Dax, Landes
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Commune of Dax |
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| Location | |
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| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Region | Aquitaine |
| Department | Landes (sous-préfecture) |
| Arrondissement | Dax |
| Canton | Dax (chief town) |
| Intercommunality | Communauté de communes du Grand Dax |
| Mayor | Gabriel Bellocq (2008-2014) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 2 m–46 m (avg. 9 m) |
| Land area¹ | 19.70 km² |
| Population² (1999) |
19,515 |
| - Density | 991/km² (1999) |
| Miscellaneous | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 40088/ 40100 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
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Dax is a commune of Aquitaine in southwestern France, sous-préfecture of the Landes département.
It is particularly famous as a spa, specialising in mud treatment for rheumatism and similar ailments.
It is also a market town, former bishopric and busy local centre, especially for the Chalosse area.
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[edit] History
It was first established by the Romans, and its reputation is supposed to date from a visit by Julia, the daughter of the first Emperor Octavian Augustus.
[edit] Ecclesiastical history
It is not certain that the patron of the diocese, the martyr St. Vincent, was a bishop. His cult existed in the time of Charlemagne, as is proved by a note of the Wolfenbuttel manuscript of the "Hieronymian Martyrology". The oldest account of his martyrdom is in a breviary of Dax, dating from the second half of the thirteenth century, but the author knows nothing of the martyr's period. Excavations near Dax proved the existence of a Merovingian seminary on the site of a church dedicated to St. Vincent of Lérins by Bishop Gratianus. Gratianus, present at the Council of Agde (506), is the first historically known bishop. Among the other bishops of the see were St. Revellatus (early sixth century), St. Macarius (c. 1060), Cardinal Pierre Itier (1361), Cardinal Pierre de Foix (1455), founder of the University of Avignon and the Collège de Foix at Toulouse. The synodal constitutions of the ancient Diocese of Dax, published by Antoine Degert, are of historical interest for the study of the ancient constitutions and customs of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. M. Degert in the course of this publication has succeeded in rectifying certain errors in the episcopal lists of the Gallia christiana. . The ancient French diocese was suppressed by the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801, its territory divided between the neighbouring dioceses of Aire and Bayonne.
About 1588 St. Vincent de Paul made his first studies with the Cordeliers of Dax, but good secondary education at Dax dates only from the establishment of the Barnabites in 1640.
[edit] See also
- US Dax, a French rugby union club based in Dax.
- Vincent de Paul, theologian born in a village nearby Dax.
- Jean-Charles de Borda, mathematician born in Dax.
- Roger Ducos, politician born in Dax
- Maurice Boyau, ace of the First World War who spent most of his life in Dax.
- Raphaël Ibañez, rugby player born in Dax.
- Christophe Lamaison, rugby player born in Dax.
[edit] Sources and references
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. [1]
[edit] External links
- Official website (French)
- Dax Cathedral
- Dax Cathedral
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