Nîmes
Nîmes is a city in the Occitanie region of southern France. It is the capital of the Gard department. Nîmes is located between the Cévennes mountains; the estimated population of Nîmes is 151,001. Dubbed the most Roman city outside Italy, Nîmes has a rich history dating back to the Roman Empire when the city was a regional capital, home to 50,000–60,000 people. Several famous monuments are in Nîmes, such as the Maison Carrée; because of this, Nîmes is referred to as the French Rome. The city derives its name from that of a spring in the Roman village; the contemporary coat of arms of the city of Nîmes includes a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription COL NEM, for Colonia Nemausus, meaning the "colony" or "settlement" of Nemausus, the local Celtic god of the Volcae Arecomici. Veterans of the Roman legions who had served Julius Caesar in his Nile campaigns, at the end of fifteen years of soldiering, were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nîmes; the city was located on the Via Domitia, a Roman road constructed in 118 BC which connected Italy with Spain.
Its name appears in inscriptions in Gaulish as dede matrebo Namausikabo = "he has given to the mothers of Nîmes" and "toutios Namausatis" = "citizen of Nîmes". The site on which the built-up area of Nîmes has become established in the course of centuries is part of the edge of the alluvial plain of the Vistrenque River which butts up against low hills: to the northeast, Mont Duplan; the Neolithic site of Serre Paradis reveals the presence of semi-nomadic cultivators in the period 4000 to 3500 BC on the future site of Nîmes. The population of the site increased during the thousand-year period of the Bronze Age; the menhir of Courbessac stands near the airstrip. This limestone monolith of over two metres in height dates to about 2500 BC, must be considered the oldest monument of Nîmes; the Bronze Age has left traces of villages that were made out of huts and branches The Warrior of Grezan is considered to be the most ancient indigenous sculpture in southern Gaul. The hill named. During the third and 2nd centuries BC a surrounding wall was built, closed at the summit by a dry-stone tower, incorporated into the masonry of the Tour Magne.
The Wars of Gaul and the fall of Marseille allowed Nîmes to regain its autonomy under Rome. Nîmes became a Roman colony sometime before 28 BC, as witnessed by the earliest coins, which bear the abbreviation NEM. COL, "Colony of Nemausus"; some years a sanctuary and other constructions connected with the fountain were raised on the site. Nîmes was under Roman influence, though it was Augustus who made the city the capital of Narbonne province, gave it all its glory, it was known as the birthplace of the family of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. The city had an estimated population of 60,000 in the time of Augustus. Augustus gave the town a ring of ramparts reinforced by fourteen towers. An aqueduct was built to bring water from the hills to the north. Where this crossed the River Gard between Uzes and Remoulins, the spectacular Pont du Gard was built; this is 20 kilometres north east of the city. The Maison Carrée is one of the best preserved temples to be found anywhere in the territory of the former Roman Empire.
Nothing remains of some other monuments, the existence of, known from inscriptions or architectural fragments found in the course of excavations. It is known that the town had a civil basilica, a curia, a gymnasium and a circus; the amphitheatre dates from the end of the 2nd century AD and was one of the largest amphitheatres in the Empire. Emperor Constantine endowed the city with baths, it became the seat of the chief administrative officer of southern Gaul. The town was prosperous until the end of the 3rd century – during the 4th and 5th centuries, the nearby town of Arles enjoyed more prosperity. In the early 5th century the Praetorian Prefecture was moved from Trier in northeast Gaul to Arles; the Visigoths captured the city from the Romans in 473 AD. After the Roman period, in the days of invasion and decadence, the Christian Church established in Gaul since the 1st century AD, appeared to be the last refuge of classical civilization – it was remarkably organized and directed by a series of Gallo-Roman aristocrats.
