Agde

Agde (French pronunciation: ​[aɡd(ə)]; Occitan: Agde [ˈadde, ˈate]) is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi.

Agde
Commune
Hotel la Galiote in front of the cathedral
Coat of arms
Location of Agde
Agde
Agde
Coordinates: 43°18′39″N 3°28′33″E
CountryFrance
RegionOccitanie
DepartmentHérault
ArrondissementBéziers
CantonAgde
IntercommunalityHérault Méditerranée
Government
 • Mayor (2020-2026) Gilles d'Ettore[1]
Area
1
50.81 km2 (19.62 sq mi)
Population
 (2017-01-01)[2]
28,609
 • Density560/km2 (1,500/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
34003 /34300
Elevation0–110 m (0–361 ft)
(avg. 5 m or 16 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Location
River Hérault panorama
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 the Hérault flows into the Mediterranean at Le Grau d'Agde.

History
Fountain of the Republic in town centre
Town centre, pedestrian area

Foundation
Main article: Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul

Agde (525 BCE) is one of the oldest towns in France, after Béziers (575 BCE) and Marseilles (600 BCE).[3] Agde (Agathe Tyche, "good fortune") was a 5th-century BCE Greek colony settled by Phocaeans from Massilia. The Greek name was Agathe (Ancient Greek: Ἀγάθη).[4][5] 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
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 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.[6][7]

Population
Historical population
YearPop.±%
200621,293—    
200721,104−0.9%
200822,487+6.6%
200924,031+6.9%
201024,567+2.2%
201123,999−2.3%
201224,651+2.7%
201325,253+2.4%
201426,111+3.4%
201526,946+3.2%
201627,681+2.7%

Agde's inhabitants are called Agathois.

Architecture
Map
Amphitrite in the place de la Marine at the river, by Léon François Chervet[8]

Agde is known for the distinctive black basalt used in local buildings such as the cathedral of Saint Stephen, built in the 12th 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-metre donjon (keep). The Romanesque cloister of the cathedral was demolished in 1857.

Jewish community

It is assumed that a Jewish community was established in the town around the sixth century AD. During the council of Agde, assembled by the Catholic church in 506 AD, Christian laymen and ecclesiastics were prohibited from eating with Jews or hosting them. This prohibition suggests that the town Jews held good relations with their town neighbours. It is also assumed that the Jewish community was never large, since it did not own a cemetery and buried their dead in Béziers, three miles away.[9]

The Jewish name of the city was Agdi, or Akdi (אגדי).[10] During World War II, about two thousand Jews from Germany and Austria were sent to a labour camp near the town; most were deported on 24 August 1942.[11]

Sport and leisure

Agde has a football club RCO Agde who play at the Stade Louis Sanguin.[12] They currently play in the Championnat de France amateur 2.

Agde also has a rugby club, Rugby Olympique Agathois (ROA), who play in the French Federale 1 competition.

Twin towns - sister cities
Town State/Region Country
Antequera  Andalusia  Spain[13]

See also

References
  1. "Résultats des élections municipales 2020". Midi Libre (in French). 28 June 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  2. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  3. Ludovic Trabuchet. "Des révélations sur le passé grec de Béziers". Midilibre.fr. Archived from the original on 2013-03-15. Retrieved 2013-03-25.
  4. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §A11.1
  5. Pseudo Scymnus or Pausanias of Damascus, Circuit of the Earth, § 208
  6. "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Council of Agde". www.newadvent.org. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  7. "Medieval Sourcebook: Council of Agde: Concerning Slaves of the Church, 506". www.fordham.edu. Archived from the original on 2009-03-31. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  8. 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. Base Palissy: Statue : Amphitrite, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
  9. "AGDE - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
  10. Agde - Encyclopaedia Judaica | Encyclopedia.com
  11. "- Gale - Enter Product Login". galegroup.com.
  12. "France - RC Olympique Agathois - Results, fixtures, squad, statistics, photos, videos and news - Soccerway". soccerway.com.
  13. "Spanish local corporations twinned with Europe". Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces. Retrieved October 30, 2009.
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