Montpellier

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For other places named Montpellier or Montpelier, see Montpelier.

Administration
Commune of Montpellier Place de la Comédie in Montpellier
Location

Coordinates	43°36′43″N, 3°52′38″E
Country	France
Region	Languedoc-Roussillon (chief town)
Department	Hérault (préfecture)
Arrondissement	Montpellier
Canton	Chief town of 10 cantons
Intercommunality	Communauté d'agglomération Montpellier Agglomération
Mayor	Hélène Mandroux-Colas (2004-2008)
Statistics
Altitude	7 m–57 m (avg. 27 m)
Land area¹	56.88 km²
Population² (1999)	244,300
- Density (1999)	3,963/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	34172/ 34000, 34070, 34080, 34090
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).

Montpellier (Occitan Montpelhièr) is a city in the south of France. It is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon région, as well as the préfecture (administrative capital) of the Hérault département. Population of the city (commune) of Montpellier at the 1999 census was 244,300 inhabitants, whereas the whole metropolitan area (in French: aire urbaine) had a population of 459,916 inhabitants in 1999. As of February 2004 estimates, the population of the city of Montpellier reached 244,700 inhabitants, meaning a 1.7% population growth per year between 1999 and 2004.

1 Geography
2 History
- 2.1 Lords of Montpellier
3 University
4 Notable sights
5 Famous inhabitants of Montpellier
6 Facilities
7 Twin cities
8 Sources and references
9 External links

[edit] Geography

The city is situated on hilly ground 10 km (6 miles) inland from the Mediterranean coast at the coordinates 43°37N 3°52E, on the River Lez. The name of the city, originally Monspessulanus, is said to have stood for mont pelé (the naked hill, because the vegetation was poor), or le mont de la colline (the mount of the hill) [1]; an alternative theory is that it was named for the hill of Monte Pestelario.

[edit] History

For the Ecclesiastical history of Montpellier see Bishopric of Montpellier

The préfecture.

Montpellier is one of the few cities in France without a (Gallo-)Roman background. In the Early Middle Ages the nearby episcopal town of Maguelone was the major settlement in the area, but raids by pirates encouraged settlement a little further inland. Montpellier, first mentioned in a document of 985, was founded under a local feudal dynasty, the Guillem counts of Toulouse, who joined together two hamlets, built a castle and walls around the settlement.

The two surviving towers of the city walling, the Tour des Pins and the Tour de la Babotte are later in date, however. Montpellier came to prominence in the 10th century as a trading centre, with trading links across the Mediterranean world and a rich Jewish cultural life and traditions of tolerance of its Muslims, Jews and Cathars— and later of its Protestants.

William VII of Montpellier established a faculty of medicine in 1180, recognised by Pope Nicholas IV; the city's university was established in 1220 and was one of the chief centers for the teaching of medicine. This marked the high point of Montpellier's prominence.

The city became a possession of the kings of Aragon in 1213 by the marriage of Peter II of Aragon with Marie of Montpellier, who brought the city as her dowry. Montpellier gained a charter in 1204 when Peter and Marie confirmed the city's traditional freedoms and granted the city the right to choose twelve governing consuls annually. Montpellier remained a possession of the crown of Aragon until it passed to James III of Majorca, who sold the city to the French king Philip VI in 1349, to raise funds for his ongoing struggle with Peter IV of Aragon. In the 14th century, Montpellier gained a church (not yet a cathedral) dedicated to Saint Peter, noteworthy for its very unusual porch supported by two high, somewhat rocket-like towers. With its importance steadily increasing, the city finally gained a bishop, who moved from Maguelone in 1536 and sat in the neighbouring community of Montpelliéret (eventually absorbed into Montpellier proper).

In 1432, Jacques Coeur established himself in the city and it became an important economic centre, until 1481 when Marseille took over this role.

At the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, many of its inhabitants became Protestants (or Huguenots as they were known in France) and it became a stronghold of Protestant resistance to the (mainly Catholic) French crown. In 1622, King Louis XIII besieged the city and took it after eight months, building the citadel to secure it. Louis XIV made Montpellier capital of Bas Languedoc, and the town started to embellish itself, by building the Promenade du Peyrou, the Esplanade and a large number of houses in the historic centre.

After the French Revolution, the city became the capital of the much smaller Hérault.

During the 19th century the city developed into an industrial centre. In the 1960s, its population grew dramatically after French settlers in Algeria were resettled in the city following Algeria's independence from France. In the 1980s and 1990s, the city drew attention with a number of major redevelopment projects, such as the Corum and especially the Antigone District.

[edit] Lords of Montpellier

Main article: Lords of Montpellier

The Place De La Comedie, Montpellier

William I of Montpellier (d. 1019)
William II of Montpellier (d. 1025)
William III of Montpellier (d. 1058)
William IV of Montpellier (d. 1068)
William V of Montpellier (d. 1120)
William VI of Montpellier (d. 1149)
William VII of Montpellier (d. 1179)
William VIII of Montpellier (d. 1202)
Marie of Montpellier (d. 1219)
- and King Peter II of Aragon (d. 1213)
James I of Aragon (d. 1276)
James II of Majorca (d. 1311)

[edit] University

Montpellier's arc de triomphe.

Montpellier arche de Triomphe ad 1715.

