Béziers

For the type of mathematically defined curve, see Bézier curve.

Béziers
St. Nazaire Cathedral and Pont Vieux
Coat of arms
Béziers
Location within Languedoc-Roussillon region Béziers
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées
Department	Hérault
Arrondissement	Béziers
Intercommunality	Béziers Méditerranée
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	Robert Ménard (FN)
Area1	95.48 km2 (36.87 sq mi)
Population (2012)2	72,970
• Density	760/km2 (2,000/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	34032 / 34500
Elevation	4–120 m (13–394 ft) (avg. 17 m or 56 ft)
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.

Béziers (French pronunciation: ​[be.zje]; Occitan: Besièrs) is a town in Languedoc in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Hérault department. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred on bullfighting, every August. A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event. Béziers is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.

Geography

Map

The town is located on a small bluff above the river Orb, about 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Mediterranean. At Béziers the Canal du Midi spans the river Orb as an aqueduct called the Pont-canal de l'Orb. claimed to be the first of its kind.

History

Béziers is one of the oldest cities in France. The latest research (March 2013) shows that Béziers dates from 575 B.C., making it older than Agde (525 B.C.) and a bit younger than Marseille (600 B.C.)

The site has been occupied since Neolithic times, before the influx of Celts. Roman Betarra was on the road that linked Provence with Iberia. The Romans refounded the city as a new colonia for veterans in 36/35 BC and called it Colonia Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum. Stones from the Roman amphitheatre were used to construct the city wall during the 3rd century.

White wine was exported to Rome; two dolia discovered in an excavation near Rome are marked, one "I am a wine from Baeterrae and I am five years old", the other simply "white wine of Baeterrae". It was occupied by the Moors between 720 and 752.

From the 10th to the 12th century Béziers was the centre of a Viscountship of Béziers. The viscounts ruled most of the coastal plain around the city, including also the city of Agde. They also controlled the major east-west route through Languedoc, which roughly follows the old Roman Via Domitia, with the two key bridges over the Orb at Béziers and over the Hérault at Saint-Thibéry.

After the death of viscount William around 990, the viscounty passed to his daughter Garsendis and her husband, count Raimond-Roger of Carcassonne (d. ~1012). It was then ruled by their son Peter-Raimond (d. ~1060) and his son Roger (d. 1067), both of whom were also counts of Carcassonne.

Roger died without leaving any children and Béziers passed to his sister Ermengard and her husband Raimond-Bertrand Trencavel. The Trencavels were to rule for the next 142 years, until the Albigensian Crusade - a formal 'Crusade' (holy war) authorised by Pope Innocent III.

Massacre at Béziers

Main article: Massacre at Béziers

Béziers was a Languedoc stronghold of Catharism, which the Catholic Church condemned as heretical and which Catholic forces exterminated in the Albigensian Crusade.

The old bridge

Béziers was the first place to be attacked. The crusaders reached the town on July 21, 1209. Béziers' Catholics were given an ultimatum to hand over the heretics or leave before the crusaders besieged the city and to "avoid sharing their fate and perishing with them." However, they refused and resisted with the Cathars. The town was sacked on July 22, 1209 and in the bloody massacre, no one was spared, not even Catholic priests and those who took refuge in the churches. One of the commanders of the crusade was the Papal Legate Arnaud-Amaury (or Arnald Amalaricus, Abbot of Citeaux). When asked by a Crusader how to tell Catholics from Cathars once they had taken the city, the abbot supposedly replied, Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. ("Kill them all, for the Lord knoweth them that are His.") (This oft quoted phrase is sourced from Caesarius of Heisterbach along with a story of all the heretics who desecrated a copy of the Gospels and threw it down from the town's walls.) Amalric's own version of siege, described in his letter to Pope in August 1209 (col. 139), states:

While discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics, the servants and other persons of low rank and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders. To our amazement, crying "to arms, to arms!", within the space of two or three hours they crossed the ditches and the walls and Béziers was taken. Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt ...

The invaders burned the cathedral of Saint Nazaire, which collapsed on those who had taken refuge inside. The town was pillaged and burnt. None were left alive. (A plaque opposite the cathedral records the 'Day of Butchery' perpetrated by the 'northern barons'.) A few parts of the Romanesque cathedral of St-Nazaire survived, and repairs started in 1215. The restoration, along with that of the rest of the city, continued until the 15th century.

