Uzès

Uzès
Saint-Théodorit cathedral and its Fenestrelle Tower
Uzès
Administration
Country	France
Region	Languedoc-Roussillon
Department	Gard
Arrondissement	Nîmes
Canton	Uzès
Intercommunality	Uzège
Mayor	Jean-Luc Chapon (2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation	49–274 m (161–899 ft) (avg. 167 m or 548 ft)
Land area1	25.41 km2 (9.81 sq mi)
Population2	8,213  (2008)
- Density	323 /km2 (840 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	30334/ 30700
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.

Old town

Uzès (Occitan: Usès) is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.

It lies about 25 km north-northeast of Nîmes.

History

Originally Ucetia, Uzès was a small Gallo-Roman oppidum, or administrative settlement. The town lies at the source of the Eure, from where a Roman aqueduct was built in the first century BC, to supply water to the local city of Nîmes, 25KM away. The most famous stretch of the aqueduct is the Pont du Gard, which carried fresh water over splendid arches across the river Gardon.

The civilized and tolerant urban life of 5th-century Uzès contrasted with the Frankish north. Jews were settled there as early as the 5th century. Saint Ferréol, Bishop of Uzès, admitted them to his table and enjoyed their friendship. On this account complaint was made of him to King Childebert I, whereupon the bishop was obliged to change his attitude toward the Jews, compelling all those who would not become Christians to leave Uzès. After his death (581) many who had received baptism returned to Judaism.

In the 13th century, Uzès hosted a small community of Jewish scholars, as well as a community of Cathars.

Farmers market.

Like many cloth-manufacturing centers (Uzès was known for its serges), the city and the surrounding countryside were strongly Protestant during the Wars of Religion in the 16th century, which wreaked havoc in Languedoc. Numerous of the city's churches were trashed and burned by furious Protestants: only two remain today.

The dukes of Uzès

The title of duke of Uzès, in the family de Crussol d'Uzès, is the premier title in the peerage of France, coming right after the princes of the blood. The title of seigneur d'Uzès is attested in a charter of 1088. After part of Languedoc was attached to royal demesne (1229), the lords' (and later dukes') military skill and fealty to the Crown propelled their rise through the nobility, until, after the treason of the last Duke of Montmorency, beheaded in 1632, the title of First Duke of France fell to Uzès, who retain their stronghold in the center of town today, which has expanded round the 11th century Tour Bermond. If France were a kingdom, it would be the job of the duke of Uzès to cry out, "Le Roi est mort. Vive le Roi!" at each state funeral, and defend the honor of the queen mother. Twenty-one dukes have been wounded or killed as hereditary Champion of France over the centuries.

Sights

Duché Palace

The present-day city retains the trace of its walls as a circuit of boulevards. A Capuchin chapel, built in 1635 to house the mortal remains of the dukes, occupies the site of a 1st century AD temple dedicated to the first Roman Emperor, Augustus. There are monuments of the prestige of the former bishopric, once one of the most extensive of Languedoc, but extinguished at the Revolution, and private houses that witness the wealth that the textile trade brought in the 16th century. The town is also homes to three feudal towers, the Bermonde Tower (part of the château du Duché), the Bishop Tower and the Royal Tower.

The Cathedral was destroyed in the Albigensian Crusade, rebuilt, and destroyed again in the 16th century Wars of Religion. Rebuilt again in the 17th century, it was stripped out during the French Revolution. The 11th century Romanesque Tour Fenestrelle ("Window Tower"), with its paired windows, is probably the most famous icon of the city.

Uzes is famous in the area for its Saturday market as not only does it sell local produce but it also sells cloths of the region as well as plenty of tourist delights.

Population

Historical population of Uzès

Year	1793	1800	1806	1821	1831	1836	1841	1846	1851	1856
Population	6150	6350	6287	5684	6162	6856	7274	7215	6934	6333

Year	1861	1866	1872	1876	1881	1886	1891	1896	1901	1906
Population	6242	5895	5574	5585	5449	5146	4989	4819	4889	5182

Year	1911	1921	1926	1931	1936	1946	1954	1962	1968	1975
Population	4804	4098	4456	4212	4033	4667	5222	5649	6851	7078

Year	1982	1990	1999	2008
Population	7525	7649	8007	8213

Personalities

Uzès was the birthplace of:

• Firmin Abauzit (1679–1767), scholar who worked on physics, theology and philosophy
• Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers, Count de Brueys, (1753–1798), the French commander in the Battle of the Nile.
• The unnamed second son of Dhuoda who was famous for her medieval literature Handbook for William.

See also

• Bishopric of Uzès
• Ricqlès
• Viscounts and Dukes of Uzès
• Philip O'Connor
• Communes of the Gard department

References

• INSEE

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

External links

• Official website (French)
• Tourist office website