Mistral (wind)
The mistral is a strong, northwesterly wind that blows from southern France into the Gulf of Lion in the northern Mediterranean. It produces sustained winds exceeding 66 km/h, sometimes reaching 185 km/h, it is most common in the winter and spring, 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. In France, it refers to a violent, north or northwest wind that accelerates when it passes through the valleys of the Rhône and the Durance Rivers to the coast of the Mediterranean around the Camargue region, 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, causes sudden storms in the Mediterranean between Corsica and the Balearic Islands; 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, majjistral in Maltese.
The mistral is accompanied by clear, fresh weather, it plays an important role in creating the climate of Provence. It can reach speeds of more than 90 km/h in the Rhône Valley, its average speed during the day can reach about 50 km/h, calming noticeably at night. The mistral blows in winter or spring, though it occurs in all seasons, it sometimes lasts only one or two days lasts several days, sometimes lasts more than a week. The mistral takes place each time there is an anticyclone, or area of high pressure, in the Bay of Biscay, an area of low pressure around the Gulf of Genoa; when this happens, the flow of air between the high and low pressure areas draws in a current of cold air from the north which accelerates through the lower elevations between the foothills of the Alps and the Cevennes. The conditions for a mistral are 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 causes a period of cloudless skies and luminous sunshine, which gives the mistral its reputation for making the sky clear.
There is 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 long and enclosed shape of the Rhône Valley, the Venturi effect of funnelling the air through a narrowing space, is cited as the reason for the speed and force of the mistral, but the reasons are more complex. The mistral reaches its maximum speed not at the narrowest part of the Rhône Valley, south of Valence, but much farther south, where the Valley has widened; the wind occurs not just in the Valley, but high above in the atmosphere, up to the troposphere, 3 km above the earth. The mistral is strong at the summit of Mont Ventoux, 1900 meters in elevation, though the plain below is wide. Other contributing factors to the strength of the mistral are the accumulation of masses of cold air, whose volume is greater, pouring down the mountains and valleys to the lower elevations; this is similar to a foehn wind, but unlike a foehn wind the descent in altitude does not warm the mistral.
The causes and characteristics of the mistral are similar to those of the Tramontane, another wind of the French Mediterranean region. In France, the mistral affects Provence, Languedoc east of Montpellier, as well as all of the Rhône Valley from Lyon to Marseille, as far southeast as Corsica and Sardinia; the mistral blows from the north or northwest, but in certain pre-alpine valleys and along the Côte d'Azur, the wind is channelled by the mountains so that it blows from east to west. Sometimes it blows from the north-north-east toward the east of Languedoc as far as Cap Béar; the mistral will affect only one part of the region. In the Languedoc area, where the tramontane is the strongest wind, the mistral and the tramontane blow together onto the Gulf of Lion and the northwest of the western Mediterranean, can be felt to the east of the Balearic Islands, in Sardinia, sometimes as far as the coast of Africa; when the mistral blows from the west, the mass of air is not so cold and the wind only affects the plain of the Rhône delta and the Côte d'Azur.
The good weather is confined to the coast of the Mediterranean. The Côte d'Azur has a clear sky and warmer temperatures; this type of mistral blows for no more than one to three days. The mistral originating from the northeast has a different character. In the winter this is by far the coldest form of the mistral; the wind can blow for more than a week. This kind of mistral is connected with a low pressure area in the Gulf of Genoa, it can bring unstable weather to the Côte d'Azur and the east of Provence, sometimes bringing heavy snow to low altitudes in winter; when the flow of air comes from the northeast due to a widespread low pressure area over the Atlantic and atmospheric disturbances over France, the air is colder at both high altitudes and ground level, the mistral is stronger, the weather worse, with the creation of cumulus clouds bringing weak storms. This kind of mistral is weaker in the east of the Côte d'Azur; the mistral is not alw
Martha
Martha of Bethany is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem, she was witness to Jesus resurrecting her brother, Lazarus. The name Martha is a Latin transliteration of the Koine Greek Μάρθα, itself a translation of the Aramaic מַרְתָּא Martâ, "The mistress" or "the lady", from מרה "mistress", feminine of מר "master"; the Aramaic form occurs in a Nabatean inscription found at Puteoli, now in the Naples Museum. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the home of two sisters named Martha; the two sisters are contrasted: Martha was "cumbered about many things" while Jesus was their guest, while Mary had chosen "the better part", that of listening to the master's discourse. The name of their village is not recorded, nor is there any mention of whether Jesus was near Jerusalem. Biblical commentator Heinrich Meyer notes that "Jesus cannot yet be in Bethany, where Martha and Mary dwelt ".