However, when the Visigoths were accepted into the Roman Empire, Nîmes was included in their territory after the Frankish victory at the Battle of Vouillé. The urban landscape went through transformation with the Goths, but much of the heritage of the Roman era remained intact. By 725, the Muslim Umayyads had conquered the whole Visigothic territory of Septimania including Nîmes. In 736-737, Charles Martel and his brother led an expedition to Septimania and Provence, destroyed the city, including the amphitheatre, thereafter heading back north; the Muslim government came to an end in 752. In 754, an uprising took place against the Carolingian king, but was put down, count Radulf, a Frank, appointed as master of the city. After the events connected with the war, Nîmes was now only a shadow of the opulent Roman city it had once been; the local authorities installed themselves in the remains of the amphitheatre. Car
Austromoine
Stremonius or Saint Austremonius or Saint Stramonius or Austromoine, the "apostle of Auvergne," was the first bishop of Clermont. During the consulship of the Emperor Decius and Vettius Gratus, according to Gregory of Tours, who calls him Stremonius, Pope Fabian sent out seven bishops from Rome to Gaul to preach the Gospel: Gatien to Tours, Trophimus to Arles, Paul to Narbonne, Saturninus to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Martial to Limoges, Austromoine to Clermont. At Clermont he is said to have converted the senator Cassius of Clermont and the pagan priest Victorinus, to have sent St. Serenus to Thiers, St. Marius to Salers, Antoninus into other parts of Auvergne, to have been beheaded. A tradition states that Saint Austremonius ordered Nectarius of Auvergne to Christianize the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central, his veneration was localized, but at Clermont he was moved back in time, to the 1st century AD, along with others of the Apostles to Gaul, such as Saint Martial, to become one of the "seventy-two Disciples of Christ", was claimed to have been a converted Jew who came with St. Peter from Palestine to Rome and subsequently became the Apostle of Auvergne, as well as of Berry and Nivernais.
This local view found its origin in a life of St. Austremonius written in the 10th century in the Abbey of Mozac, where the body of the saint was transferred in 761; the Vita was rewritten and amplified by the monks of Issoire, who retained as a relic the saint's head. There is a further elaborated Vita of the late 11th century, with new episodes, made at the same time as a forgery of a charter of Pippin; the tomb was opened in 1197. Gregory of Tours, born in Auvergne in 544 and was well versed in the history of that country, looks upon Austremonius as one of the seven envoys who, about 250, evangelized Gaul; the possibility that the major dioceses of Gaul each needed an apostolic figure, that where the historical details had lapsed one had to be supplied, to serve local pride, should not be dismissed. BQR sources hagiographiques Hagiographic sources for Auvergne
Catholic League (French)
The Catholic League of France, sometimes referred to by contemporary Catholics as the Holy League, was a major participant in the French Wars of Religion. Formed by Henry I, Duke of Guise, in 1576, the League intended the eradication of Protestants—mainly Calvinists or Huguenots—out of Catholic France during the Protestant Reformation, as well as the replacement of King Henry III. Pope Sixtus V, Philip II of Spain, the Jesuits were all supporters of this Catholic party. Confraternities and leagues were established by French Catholics to counter the growing power of the Lutherans and members of the Reformed Church of France; the Protestant Calvinists at that time dominated much of the French nobility, leading to active persecution of Catholics in some regions. Under the leadership of Henry I, Duke of Guise, the Catholic confraternities and leagues were united as the Catholic League. Guise used the League not only to defend the Catholic cause but as a political tool in an attempt to usurp the French throne.
The Catholic League aimed to preempt any seizure of power by the Huguenots and to protect French Catholics' right to worship. The Catholic League's cause was fueled by the doctrine Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. Catholic Leaguers saw their fight against Calvinism as a Crusade against heresy; the League's pamphleteers blamed any natural disaster that occurred in France at the time as God's way of punishing France for tolerating the existence of the Calvinist heresy. After a series of bloody clashes, the French Wars of Religion, between Catholics and Protestants, the Catholic League formed in an attempt to break the power of the Calvinist gentry once and for all; the Catholic League saw the French throne under Henry III as too conciliatory towards the Huguenots. The League, similar to hardline Calvinists, disapproved of Henry III's attempts to mediate any coexistence between the Huguenots and Catholics; the Catholic League saw moderate French Catholics, known as Politiques, as a serious threat. The Politiques were tired of the many tit for tat killings and were willing to negotiate peaceful coexistence rather than escalating the war.