Later history

In the repression following Louis Napoléon's coup d'état in 1851, troops fired on and killed Republican protesters in Béziers. Others were condemned to death or transported to Guiana, including a former mayor who died at sea attempting to escape from there. In the Place de la Révolution a plaque and a monument by Jean Antoine Injalbert commemorates these events. (Injalbert also designed the Fontaine du Titan in Béziers' Plâteau des Poètes park and the Molière monument in nearby Pézenas.)

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1793	12,501	—
1800	14,535	+16.3%
1806	14,565	+0.2%
1821	16,140	+10.8%
1831	16,679	+3.3%
1836	16,233	−2.7%
1841	18,874	+16.3%
1846	19,596	+3.8%
1851	19,333	−1.3%
1856	23,557	+21.8%
1861	24,270	+3.0%
1866	27,722	+14.2%
1872	31,468	+13.5%
1876	38,227	+21.5%
1881	42,915	+12.3%
1886	42,785	−0.3%
1891	45,475	+6.3%
1896	48,012	+5.6%
1901	52,310	+9.0%
1906	52,268	−0.1%
1911	51,042	−2.3%
1921	56,008	+9.7%
1926	65,754	+17.4%
1931	71,527	+8.8%
1936	73,305	+2.5%
1946	64,561	−11.9%
1954	64,929	+0.6%
1962	73,528	+13.2%
1968	80,481	+9.5%
1975	84,029	+4.4%
1982	76,647	−8.8%
1990	70,996	−7.4%
1999	69,153	−2.6%
2008	71,672	+3.6%
2012	72,970	+1.8%

The inhabitants of Béziers are known as Biterrois, after Baeterrae, the Roman name for the town.

Sights

Saint-Nazaire cathedral

Le domaine de Saint-Jean-d'Aureilhan, neo-Gothic style tower (19th century)

Église de la Madeleine

Place Gabriel Péri

• Saint-Nazaire Cathedral : Situated in the high part of town, it occupies a picturesque site, visible from afar when approaching Béziers on the road from Narbonne. A remarkable example of middle Gothic architecture from the 14th century, the vaulted nave, 14 m (45.93 ft) wide, reaches a height of 32 m (104.99 ft). The total length is 50 m (164.04 ft). The western rose window has a diameter of 10 m (32.81 ft).
• The Plateau des Poètes (1867) : This vast English style (formal) park was laid out by landscape artists, the Bulher brothers. It contains numerous statues of poets and a monumental fountain of the Titan by Injalbert. The park connects the station with the allées Paul Riquet where a large bronze statue by David d'Angers celebrates the creator of the Canal du Midi, Pierre-Paul Riquet. The same sculptor created the bas reliefs which decorate the neo-Classical façade of the Municipal Theatre (1844) at the top of the allées.
• Arenas : Béziers has two arenas, one dating from the Roman era whose structures and foundations have been preserved following major works in the Saint-Jacques district, and the other built in 1905 in the style of Spanish bullrings by Fernand Castelbon de Beauxhostes. The latter is one of the largest such structures in France (seating 13100). The arena hosts concerts and, every August, a bullfighting festival (the Féria).
• The Fine Arts Museum (musée des Beaux-Arts), founded in 1859, received in 1934 the legacy of Injalbert's widow and, in 1975, drawings and the art collection of Jean Moulin. Among the museum's works are canvasses by Hans Holbein, Sébastien Bourdon, Géricault, Vincent van Gogh, Chaïm Soutine and Henri Goetz.
• The musée Saint-Jacques, installed in a former barracks, has collections showing life in the Béziers region (Biterrois).
• Le Pont Vieux is a stone bridge crossing the Orb (Middles Ages).
• Le Cimetière Vieux (Old Cemetery), created in the 18th century, is a true open-air museum with numerous tombs and works of art by local sculptors, including Jean Magrou and Injalbert.

Other sites and monuments include:

• The Canal du Midi (17th century)
• The canal bridge
• The Fonserannes locks
• Garden de la Plantade
• The Cordier or Bagnols mill
• Saint-Jacques Church
• The Saint-Aphrodise Church
• Church of the Madeleine
• Saint Jude Church
• Church of the Immaculate Conception and its glazed tile roof
• The Capnau quarter
• Island of Tabarka, on the Orb
• The Municipal Theatre (19th century)
• The Art Nouveau former Théâtre des Variétés
• The market hall (end of 19th century)
• The Saint-Jean-d'Aureilhan estate
• The Domaine de Bayssan
• Chapelle du Jardin Notre-Dame (18th century)
• Chapelle des Pénitents Bleus (18th century)

Other sights in the area include the Oppidum d'Ensérune archaeological site and the Étang de Montady, a marsh drained in 1247 to create a field and irrigation system which is visible from the Oppidum d'Ensérune.