But the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges claims that it was "undoubtedly Bethany". As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him, she had a sister called Mary. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations, she came to him and asked, "Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!""Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, it will not be taken away from her."– In the Gospel of John and Mary appear in connection with two incidents: the raising from the dead of their brother Lazarus and the anointing of Jesus in Bethany. In the account of the raising of Lazarus, Jesus meets with the sisters in turn: Martha followed by Mary. Martha goes to meet Jesus as he arrives, while Mary waits until she is called; as one commentator notes, "Martha, the more aggressive sister, went to meet Jesus, while quiet and contemplative Mary stayed home.
This portrayal of the sisters agrees with that found in Luke 10:38–42." In speaking with Jesus, both sisters lament that he did not arrive in time to prevent their brother's death: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died". But where Jesus' response to Mary is more emotional, his response to Martha is one of teaching calling her to hope and faith: When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord", Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that now God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the life. He who believes in me will live though he dies. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord", she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, to come into the world."– As the narrative continues, Martha calls her sister Mary to see Jesus.
Jesus has Mary bring him to Lazarus' tomb where he commands the stone to be removed from its entrance. Martha here objects, "But, Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days", to which Jesus replies, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?". They take away the stone and Jesus prays and calls Lazarus forth alive from the tomb. Martha appears again in John 12:1–8, where she serves at a meal held in Jesus' honor at which her brother is a guest; the narrator only mentions that the meal takes place in Bethany, while the parallel accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark specify that it takes place at the home of one Simon the Leper. As the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, "We are justified in arguing that, since Matthew and Mark place the scene in the house of Simon, St. John must be understood to say the same, it is at this meal. In medieval Western Christianity, Martha's sister Mary was equated with Mary Magdalene; this identification led to additional information being attributed to Martha as well: Mary and Lazarus are represented by St. John as living at Bethania, but St. Luke would seem to imply that they were, at least at one time, living in Galilee.
The words of St. John seem to imply a change of residence for the family, it is possible, that St. Luke has displaced the incident referred to in Chapter 10; the likeness between the pictures of Martha presented by Luke and John is remarkable. The familiar intercourse between the Saviour of the world and the humble family which St. Luke depicts is dwelt on by St. John when he tells us that "Jesus loved Martha, her sister Mary, Lazarus". Again the picture of Martha's anxiety accords with the picture of her, "busy about much serving", but St. John has given us a glimpse of the other and deeper side of her character when he depicts her growing faith in
Crypt
A crypt is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Crypts were found below the main apse of a church, such as at the Abbey of Saint-Germain en Auxerre, but were located beneath chancel and transepts as well. Churches were raised high to accommodate a crypt at the ground level, such as St Michael's Church in Hildesheim, Germany. "Crypt" developed as an alternative form of the Latin "vault" as it was carried over into Late Latin, came to refer to the ritual rooms found underneath church buildings. It served as a vault for storing important and/or sacred items. "Crypta", however, is the female form of crypto "hidden". The earliest known origin of both is in the Ancient Greek κρύπτω, the first person singular indicative of the verb "to conceal, to hide". First known in the early Christian period, in particular North Africa at Chlef and Djemila in Algeria, Byzantium at Saint John Studio in Constantinople. Where Christian churches have been built over mithraea, the mithraeum has been adapted to serve as a crypt.
The famous crypt at Old St. Peter's Basilica, developed about the year 600, as a means of affording pilgrims a view of Saint Peter's tomb, which lay, according to the Roman fashion, directly below the high altar; the tomb was made accessible through an underground passageway beneath the sanctuary, where pilgrims could enter at one stair, pass by the tomb and exit, without interrupting the clerical community's service at the altar directly above. Crypts were introduced into Frankish church building in the mid-8th century, as a feature of its Romanization, their popularity spread more in western Europe under Charlemagne. Examples from this period are most common in the early medieval West, for example in Burgundy at Dijon and Tournus. After the 10th century the early medieval requirements of a crypt faded, as church officials permitted relics to be held in the main level of the church. By the Gothic period crypts were built, however burial vaults continued to be constructed beneath churches and referred to as crypts.
In more modern terms, a crypt is most a stone chambered burial vault used to store the deceased. Crypts are found in cemeteries and under public religious buildings, such as churches or cathedrals, but are occasionally found beneath mausolea or chapels on personal estates. Wealthy or prestigious families will have a'family crypt' or'vault' in which all members of the family are interred. Many royal families, for example, have vast crypts containing the bodies of dozens of former royalty. In some localities an above ground crypt is more called a mausoleum, which refers to any elaborate building intended as a burial place, for one or any number of people. There was a trend in the 19th century of building crypts on medium to large size family estates subtly placed on the edge of the grounds or more incorporated into the cellar. After a change of owner these are blocked up and the house deeds will not allow this area to be re-developed. Catacomb Mausoleum Tumulus Ossuary Tomb Cemetery Media related to Crypt at Wikimedia Commons Chisholm, Hugh, ed..