The League began to exert pressure on Henry III of France. Faced with this mounting opposition he canceled the Peace of La Rochelle, re-criminalizing Protestantism and beginning a new chapter in the French Wars of Religion. However, Henry saw the danger posed by the Duke of Guise, gaining more and more power. In the Day of the Barricades, King Henry III was forced to flee Paris, which resulted in Henry, Duke of Guise becoming the de facto ruler of France. Afraid of being deposed and assassinated, the King decided to strike first. On December 23, 1588, Henry III's guardsmen assassinated the Duke and his brother, Louis II and the Duke's son was imprisoned in the Bastille. However, this move did little to consolidate the King's power and enraged both the surviving Guises and their followers; as a result, the King fled Paris and joined forces with Henry of Navarre, the throne's Calvinist heir presumptive. Both the King and Henry of Navarre began building. On August 1, 1589, as the two Henrys besieged the city and prepared for their final assault, Jacques Clément, a Dominican lay brother with ties to the League infiltrated the King's entourage, dressed as a priest, assassinated him.
This was retaliation for the killing of the Duke of his brother. As he lay dying, the King begged Henry of Navarre to convert to Catholicism, calling it the only way to prevent further bloodshed. However, the King's death threw the army into disarray and Henry of Navarre was forced to lift the siege. Although Henry of Navarre was now the legitimate King of France, the League's armies were so strong that he was unable to capture Paris and was forced to retreat south. Using arms and military advisors provided by Elizabeth I of England, he achieved several military victories. However, he was unable to overcome the superior forces of the League, which commanded the loyalty of most Frenchmen and had the support of Philip II of Spain; the League attempted to declare the Cardinal of Bourbon, Henry's uncle, as king Charles X of France on November 21, 1589, but his status as a prisoner of Henry of Navarre and his death in May 1590 removed all legitimacy from this gesture. Furthermore, the Cardinal refused to usurp the throne and supported his nephew, although to little avail.
Unable to provide a viable candidate for the French throne, the League's position weakened, but remained strong enough to keep Henry from besieging Paris. In a bid to peacefully end the war, Henry of Navarre was received into the Church on July 25, 1593 and was recognized as King Henry IV on February 27, 1594, he is purported to have said "Paris is well worth a Mass," though some scholars question the veracity of this quotation. Under the rule of King Henry IV, the Edict of Nantes was passed, granting religious toleration and limited autonomy to the Huguenots and ensuring a lasting peace for France. Moreover, the Catholic League now lacked the threat of a Calvinist king and disintegrated. Historian Mack Holt argues that historians have sometimes over-emphasised the political role of the League at the expense of its religious and devotional character: What is the final judgement on the Catholic League? It would be a mistake to treat it, as so many historians have, as nothing more than a body motivated purely by p
Subprefectures in France
In France, a subprefecture is the administrative center of a departmental arrondissement that does not contain the prefecture for its department. The term applies to the building that houses the administrative headquarters for an arrondissement; the civil servant in charge of a subprefecture is the subprefect, assisted by a general secretary. Between May 1982 and February 1988, subprefects were known instead by the title commissaire adjoint de la République. Where the administration of an arrondissement is carried out from a prefecture, the general secretary to the prefect carries out duties equivalent to those of the subprefect; the municipal arrondissements of Paris and Marseille are divisions of the city rather than the prefecture, so are not arrondissements in the same sense. List of subprefectures of France List of arrondissements of France
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz is the capital of the Neumarkt district in the administrative region of the Upper Palatinate, in Bavaria, Germany. With a population of about 40,000, Neumarkt is the seat of various projects, acts as the economic and cultural center of the western Upper Palatinate, along with Nürnberg and Regensburg. Neumarkt lies on the western edge of the Franconian Jura, nestled in a valley; the municipal region reaches as far as the Bavarian Jura to the east. The Neumarkt valley drains to the north through the Schwarzach River, a tributary of the Regnitz flowing into the Main, to the south through the Sulz, a tributary of the Altmühl, which flows into the Danube; the Ludwig Canal cuts through the area from North to South. The elevation varies from 406 meters on the Beckenmühle River to the north, to 595 meters in the vicinity of Fuchsberg; the municipal region has an area of 73.09 km². The following municipalities, all of which belong to the Neumarkt district, border the district capital.
