathe TycheTyche
In ancient Greek city cults, Tyche was the presiding tutelary deity that governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny....
, "good fortune") was a 5th century BCE Greek colony
Colonies in antiquity
Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city—its "metropolis"—, not from a territory-at-large. Bonds between a colony and its metropolis remained often close, and took specific forms...
settled by Phocaea
Phocaea
Phocaea, or Phokaia, was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC and Elea in 540 BC.-Geography:Phocaea was the northernmost...
ns 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
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
bronzes, of a child and of Eros, which had doubtless been on their way to a villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
in Gallia Narbonensis
Gallia Narbonensis
Gallia Narbonensis was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in southern France. It was also known as Gallia Transalpina , which was originally a designation for that part of Gaul lying across the Alps from Italia and it contained a western region known as Septimania...
when they were lost in a shipwreck.
Development
In the history of Roman Catholicism in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the Council of Agde
Council of Agde
In the history of Roman Catholicism in France, the Council of Agde was held 10 September 506 at Agatha or Agde in Languedoc, under the presidency of Caesarius of Arles. It was attended by thirty-five bishops, and its forty-seven genuine canons deal "with ecclesiastical discipline"...
was held 10 September 506 at Agde, under the presidency of Caesarius of Arles. It was attended by thirty-five bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s, 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 benefice
Benefice
A benefice is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The term is now almost obsolete.-Church of England:...
s.
Population
Its inhabitants are called Agathois.Architecture
Agde is known for the distinctive black basaltBasalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
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
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
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'AgdeCap d'AgdeCap d'Agde is the seaside resort of the town of Agde, France, on the Mediterranean sea in the département of Hérault, within the région of Languedoc-Roussillon. Agde can be reached by TGV SNCF train direct from Paris or Lille whilst the closest airports are Béziers-Cap d'Agde en Languedoc, with...
, the seaside resort of Agde - Ancient Diocese of AgdeAncient Diocese of AgdeThe former French Roman Catholic diocese of Agde existed from about the 6th century to the French Revolution - the last bishop, Charles François de Saint Simon Sandricourt, was guillotined in Paris on July 26, 1794. Its see was Agde Cathedral; Agde is in the south of France, in what is now the...
- List of traditional Greek place names
- Communes of the Hérault department
External links
Agde Town website Agde (official site) 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