Agde (, ) is a resort town and commune in the southern French department of Hérault, Occitania. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi. It is situated on an ancient basalt volcano, hence being nicknamed "Black Pearl of the Mediterranean".
Location
Agde is located on the Hérault river, from the Mediterranean Sea, and from Paris. The Canal du Midi connects to the Hérault river at the Agde Round Lock ("L'Écluse Ronde d'Agde") just north of Agde, and the Hérault flows into the Mediterranean at . Agde station has high-speed rail direct connections northbound to Paris, Lille, Geneva, southbound to Perpignan as well as Spain. Agde has regional services to Narbonne, Montpellier, Nimes and Avignon.
History
Foundation
Agde (525 BCE) is one of the oldest towns in France, after Béziers (575 BCE) and Marseille (Massilia; 600 BCE). Agde (Agathe Tyche, "good fortune") was a 5th-century BCE Greek colony settled by Phocaeans from Massilia.
2,500 years ago, the Hérault river had three arms : "grau de Vias", "grau d'Agde", "grau d'Ambonne"; a delta was formed in the middle of , and the eastern arm was leading to the Bagnas pond (occitan name Banhas), which was largely drained in the Middle Ages when mills were built with constant flow on the main arm (the bishop's mill still remains).
The Greek name was Agathe ().Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §A11.1Pseudo Scymnus or Pausanias of Damascus, Circuit of the Earth, § 208 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 possibly been on their way to a villa in Gallia Narbonensis when they were lost in a shipwreck.
Development
The inlet in the Hérault river, Grau d'Agde, became from the Antique to the Eighteenth century period the most important port in this occitanian region of the Mediterranée for trade.
From the beginning of the fifth century (until the French Revolution), the city of Agde developed in the upstream area that was not subject to flooding and was the seat of a bishopric.Musée Agathois Jules Baudou But "It was subjugated by the Roman Empire, the Visigoths [from Italy] and the Saracens [from Spain] before becoming definitively Christian in 759."
Around the beginning of the 13th century, the town was administered by consuls, a forerunner of modern municipalities. Development took place on the main rock, sheltered from flooding, and urban districts appeared, with the concept of the urban island, named after the person who paid the highest tax to the king and the bishopric. The town was divided into two parts: the part on the rock and the part around the rock, where farmland was divided into hamlets of properties around churches.
The fortifications appeared in the 12th century around the rock, in the 14th century extended around the town; During the French Revolution of 1848 the fortifications were demolished except for the small part next to the current Tourist Office.
At the end of the 16th century the lieutenant-general of Languedoc Joyeuse built Fort Brescou. Later Cardinal Richelieu undertook the construction of a roadstead for an Harbour, a strategic point in the Mediterranean area. The work, made difficult by the gradual silting up of the coastline, was abandoned after the death of the Cardinal. Fort Richelieu remains in place.
The paths and squares are named in Occitan, with French added over time, streets have existed since the French Revolution, when the population and birthplaces were registered.
Until the French Revolution, Agde was owned by the bishopric: through the wars of religion all seigniorial possessions become the property of the episcopate. And until then ViasVias, which includes a large part of protected natural spaces, was not included in the Mission Racine (the development of new housing estates is due to Mayor Richard Monedero 2022 Falkirk Council election) was part of the commune and until the seventeenth century, the part of the Étang de Thau up to and including Sète was part of the diocese; further north it is the diocese of the bishop of the most important . Today only the chapter house remains in Agde.
At the end of the 18th century, when tall sail ships gave way to motor merchant ships, Agde changed its activity towards the exploitation of the land, market gardening, olives and fruits. The local viticulture then experienced is one of its greatest moments of prosperity until the phylloxera.
With the transition to the steam engine, the port of Agde became a shipping point for foodstuffs, it was connected to the railway on a state planning decision concerning the Canal du Midi; The floating bridges before the suspension iron bridge 1836 are the solution to the overflow of the Hérault (the entry carries a tax for 9 years). The episcopal palace is cut in two for the passage of the bridge - the right part became the actual Hôtel de la Galiote, the left part the gendarmerie and the prison (which were demolished in 1982).
In the 19th century the old 17th century ice houses of Agde became reservoirs allowing the distribution of water by pumping through cast iron pipes. But because of the sometimes brackish water pumped into the town from the Hérault river (depending on the season and the drought), the municipal water supply sometimes failed; In 1966, an alluvial resource from the bed of the coastal river was installed 4 km upstream from the town. This was necessary because of the new development of the modern seaside resort.