They are named clockwise, beginning in the north: Berg, Velburg, Sengenthal and Postbauer-Heng. Neumarkt is located on the western edge of a former Coral Reef of the Tethys Ocean during the Jurassic; the floor of the valley is predominately sandy, whence came the earlier name Neumarkt auf dem Sand, on the sides are isolated regions of loam. The mountains are formed of hard Limestone containing numerous springs, for example, the source of the White Laber River near Voggenthal; the core of the municipal area is its still-recognized borders. The first housing developments built outside the city walls began in 1850 to the east, along Mühlstraße, Mariahilfstraße, Badstraße. To the south, the Industrial area developed beginning around 1920. After 1945, the city expanded to the north and west, grew together with the municipalities of Woffenbach and Holzheim. Numerous other settlements developed around the city center, going clockwise from the north: Altenhof, Koppenmühle, Kohlenbrunnermühle, Mühlen, Weinberg, Schlosserhügel, Hasenheide.
During the 1972 Municipality Reforms, nine municipalities were merged with the city increasing the municipal area. Traces of the earliest settlement at Neumarkt go back as far as the Neolithic period. Around Neumarkt there are multiple Celtic embankments; the town is assumed to have been first founded by the Bavarii in the 6th or 7th century, for example, the quarter of the city now named Pölling. The precise date of the city's founding is unknown, but its founding as "neuer Markt" is assumed to have happened in the beginning of the 12th century, on the trade route between Nuremberg and Regensburg; the city was first mentioned in a document in 1135, city fortifications were mentioned for the first time in 1315. In the 13th century Emperor Frederick II granted Neumarkt Reichsfreiheit, with it, the right to collect customs on trade between Nuremberg and Regensburg and itself. However, the city never enforced this status, because the city fell to the Wittelsbachs in 1329 through the Treaty of Pavia.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Neumarkt was the residence of the rulers of the Palatinate. Count Johann von Pfalz-Neumarkt established the seat of his government here, began to develop the city into a residency. Included in his work are the church of St. Johannes, the Court Chapel, the castle of the counts of the Palatinate. Johann was succeeded by Counts Otto I, his son Otto II, Frederick II, who became an Elector, moved to Heidelberg. After the Palatinate Counts left, Neumarkt lost much of its importance. Subsequently, the city played a part in political and economic life only for the surrounding area, the growth of the city stopped entirely; the next perceptible period of growth did not occur until the middle of the 19th century. In the Thirty Years' War, Neumarkt was occupied by Swedish troops from 1633 to 1635 and from 1646 to 1649. Both times the city was plundered and destroyed. During the war of the First Coalition a dramatic encounter between the French and Austria troops occurred in Neumarkt in the Summer of 1796.
The French barricaded themselves in the city and the Austrians began its complete destruction. Only through the intervention of a smith from Neumarkt, who single-handedly opened the upper gate, was something worse averted. Neumarkt attained the status of Bavarian imperial city, was the seat of a district court after the Kingdom of Bavaria was formed by Napoleon in 1806. In the 19th century Neumarkt developed into an industrial center. Beginning in 1830, thousands of laborers worked on the Ludwigskanal in the vicinity of Neumarkt, the completion of which, in 1846, made Neumarkt a port city; the Express-Werken, established in Neumarkt in 1884, were continental Europe's first bicycle factory. The economic and political results of World War I were noticeable in Neumarkt. Over 300 of its young men fell on the battlefield. In September 1923 one of the first local chapters of the Nazi Party was founded in Neumarkt, which appeared publicly on September 23 for "German Day"; the chapter was created shortly before the death of Dietrich Eckart, one of the founders of the Nazi party, born in Neumarkt.