"Crypt". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press
Alpilles
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. Although it is not high - some 498 m at its highest point - the Alpilles range stands out impressively, as it rises abruptly from the Rhône valley and from the flat alluvial plain of Crau; 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 Chaîne des Alpilles is part of the territory of 15 communes: Aureille, Les Baux-de-Provence, Eygalières, Eyguières, Mas-Blanc-des-Alpilles, Maussane-les-Alpilles, Mouriès, Orgon, Saint-Étienne-du-Grès, Saint-Martin-de-Crau, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Sénas, Tarascon. The lower slopes are planted with almond trees. Kermes oaks and pines grow there. Much of the range is stony ground covered with scrub and maquis; the highest parts of the range are a nature reserve inhabited by a number of rare species, including Bonelli's eagle, the Egyptian vulture and eagle owl.
Some of these species were introduced in the Alpilles in the 1980s. Some protohistorical settlements have been found in the Alpilles. In the 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 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 many 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 Daudet's 1885 novel Tartarin sur les Alpes, 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
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Collegiate church
In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost. In its governance and religious observance a collegiate church is similar to a cathedral, although a collegiate church is not the seat of a bishop and has no diocesan responsibilities. Collegiate churches were supported by extensive lands held by the church, or by tithe income from appropriated benefices, they provide distinct spaces for congregational worship and for the choir offices of their clerical community. In the early medieval period, before the development of the parish system in Western Christianity, many new church foundations were staffed by groups of secular priests, living a communal life and serving an extensive territory. In England these churches were termed minsters, from the Latin monasterium, although confusingly only a few were monastic.
In the 9th and 10th centuries many such churches adopted formal rules of governance derived from those composed by Chrodegang of Metz for Metz cathedral, thenceforth came to be described as "collegiate". The endowments of these foundations were held in a common treasury from which each canon received a proportion for their subsistence, such canons being termed portioners. A few major collegiate bodies remained portionary. Both prebendaries and portioners tended in this period to abandon communal living, each canon establishing his own house within the precinct of the church. In response to which, on account of widespread concern that the religious life of collegiate communities might be insufficiently rigorous, many collegiate foundations in the 12th century adopted the Augustinian rule, become monastic, as for example at Dorchester Abbey and Christchurch Priory; because each prebend or portion provided a discrete source of income as a separate benefice, in the medieval period canons tended to be non-resident, paying a vicar to undertake divine service in their place.
Kings and bishops came to regard prebends as useful sources of income for favoured servants and supporters, it was not uncommon for a bishop or archbishop to hold half a dozen or more collegiate prebends or deaneries. From the 13th century onwards, existing collegiate foundations attracted chantry endowments a legacy in a will providing for masses to be sung for the repose of the souls of the testator and their families by the collegiate clergy or their vicars; the same impetus to establish endowed prayer led to many new collegiate foundations in this period. A new organisational structure was developed for these bodies, by which endowment income was held collectively, each canon received a fixed stipend conditional on being resident, such canons being termed fellows, or chaplains led by a warden or master. In this arrangement, only the office of warden constituted a separate benefice. Chantry colleges still maintained the daily divine office with the additional prime function of offering masses in intercession for departed members of the founder's family.
For founders, this presented the added advantage that masses for the repose of themselves and their families endowed in a chantry would be supported by a guaranteed congregation of grateful and virtuous recipients of charity, which conferred a perceived advantage in endowing such a chantry in a parish church over doing so in a monastery. In the medieval period, testators tended to favour chantries linked to parochial charitable endowments. One particular development of the chantry college principle was the establishment in university cities of collegiate foundations in which the fellows were graduate academics and university teachers. Local parish churches were appropriated to these foundations, thereby acquiring collegiate status. However, this form of college developed radically in the Middle Ages after the pattern of New College, where for the first time college residence was extended to include undergraduate students. Thereafter university collegiate bodies developed into a distinct type of religious establishment whose regular worship took place in dedicated college chapels rather than in collegiate churches.