Public lighting using electricity (from the Moulin des Evèques) in Agde was planned in 1890 (electricity in a low head dam was also installed by Laurens in his Château). In 1929 the Compagnie de Distribution Electrique du Midi took over the municipal and private contract. In 1946 Électricité de France manages the electricity factory (production stops in 1951).
During the late 19th century Belle Epoque, at the Mediterranean shore, the development of the French Riviera with the Train Bleu, instituted winter aristocratic cosmopolitan tourism starting in 1880 around Monaco and its grand hotels;This also introduced the pleasure of motoring with car races. An Agde native, Emmanuel Laurens,The family of Emmanuel Laurens is composed of "Maîtres maçons" (architects) in Agde since the 18th century. His father was an engineer, and his uncle the Agde town architect, in Félix & Palouzié 2023, p. 35. an heir to a fortune, bought the "St Gervais Villa" in Saint-Raphaël, Var (1898). At the same time he built in Agde "Belle-Isle" the "Château Laurens", the marquant concrete Art Nouveau building in Occitania, with its private train station.
The Hôtel de Ville (town hall) was erected as a military barracks in 1892.
In the old town center, the 1960s municipality had to rebuild the entire infrastructure due to decrepitude and population growth. 1969, the local abbatoirs are closed.
After immediate World War II the summer mass tourism was created in campsites and in 1960s' some very large and high residences were integrated in the "new urbanism".Such as famous André Minangoy's "Marina-Baie des Anges" pyramid in Villeneuve-Loubet. Actual shore development in Occitania began in the 60's following first waterfront in Grau d'Agde with numerous campsites.
The Mission Racine aimed to revitalize the economy of the region between Béziers and Sète, and make Cap d'Agde "the holiday port of Toulouse", the decrepit little town of Agde fully depends on Béziers.
The main marina (Port) was designed next to the location of the cape small fishing port (Cap d'Agde). It replaces the former salt marsh, in use 1912–1916.Two pictures The fishing port of the Hérault river has been modernised with its professional fish market hall., fish sold with deceasing price in the European directive manner The river's shipyards, which are mixed with pleasure boats and small fishing boats, succeeded the wooden boat yards. "1960: The president's plan is actually to make from the coast of Occitania the "French Florida".
The heads of the inter-ministerial mission developed collective facilities to attract the greatest number of tourists: holiday centres and camps of the nationalised PTT, EDF, SNCF; holiday village houses with Belgian, Netherlands, German investments. Campsites are created, one with the first naturist settlement in France. About leisure, tennis courts, discotheques, amusement parks (an aquatic park) are built. The National Forestry Office with arboriculturists (e.g. Vilmorin) contributed to the creation of green spaces in the resort, and reforestation. Hundreds of thousands of seedlings are then distributed free of charge to individuals.
The naturist campsite became an important tourist complex outside the city, and in its vicinity the tennis courts was the major theme for the development of housing estates.
Since 2007 the Sodéal (Economic development society of Agde and the coast (70% of capital owned by the town) ammenages the marinas on the Hérault river and the shore, main one Le Port de Cap d'Agde.
Urban sprawl has been taking place for first twenty years of the 21st century between Le Cap and Grau d'Agde, and this latter place is densifying from its postwar existing hollydays habitat on small plots among large empty ones. In the 21st century, green spaces are reduced to housing and are no longer accessible to the public.
After the installation of basic urban networks, going further, in the same time, cycling infrastructure is reamenaged because of car traffic jams in the 2010s. And municipal car parks receive solar panels in 2017 2019.free carpark Catalogne-Gallois, beach Môle and campsite
2021-2024 Project for extended railway station and the new marina on the Canal du Midi started with destroying the retail buildings around Hôtel Riquet, the Agde offices of the canal's founder.
Access to the city tunnel under the railroad line was opened in 2023, after two years of construction, while the most central space, the Promenade and its market, is transformed with the digging of a scheduled car parking lot that began in 2023.
Historical act in Agde : French Clergy and property In the history of Roman Catholicism in France, the Council of Agde was held 10 September 506 at Agde, in Saint-André church, under the presidency of Caesarius of Arles. It was attended by thirty-five bishops, and its forty-seven genuine canons dealt "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.
Population
Agde's inhabitants are called Agathois in French. 10% permanent residents, the population goes up to 200,000 inhabitants in the summer (fourth of a year).Meaning 1 /10 tax-payer may vote in mayor election, deciding the communal budget and urban projects
Wine, wineyards and winemakers