The removal of active party members, led to its quick disintegration. The party was not reorganized in Neumarkt until 1928. In 1934, in memory of Eckart, the town was given the added suffix "Dietrich-Eckart-city". In
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this date being the most held. In the 12th century it developed into the Gothic style, marked by pointed arches. Examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture; the Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture. Combining features of ancient Roman and Byzantine buildings and other local traditions, Romanesque architecture is known by its massive quality, thick walls, round arches, sturdy pillars, barrel vaults, large towers and decorative arcading; each building has defined forms of regular, symmetrical plan. The style can be identified right across Europe, despite regional characteristics and different materials. Many castles were built during this period, but they are outnumbered by churches.
The most significant are the great abbey churches, many of which are still standing, more or less complete and in use. The enormous quantity of churches built in the Romanesque period was succeeded by the still busier period of Gothic architecture, which or rebuilt most Romanesque churches in prosperous areas like England and Portugal; the largest groups of Romanesque survivors are in areas that were less prosperous in subsequent periods, including parts of southern France, rural Spain and rural Italy. Survivals of unfortified Romanesque secular houses and palaces, the domestic quarters of monasteries are far rarer, but these used and adapted the features found in church buildings, on a domestic scale. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "Romanesque" means "descended from Roman" and was first used in English to designate what are now called Romance languages; the French term "romane" was first used in the architectural sense by archaeologist Charles de Gerville in a letter of 18 December 1818 to Auguste Le Prévost to describe what Gerville sees as a debased Roman architecture.
In 1824 Gerville's friend Arcisse de Caumont adopted the label "roman" to describe the "degraded" European architecture from the 5th to the 13th centuries, in his Essai sur l'architecture religieuse du moyen-âge, particulièrement en Normandie, at a time when the actual dates of many of the buildings so described had not been ascertained: The name Roman we give to this architecture, which should be universal as it is the same everywhere with slight local differences has the merit of indicating its origin and is not new since it is used to describe the language of the same period. Romance language is degenerated Latin language. Romanesque architecture is debased Roman architecture; the first use in a published work is in William Gunn's An Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture. The word was used by Gunn to describe the style, identifiably Medieval and prefigured the Gothic, yet maintained the rounded Roman arch and thus appeared to be a continuation of the Roman tradition of building.
The term is now used for the more restricted period from the late 10th to 12th centuries. The term "Pre-romanesque" is sometimes applied to architecture in Germany of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods and Visigothic and Asturian constructions between the 8th and the 10th centuries in the Iberian Peninsula while "First Romanesque" is applied to buildings in north of Italy and Spain and parts of France that have Romanesque features but pre-date the influence of the Abbey of Cluny. Typical Romanesque architectural forms Buildings of every type were constructed in the Romanesque style, with evidence remaining of simple domestic buildings, elegant town houses, grand palaces, commercial premises, civic buildings, city walls, village churches, abbey churches, abbey complexes and large cathedrals. Of these types of buildings and commercial buildings are the most rare, with only a handful of survivors in the United Kingdom, several clusters in France, isolated buildings across Europe and by far the largest number unidentified and altered over the centuries, in Italy.
Many castles exist, the foundations of. Most have been altered, many are in ruins. By far the greatest number of surviving Romanesque buildings are churches; these range from tiny chapels to large cathedrals. Although many have been extended and altered in different styles, a large number remain either intact or sympathetically restored, demonstrating the form and decoration of Romanesque church architecture; the scope of Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture was the first distinctive style to spread across Europe since the Roman Empire. With the decline of Rome, Roman building methods survived to an extent in Western Europe, where successive Merovingian and Ottonian architects continued to build large stone buildings such as monastery churches and palaces. In the more northern countries, Roman building styles and techniques had never been adopted except for official buildings, while in Scandinavia they were unknown. Although the round arch continued in use, the engineering skills required to vault large spaces and build large domes were lost.
There was a loss of stylistic continuity apparent in the decline of the formal vocabulary of the Classical Orders. In Rome several great Constantinian basilicas continued in use as an inspiration to builders; some traditions of Rom
Les Ancizes-Comps
Les Ancizes-Comps is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. 2008–2014: Pascal Estier 2014–2020: Didier Manuby Fades viaduct Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department INSEE
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Germany, since 1971.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Issoire". Encyclopædia Britannica. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 886.