In a collegiate church or chapel, as in a cathedral, the canons or fellows are seated separately from any provision for a lay congregation, in quire stalls parallel with the south and north walls facing inwards rather than towards the altar at the eastern end. This has influenced the design of other churches
Beaucaire, Gard
Beaucaire is a French commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region of southern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Beaucairoises; the commune has been awarded one flower by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom. Beaucaire is located on the Rhône River some 15 km south-west of Avignon and 10 km north of Arles opposite Tarascon, in Bouches-du-Rhône department of Provence. Access to the commune is by the D999 road from Jonquières-Saint-Vincent in the west which passes through the north of the commune and the town and continues east to Tarascon; the D966L comes from Saint-Bonnet-du-Gard in the north and comes down the banks of the Rhône to the town. The D90 branches off the D986L in the commune and passes in a circle around the town continues east across the Rhone changing to the D99B; the D15 goes south from the town to Fourques. The D38 goes south-west from the town to Bellegarde; the D28 links the Ile du Comte to the east bank of the Rhone.
A railway passes through the commune coming from Tarascon in the east with two stations in the commune it continues to Nîmes in the west. Apart from the main town there are the districts of Gaudon, Tour Saint-Pierre, Pauvre Menage, Mas du Consul, Mas Saint-Andre du Boschet, Mas de la Bastide, Mas des Lecques, Le Fer a Cheval, Mas de SAicard and Enclos d'Argent; the commune has a large urban area in the north-east with the rest of the commune farmland. The Rhône river forms the whole eastern border of the commune as it flows south to join the sea at Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône; the river is the departmental border between Gard and Bouches-du-Rhône. The Canal du Rhône à Sète passes through the commune from Saint-Gilles in the south-west and joins the Rhone in the town. A waterway called Laune de Pillet, a branch of the Rhone, cuts through the commune parallel to the Rhone forming the Ile de Pillet. There is an extensive network of irrigation canals covering most of the farmland; the entire town is located in the Rhône Valley and has flat terrain formed by the plain of the Rhône.
The north of the commune has hills north of the town centre where the castle is located as well as Saint-Roman.'Beaucaire' is the French version of the Occitan language name'Bèucaire': Beau < French beau < Occitan bèl/bèu Caire < Occitan caire. Beaucaire appears as the same on the 1790 version. Founded in the 7th century BC, Beaucaire was known as a city on the famous Via Domitia, the first Roman road built in Gaul linking Italy to Spain, it was at this point that the Via Domitia divides in the direction of Arles, Nîmes and Saint-Gilles. At that time, Beaucaire was called Ugernum; this was where, after the capture of Rome by the Vandals in 455, the Gallo-Roman nobility met to elect Avitus as the new emperor. A Roman mausoleum has been discovered on the Île du Comté; the Middle Ages saw a slowdown in the expansion of the city. Beaucaire did not escape the troubles during this dark period, it underwent invasions of Burgundians and Saracens. It was at that time that the first ramparts were built and the castle was expanded.
The city took the name Beaucaire. During the Albigensian Crusade, Raymond VI of Toulouse besieged Beaucaire in May 1216; the efforts of Simon de Montfort to relieve the town were repulsed. The city fell after a three-month siege. In the 13th century Louis IX made several trips to Beaucaire; the city was its population increasing. Despite the Hundred Years War and the Wars of Religion, the splendour and refinement of the architecture grew along with the wealth of the Beaucairois merchants. In 1579 Beaucaire was held by Henri I de Montmorency, the catholic governor of Languedoc, but tolerant; the captain of the city was Jean de Parabere, soon to play his own game. Damville provoked a riot to recover the city but though Parabere was decapitated, the city remained in the hands of the Huguenots, thanks to reinforcements sent by François de Coligny, the son of Gaspard II de Coligny. At the end of the Hundred Years War in 1453, Charles VII of France declared that Beaucaire would become the site of the Fair of la Madeleine, a commercial fair that would enable the trade of goods from all of the Mediterranean Basin countries to all of France.
By the mid-seventeenth century, the Fair was the largest commercial fair in the Mediterranean region exceeding in a week the total volume of trade done in Marseilles in a year. It remained the dominant Mediterranean trade fair until the arrival of the railway in the mid-nineteenth century; the advent of the railway and the end of river trade as well as the removal of its tax-free status by Napoleon destroyed the Fair of the Madeleine and plunged Beaucaire into anonymity. One result of these years of commercial dominance was the construction of a remarkable number of architecturally significant mansions and palaces by rich merchants of many nationalities; the fair still exists in the form of carnivals and various festivities. Camargue bulls are run through the streets, it always lasts at least six days. Beaucaire was capital of the district from 1790 to 1795. During the French Revolution the commune was temporarily called Pont-National. At the end of the 19th century and the early 20th centur
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Beit She'an, Israel
Elmshorn, Germany - since 1987
Fraga, Spain
Neviano degli Arduini, Italy
Porrentruy, Switzerland