Economy

Fonserannes Locks on the Canal du Midi

Today, Béziers is a principal centre of the Languedoc viticulture and winemaking industries, although there is still much unemployment in the city. In 2011, Béziers received a 12 million euro grant to start renovating the old city center. The historic Allees Paul Riquet will undergo a facelift in 2014.

Transport

The A9 autoroute between Italy and Spain skirts Béziers. The final link in the A75 autoroute between Pézenas and the A9 was completed in December 2010 and provides direct links to Clermont-Ferrand and Paris.

The Gare de Béziers is a railway station with connections to Toulouse, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Marseille, Paris, Barcelona and several regional destinations. TGV trains stop in Béziers, but the tracks between Montpellier and Spain are not yet high speed tracks. A project is underway for completion around 2020 to build a new high speed track connecting Montpellier to Spain, and with a new TGV train station planned on the east side of Béziers.

Béziers Cap d'Agde Airport (previously Béziers-Agde-Vias Airport), owned by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, provides connections to destinations in northern Europe. Following an extension to the runway which was completed in March 2007, Ryanair began flights to and from Bristol Airport in March 2008, and later to London Stansted and London Luton Airport. Current (Jan. 2013) destinations from this airport with Ryanair are Bristol, Luton, Paris Beauvais, Oslo Rygge, Manchester, Edinburgh, Weeze Airport and Stockholm Skavsta, while Flybe serves Southampton.

Sport

Béziers' rugby union team (AS Béziers) has twelve championships to its credit.

Béziers hosts Languedocian sea jousts in the summer.

Personalities

View from Béziers to the river Orb

Béziers was the birthplace of:

• Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi (1270–1340), poet, philosopher and physician
• Abraham Bedersi was a Provençal Jewish poet from the 13th-century
• Pierre-Paul Riquet (1609 or 1604–1680), engineer and canal-builder responsible for the construction of the Canal du Midi
• Paul Pellisson (1624–1693), author
• Jean Barbeyrac (1674?-1744), jurist
• Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan (1678–1771), geophysicist
• Pierre Jean Porro (1750–1831), guitarist, composer and music publisher
• Joseph-Henri baron de Jessé (1755–1794), nobleman and president of the National Constituent Assembly
• Agénor Azéma de Montgravier (1805–1863), archeologist and Chef d'escadron in the Artillery
• Jean Antoine Ernest Constans (1833–1913), statesman
• Jean Antoine Injalbert (1845–1933), sculptor
• Gustave Fayet (1865–1925), artist, art collector, owner of Abbaye de Fontfroide
• Jean Magrou (1869–1945), sculptor
• Henri Fescourt (1880–1946), film director
• Jean Moulin (1899–1943), a hero of the French Resistance in the Second World War
• Edgar Faure (1908–1988), statesman
• Christian Metz (1931–1993), film theorist
• Jean-Pierre Escalettes (b. 1935), former president of the French Football Federation (2005–2010)
• Elisabeth Daynès (b. 1960), sculptress
• Damien Comolli (b. 1972), football director
• Julien Rodriguez (b. 1978), Olympique de Marseille footballer
• Jérémy Clément (b. 1984), Saint-Étienne footballer
• Aurélie Kamga (b. 1985), athlete
• Alexandra Rosenfeld (b. 1986), Miss France 2006, Miss Europe 2006
• Richard Gasquet (b. 1986), French tennis player
• Thomas Heurtel (b 1989), basketball player

Cultural references

• The Kate Mosse novels Labyrinth and The Winter Ghosts works of fiction, draw on the history of Carcassonne, Béziers and the Cathars.
• Alan Tunbridge commemorated the Cathars in his song "Massacre at Béziers".
• Parts of the town, especially the Cathedral, figure prominently in François Truffaut's film Une belle fille comme moi.

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Béziers is twinned with:

• Chiclana de la Frontera, Spain, since 1993
• Heilbronn, Germany, since 1965
• Stavropol, Russia, since 1982
• Stockport, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, since 1972

Other relations

• Most Ancient European Towns Network

See also

• Occitania
• Septimania
• Guillaume Bottazzi, painted a mural, "Les Muriers Blancs", on eight façades of two buildings in Béziers
• Communes of the Hérault department

References

• INSEE

External links

• Official tourist office website for visiting Béziers (In English)
• Official website city of Béziers.
• Website of Béziers and Biterrois
• Photos "Festa d'Oc
• History of Béziers
• Béziers Congrès
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: