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Narbonne is a French commune located in the department of Aude,
in the Occitanie region. The town is crossed by the Canal de la
Robine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
Narbonne is
the largest and most populous municipality in the Aude department
and seventh in the Occitanie region. The 53,594 inhabitants of
Narbonne are called the Narbonnais. Its urban area had 91,825
inhabitants in 2013. It is also the city-center of an intermunicipal
body of 125,487 inhabitants, Grand Narbonne.
Located in the
heart of the “Narbonnaise en Méditerranée regional natural park”,
Narbonne also has other classified natural sites, such as the Clape
massif and that of the Sainte-Marie de Fontfroide abbey as well as
the pond of Bages- Sigean. Founded by the Romans in 118 BC. AD, it
was their second oldest colony in Gaul (after Aix-en-Provence, 122
BC) and its urban center keeps traces of many centuries of history
(Saint-Just cathedral - and-Saint-Pasteur, palace of the
Archbishops, remains of the Domitian way…). The town is surrounded
by scrubland and vineyards (it specializes in the trade of Aude and
Languedoc wines); close to the coast of a very touristy region, it
has a beach of five kilometers of fine sand at Narbonne-Plage.
Its status as the oldest Roman colony in Gaul has earned it the
nickname “the eldest daughter of Rome outside Italy”.
Cathedral of Saint-Just-et-Saint-Pasteur of Narbonne
The
Saint-Just-et-Saint-Pasteur cathedral is the most prestigious
monument in the city of Narbonne. It has the rank of co-cathedral of
the diocese of Carcassonne and Narbonne. Characteristic of the
southern Gothic style, it replaced places of worship built in the
center of the city from the 4th century. Its peculiarity lies in the
fact that it is unfinished (only the choir is present) and that its
height under vault makes it the fourth highest in France (41 m under
vault, after Beauvais at 48 m and Amiens and Metz at 42 m. ). This
monument, almost disproportionate to the rest of the city, was one
of the most ambitious projects in medieval France and one of the
most learned works of the beginning of the fourteenth century.
This building has been classified as historical monuments by the
1840 list. The cloister has been classified as historical monuments
since April 18, 1914. A set of adjoining archaeological sites is
listed. 'subject to a classification as historical monuments since
July 8, 1937.