Vaison-la-Romaine
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Commune of Vaison-la-Romaine Vaison-la-Romaine seen from high in the medieval town |
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| Location | |
| Longitude | 05° 04' 32" East |
| Latitude | 44° 14' 30" North |
| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Region | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur |
| Department | Vaucluse |
| Arrondissement | Carpentras |
| Canton | Vaison-la-Romaine (chief town) |
| Intercommunality | Communauté de Communes Pays Voconces |
| Mayor | Pierre Meffre (2001-2008) |
| Statistics | |
| Altitude | 156 m–493 m (avg. 204 m) |
| Land area¹ | 26.99 km² |
| Population² (1999) |
5,904 |
| - Density (1999) | 218/km² |
| Miscellaneous | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 84137/ 84110 |
| ¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| ² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel). | |
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Vaison-la-Romaine (Latin: Vasio Vocontiorum) is a small town and former bishopric in Provence. It is part of a commune of the same name, in the Vaucluse département, a part of the ancient French province of Comtat Venaissin.
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[edit] History
The area was inhabited from the Bronze Age. The first known inabitants were Ligurians. At the end of the 4th century BCE, Vaison became the very important capital of a Celtic tribe, the Vocontii or Voconces. After the Roman conquest (125-118 BCE) the Vocontii had two capitals, Luc-en-Diois (in modern Drôme département) and Vaison. In the Roman period it became one of the richest cities of Gallia Narbonensis.
The barbarian invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries CE destroyed the city. Vaison belonged in turn to the Visigothic and Austrasian (Merovingian) Kingdoms.
The disputes which broke out in the 12th century between the counts of Provence and the bishops, both of whom were in possession of half the town, were injurious to its prosperity; they were ended by a treaty negotiated in 1251 by the future pope Clement IV, a native of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard.
At disturbed times of the Middle Ages, the inhabitants emigrated to the higher ground on the left bank of Ouvèze, with the shelter of the ramparts and a strong castle. From the 18th century most of the population had moved back down to the plains by the river.
[edit] Ecclesiastical history
St. Albinus (d. 262) was incorrectly placed by the Carthusian Polycarpe de la Riviere among the bishops of Vaison. The oldest known bishop of the see is Daphnus, who assisted at the Council of Arles in 314.
Others were St. Quinidius (Quenin, 556-79), who valiantly resisted the claims of the patrician Mummolus, conqueror of the Lombards; Joseph-Marie de Suares (1633-66), who died in Rome while filling the office of librarian of the Vatican, and who left numerous works.
St. Rusticala (b. at Vaison, 551; d. 628) was abbess of the monastery of St. Caesarius at Arles.
Two rather important councils as regards Gallican ecclesiastical discipline were held at Vaison in 442 and 529, the latter under the presidency of St. Caesarius.
The bishopric was suppressed by the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801, and its territory included in the dioceses of Avignon and Valence.
[edit] Sights
One of the most interesting aspects of the town is its geography, and its Roman ruins. The Roman ruins and the modern town are in the valley on the banks of the river Ouvèze which is crossed by an ancient bridge from the 1st century.
The medieval town is high on the rocky cliff. The valley floor was safe from attack in Roman and modern times. In the Middle Ages attacks were frequent, and the town retreated up-hill to a more defensible position.
The apse of the Church of St. Quenin, dedicated to Saint Quinidius, seems to date from the eighth century; it is one of the oldest in France.
As a whole the cathedral dates from the eleventh century, but the apse and the apsidal chapels are from the Merovingian period.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
