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Montpellier
» France |
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MONTPELLIER |
| Country: | France |
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Montpellier (in French
Montpelhièr) is a city in the south of France. It is the
capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, as well as the
préfecture (administrative capital) of the Hérault
département.
Population of the city (commune) of Montpellier
at the 1999 census was 225,392 inhabitants, whereas the whole metropolitan
area (in French: aire urbaine) had a population of 459,916 inhabitants
in 1999. As of February 2004 estimates, the population of the city
of Montpellier reached 244,700 inhabitants, meaning a record 1.7%
population growth per year between 1999 and 2004.
History
Montpellier is one
of the few cities in France that does not have a Roman background.
In the Early Middle Ages the nearby episcopal town of Maguelone
was the major settlement in the area, but raids by pirates encouraged
settlement a little further inland. Montpellier, first mentioned
in a document of 985, was founded under a local feudal dynasty,
the Guillem counts of Toulouse, who joined together two hamlets,
built a castle and walls around the settlement. The two surviving
towers of the city walling, the Tour des Pins and the Tour de la
Babotte are later in date, however. Montpellier came to prominence
in the 10th century as a trading centre, with trading links across
the Mediterranean world and a rich Jewish cultural life and traditions
of tolerance of its Muslims, Jews and Cathars and later of
its Protestants.
William VII of Montpellier established
a faculty of medicine in 1180; the city's university was established
in 1220 and was one of the chief centers for the teaching of medicine.
This marked the high point of Montpellier's prominence.
The city became a possession of the kings of Aragon in 1213 by the
marriage of Peter II of Aragon with Marie of Montpellier, who brought
the city as her dowry. Montpellier gained a charter in 1204 when
Peter and Marie confirmed the city's traditional freedoms and granted
the city the right to choose twelve governing consuls annually.
Montpellier remained a possession of the crown of Aragon until it
passed to James III of Majorca, who sold the city to the French
king Philip VI in 1349, to raise funds for his ongoing struggle
with Peter IV of Aragon.
In the 14th century, Montpellier gained
a church (not yet a cathedral) dedicated to Saint Peter, noteworthy
for its very unusual porch supported by two high, somewhat rocket-like
towers. With its importance steadily increasing, the city finally
gained a bishop, who moved from Maguelone in 1536 and sat in the
neighbouring community of Montpelliéret (eventually absorbed
into Montpellier proper).
At the time of the
Reformation in the 16th century, many of its inhabitants became
Protestants (or Huguenots as they were known in France) and it became
a stronghold of Protestant resistance to the (mainly Catholic) French
crown. In 1622, King Louis XIII besieged the city and took it after
eight months, building the citadel to secure it. During the 19th
century the city developed into an industrial centre. In the 1960s,
its population grew dramatically after French settlers in Algeria
were resettled in the city following Algeria's independence from
France. |
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