1.
Glanum
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Glanum was an oppidum, or fortified town in present day Provence, founded by a Celto-Ligurian people called the Salyes in the 6th century BCE. It became officially a Roman city in 27 BCE and was abandoned in 260 AD and it is particularly known for two well-preserved Roman monuments of the 1st century B. C. known as les Antiques, a mausoleum and a triumphal arch. A shrine was built at the spring to Glanis, a Celtic god, the town grew, and a second wall was built in the 2nd century BC. The people of Glanum were in contact with the Greek colony of Massalia, present day Marseille. The contact influenced the architecture and art of Glanum- villas were built in the Hellenic style, but by the 2nd century BC conflicts and wars arose between the Salyens and the Greeks of Marseille, who not having a powerful army, called upon the assistance of their Roman allies. In 125 BC the Salyens were defeated by the army of the Roman consul Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, many of the old monuments of Glanum were destroyed. Due to its commercially useful location on the Via Domitia, and the attraction of its healing spring, the city produced its own silver coins and built new monuments. The prosperity lasted until 90 BC when the Salyens again rebelled against Rome, the public buildings of Glanum were again destroyed. The rebellion was crushed this time by the Consul Caecilius, in 49 BC Julius Caesar captured Marseille, and after a period of destructive civil wars, the Romanization of Provence and Glanum began. A triumphal arch was built outside the town between 10 and 25 BC, near the end of the reign of Augustus, as well as a mausoleum of the Julii family. Glanum did not survive the collapse of the Roman Empire, after its abandonment Glanum became a source of stone and other building materials for Saint-Remy. Since the Roman system of drains and sewers was not maintained, the mausoleum and triumphal arch, together known as Les Antiques, were famous, and were visited by King Charles IX, who had the surroundings cleaned up and maintained. Some excavations were made around the monuments as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, finding sculptures and coins, the first systematic excavations began in 1921, directed by the architect of historic monuments, Jules Foremigé. From 1921 until 1941, the archeologist Pierre LeBrun worked on the site, discovering the baths, the basilica, from 1928 to 1933, Henri Roland worked on the Iron Age sanctuary, to the south. From 1942 until 1969, Roland took over the work and excavated the area from the forum to the sanctuary, the objects he discovered are on display today at the Hotel de Sade in nearby Saint-Remy. New excavation and exploration began in 1982, devoted mainly to the preservation of the site. The Mausoleum of the Julii, located across the Via Domitia, to the north of, and just outside the city entrance, dates to about 40 BCE, the mausoleum is built in three stages. The upper stage, or tholos, is a chapel with Corinthian columns
2.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
3.
Avignon
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Avignon is a commune in south-eastern France in the department of Vaucluse on the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 90,194 inhabitants of the city, about 12,000 live in the ancient town centre enclosed by its medieval ramparts. Between 1309 and 1377, during the Avignon Papacy, seven popes resided in Avignon. Papal control persisted until 1791 when, during the French Revolution, the town is now the capital of the Vaucluse department and one of the few French cities to have preserved its ramparts. The historic centre, which includes the Palais des Papes, the cathedral, the medieval monuments and the annual Festival dAvignon have helped to make the town a major centre for tourism. The commune has been awarded one flower by the National Council of Towns, the earliest forms of the name were reported by the Greeks, Аὐενιὼν = Auenion Άουεννίων = Aouennion. The Roman name Avennĭo Cavarum, i. e. Avignon of Cavares accurately shows that Avignon was one of the three cities of the Celtic-Ligurian tribe of Cavares, along with Cavaillon and Orange. The current name dates to a pre-Indo-European or pre-Latin theme ab-ên with the suffix -i-ōn This theme would be a hydronym - i. e. a name linked to the river, but perhaps also an oronym of terrain. The site of Avignon has been occupied since the Neolithic period as shown by excavations at Rocher des Doms and the Balance district. In 1960 and 1961 excavations in the part of the Rocher des Doms directed by Sylvain Gagnière uncovered a small anthropomorphic stele. Carved in Burdigalian sandstone, it has the shape of a tombstone with its face engraved with a stylized human figure with no mouth. On the bottom, shifted slightly to the right is an indentation with eight radiating lines forming a solar representation - a unique discovery for this type of stele. There were also some Chalcolithic objects for adornment and an abundance of Hallstatt pottery shards which could have been native or imported, the name of the city dates back to around the 6th century BC. The first citation of Avignon was made by Artemidorus of Ephesus, although his book, The Journey, is lost it is known from the abstract by Marcian of Heraclea and The Ethnics, a dictionary of names of cities by Stephanus of Byzantium based on that book. He said, The City of Massalia, near the Rhone and this name has two interpretations, city of violent wind or, more likely, lord of the river. Other sources trace its origin to the Gallic mignon and the Celtic definitive article, Avignon was a simple Greek Emporium founded by Phocaeans from Marseille around 539 BC. It was in the 4th century BC that the Massaliotes began to sign treaties of alliance with some cities in the Rhone valley including Avignon and Cavaillon, a century later Avignon was part of the region of Massaliotes or country of Massalia. Fortified on its rock, the city later became and long remained the capital of the Cavares, with the arrival of the Roman legions in 120 BC. the Cavares, allies with the Massaliotes, became Roman
4.