The University of Montpellier is one of the oldest in France, having been granted a charter in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad von Urach and confirmed by Pope Nicholas IV in a papal bull of 1289. It was suppressed during the French Revolution but was re-established in 1896.

It is not known exactly at what date the schools of literature were founded which developed into the Montpellier faculty of arts; it may be that they were a direct continuation of the Gallo-Roman schools. The school of law was founded by Placentinus, a doctor from Bologna university, who came to Montpellier in 1160, taught there during two different periods, and died there in 1192. The school of medicine was founded perhaps by a graduate of the Spanish medical schools; it is certain that, as early as 1137, there were excellent physicians at Montpellier. The statutes given in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad, legate of Honorius III, which were completed in 1240 by Pierre de Conques, placed this school under the direction of the Bishop of Maguelonne. Pope Nicholas IV issued a Bull in 1289, combining all the schools into a university, which was placed under the direction of the bishop, but which in fact enjoyed a large measure of autonomy.

Rue Foch, Montpellier, looking towards the Porte du Peyrou

Theology was at first taught in the convents, in which St. Anthony of Padua, Raymond Lullus, and the Dominican Bernard de la Treille lectured. Two letters of King John prove that a faculty of theology existed at Montpellier independently of the convents, in January, 1350. By a Bull of 17 December, 1421, Martin V granted canonical institution to this faculty and united it closely with the faculty of law.

In the sixteenth century the faculty of theology disappeared for a time, when Calvinism, in the reign of Henry II of France, held complete possession of the city. It resumed its functions after Louis XIII had reestablished the royal power at Montpellier in 1622; but the rivalries of Dominicans and Jesuits interfered seriously with the prosperity of the faculty, which disappeared at the Revolution. The faculty numbered among its illustrious pupils of law Petrarch, who spent four years at Montpellier, and among its lecturers Guillaume de Nogaret, chancellor to Philip the Fair, Guillaume de Grimoard, afterwards pope under the name of Urban V, and Pedro de Luna, antipope as Benedict XIII. But after the fifteenth century this faculty fell into decay, as did also the faculty of arts, although for a time, under Henry IV of France, the latter faculty had among its lecturers Casaubon.

The Montpellier school of medicine owed its success to the ruling of the Guilhems, lords of the town, by which any licensed physician might lecture there; there was no fixed limit to the number of teachers, lectures were multiplied, and there was a great wealth of teaching. Rabelais took his medical degrees at Montpellier. It was in this school that the biological theory of vitalism, elaborated by Barthez (1734-1806), had its origin. The French Revolution did not interrupt the existence of the faculty of medicine. The faculties of science and of letters were re-established in 1810; that of law in 1880. It was on the occasion of the sixteenth centenary of the university, celebrated in 1889, that the Government of France announced its intention -- which has since been realized -- of reorganizing the provincial universities in France.

[edit] Notable sights

The St-Clément Aqueduct

The main focus point of the city is the Place de la Comédie.
The Musée Fabre
In the historic centre, a significant number of Hôtels can be found.
A fine botanical garden, the first in France, founded in 1593
The 14th century cathedral of Saint-Pierre.
The Porte du Peyrou, a triumphal arch
The Aqueduc Saint-Clément
The Antigone District and other housing projects have been designed by the architect Ricardo Bofill from Catalonia, Spain
A number of châteaux, so-called follies, built by wealthy merchants surround the city

"Trois Graces" statue in front of the Opera

[edit] Famous inhabitants of Montpellier

Montpellier was the birthplace of:

Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne, (c.1110-1179). rabbi and author of the halakhic work Ha-Eshkol.
Pierre Magnol (1638-1715). botanist, founder of the concept of plant families
Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès (1753-1824), lawyer and statesman, author of the Code Napoléon
Guillaume Mathieu, comte Dumas (1753-1837), military leader
Auguste Comte (1798-1857), a founder of the discipline of sociology
Antoine Jerome Balard (1802-1876), chemist
Émile Saisset (1814-1863), philosopher
Charles Bernard Renouvier (1815-1903), philosopher
Édouard Albert Roche (1820-1883), astronomer
Alfred Bruyas (1821-1876), art collector
Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889), painter
Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870), Impressionist painter
Léo Malet (1909-1996), crime novelist
Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968), organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue

Students at the University of Montpellier have included François Rabelais (1493-1553) and Nostradamus (1503-1566).

[edit] Facilities

[edit] Transport

Montpellier is served by railway, including TGV trains.

The Montpellier-Méditerranée Airport is located in the area of Fréjorgues, in the town of Mauguio, southeast of Montpellier.

The TaM (Transports de l'agglomération de Montpellier) manages the city's public transportation, including its tramway network and several parking facilities.

Line 2 of the Montpellier tram systems was officially opened on Saturday, December 16, 2006 with bands, singers, jugglers, fireworks and a weekend of free tram travel. The new line of 19.8km route serves five communes and expects to carry 52,000 passengers a day. Starting in Jacou on the northeast side of the city, in a copse of conifers, the line goes SW though the city centre and passes the train station to St Jean de Védas on the southwest of the town. There are plenty of parking sites along the line which crosses Line 1 at St Roch station, Place de l'Europe and again in front of the Corum.

Work on Line 3, which is planned to be in service by 2010, will start in the spring of 2007. This 22.4 km line will link Juvenac and Perols with a branch to Lattes and will serve 32 stations.