Alpilles
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The Chaîne des Alpilles is a small range of low mountains in Provence, southern France, located about 20 km south of Avignon. The range is an extension of the much larger Luberon range, the range is about 25 km long by about 8 to 10 km wide, running in an east-west direction between the Rhône and Durance rivers. The landscape of the Alpilles is one of arid limestone peaks separated by dry valleys, the lower slopes are planted with olive and almond trees. Kermes oaks and pines also grow there, much of the range is bare rock or stony ground covered with scrub and maquis. The highest parts of the range are a nature reserve inhabited by a number of species, including Bonellis eagle. Some of these species were introduced in the Alpilles in the 1980s, some protohistorical settlements have been found in the Alpilles. In the very old village of Les Baux de Provence, a cave was used 8000 years ago, the Parc Naturel Régional des Alpilles was created on January 30,2007. It covers the territory of 16 communes, the area is also under the protection of the Natura 2000 Environmental Protection Plan of the European Union. The Alpilles were immortalized in art by Vincent van Gogh, who painted images of the Alpilles landscapes during his time in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence on the north side of the mountains. One of the paintings was given by van Gogh to his friend Eugène Boch, alphonse Daudets 1885 novel Tartarin sur les Alpes, which is a sequel to the 1872 Tartarin de Tarascon, takes place in the Alpilles. Barbegal aqueduct and mill Glanum Van Gogh paintings, Wheat Fields Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy Enclosed Field with Peasant The Starry Night
5.
Mistral (wind)
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It is most common in the winter and spring, and strongest in the transition between the two seasons. Periods of the wind exceeding 30 km/h for more than sixty-five hours have been reported and it affects the northeast of the plain of Languedoc and Provence to the east of Toulon, where it is felt as a strong west wind. It has a major influence all along the Mediterranean coast of France, the name mistral comes from the Languedoc dialect of the Occitan and means masterly. The same wind is called mistrau in the Provençal variant of Occitan, mestral in Catalan, maestrale in Italian and Corsican, maistràle or bentu maestru in Sardinian, and majjistral in Maltese. The mistral is usually accompanied by clear, fresh weather, and it can reach speeds of more than 90 km/h, particularly in the Rhone Valley. Its average speed during the day can reach about 50 km/h, the mistral usually blows in winter or spring, though it occurs in all seasons. It sometimes lasts only one or two days, frequently lasts several days, and sometimes more than a week. The mistral takes place each time there is an anticyclone, or area of pressure, in the Bay of Biscay. The conditions for a mistral are even more favorable when a cold rainy front has crossed France from the northwest to the southeast as far as the Mediterranean. This cold, dry wind usually causes a period of cloudless skies and luminous sunshine, there is also, however, the mistral noir, which brings clouds and rain. The mistral noir occurs when the Azores High is extended and draws in unusually moist air from the northwest, the mistral reaches its maximum speed not at the narrowest part of the Rhone Valley, south of Valence, but much farther south, where the Valley has widened. Also, the wind occurs not just in the Valley, but high above in the atmosphere, the mistral is very strong at the summit of Mont Ventoux,1900 meters in elevation, though the plain below is very wide. Other contributing factors to the strength of the mistral are the accumulation of masses of air, whose volume is greater, pouring down the mountains. This is similar to a wind, but unlike a foehn wind the descent in altitude does not significantly warm the mistral. The causes and characteristics of the mistral are very similar to those of the Tramontane, in France, the mistral particularly affects Provence, Languedoc east of Montpellier, as well as all of the Rhone Valley from Lyon to Marseille, and as far southeast as Corsica and Sardinia. The mistral usually blows from the north or northwest, but in certain pre-alpine valleys and along the Côte dAzur, sometimes it also blows from the north-north-east toward the east of Languedoc as far as Cap Béar. Frequently, the mistral will affect only one part of the region, when the mistral blows from the west, the mass of air is not so cold and the wind only affects the plain of the Rhone delta and the Côte dAzur. The good weather is confined to the coast of the Mediterranean, the Côte dAzur generally has a clear sky and warmer temperatures
6.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
7.
Triumphal arch
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A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. The main structure is decorated with carvings, sculpted reliefs. More elaborate triumphal arches may have multiple archways, Triumphal arches are one of the most influential and distinctive types of architecture associated with ancient Rome. The survival of great Roman triumphal arches such as the Arch of Titus inspired many states and rulers, up to the present day. Triumphal arch is also the given to the arch above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church where a rood can be placed. The origins of the Roman triumphal arch are unclear, Triumphal arch look similar to Mesopotamian Arch entrances like the Ishtar Gate but there is no evidence to support that the Romans got their influence from there. The development of the arch is often associated with ancient Roman architecture. To fully understand this development however it is important to understand the importance of basic arches in Roman civilization, the Romans had learned how to construct effective arches from the Etruscans, who lived in central Italy. This knowledge had a impact on the architecture of Roman civilization. As a result, the Romans used arches for things such as aqueducts, amphitheaters, bridges and they had effectively used the arch in various aspects of their civilization and city structure. Since the Romans had effectively perfected this architectural structure, one could conclude that the arch symbolized perfection, monumental gateways had already been in use for hundreds of years by civilizations such as the Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians and Myceneans. There were precursors to the arch within the Roman world, in Italy. Surviving examples of Etruscan arches can still be seen at Perugia, the two key elements of the triumphal arch – a round-topped arch and a square entablature – had long been in use as separate architectural elements in ancient Greece. Entablatures were a part of the structural fabric of such buildings. The great innovation of the Romans was to combine a round arch, the first recorded Roman triumphal arches were set up in the time of the Roman Republic. Generals who were granted a triumph were termed triumphators and would erect fornices or honorific arches bearing statues to commemorate their victories, a number of fornices were built in Rome during the Republican era. Lucius Steritinus erected two in 196 BC to commemorate his victories in Hispania, another fornix was built on the Capitoline Hill by Scipio Africanus in 190 BC, and Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus constructed one in the Roman Forum in 121 BC. None of them today and little is known about their appearance
8.
The Starry Night
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The Starry Night is an oil on canvas by the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941 and it is regarded as among Van Goghs finest works, and is one of the most recognized paintings in the history of Western culture. During the year Van Gogh stayed at the asylum, the output of paintings he had begun in Arles continued. The Starry Night was painted mid-June by around 18 June, the date he wrote his brother Theo to say he had a new study of a starry sky. Although The Starry Night was painted during the day in Van Goghs ground-floor studio, the view has been identified as the one from his bedroom window, facing east, a view which Van Gogh painted variations of no fewer than twenty-one times, including The Starry Night. Through the iron-barred window, he wrote to his brother, Theo, around 23 May 1889, above which, in the morning, I watch the sun rise in all its glory. Van Gogh depicted the view at different times of day and under various conditions, including sunrise, moonrise, sunshine-filled days, overcast days, windy days. The hospital staff did not allow Van Gogh to paint in his bedroom, but he was able to make sketches in ink or charcoal on paper, and eventually he would base newer variations on previous versions. The pictorial element uniting all of these paintings is the line coming in from the right depicting the low rolling hills of the Alpilles mountains. In fifteen of the versions, cypress trees are visible beyond the far wall enclosing the wheat field. Van Gogh telescoped the view in six of these paintings, most notably in F717 Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night, one of the first paintings of the view was F611 Mountainous Landscape Behind Saint-Rémy, now in Copenhagen. Van Gogh made a number of sketches for the painting, of which F1547 The Enclosed Wheatfield After a Storm is typical and it is unclear whether the painting was made in his studio or outside. In his June 9 letter describing it, he mentions he had been working outside for a few days, Van Gogh described the second of the two landscapes he mentions he was working on in a letter to his sister Wil on 16 June 1889. This is F719 Green Field, now in Prague, and the first painting at the asylum he painted outside en plein air. F1548 Wheat field, Saint-Rémy de Provence, now in New York, is a study for it, two days later, Vincent wrote Theo that he had painted a starry sky. The Starry Night is the only nocturne in the series of views from his bedroom window, so the brightest star in the painting, just to the viewers right of the cypress tree, is actually Venus. The moon is stylized, as records indicate that the moon was waning gibbous at the time Van Gogh painted the picture
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