Montpellier Hotels

City (1990 pop. 210,866), capital of Hérault dept., S France, near the Mediterranean coast. It is a great commercial center. Its industries, many of them recently developed, include food processing, salt working, textile milling, printing, and the manufacture of metal items and chemicals. Tourism, improved by the development of the nearby coast, is a major industry. Montpellier's population increased dramatically during the 1960s, due in part to an influx of refugees from Algeria. Dating from the 8th cent., Montpellier was the center of a fief under the counts of Toulouse; it passed (13th cent.) to the kings of Majorca, from whom it was purchased (1349) by Philip VI of France. A Huguenot center, it was besieged and taken by Louis XIII in 1622. It was the seat of the provincial estates of Languedoc. Montpellier's fame rests principally on its university, founded in 1289. Its noted medical faculty is traced to the 10th cent.; Rabelais was its most famous student. The city is also the seat of agricultural and military schools and of an international wine festival. The botanical garden there was founded in 1593.

Montpellier (Occitan Montpelhièr) is a city in the south of France. It is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon région, as well as the préfecture (administrative capital) of the Hérault département. Population of the city (commune) of Montpellier at the 1999 census was 225,392 inhabitants, whereas the whole metropolitan area (in French: aire urbaine) had a population of 459,916 inhabitants in 1999. As of February 2004 estimates, the population of the city of Montpellier reached 244,700 inhabitants, meaning a record 1.7% population growth per year between 1999 and 2004.

Geography and economy

The city is situated on hilly ground 10 km (6 miles) inland from the Mediterranean coast at the coordinates 43°37N 3°52E, on the River Lez. The name of the city, originally Monspessulanus, is said to have stood for mont pelé (the naked hill, because the vegetation was poor), or le mont de la colline (the mount of the hill) [1] (http://www.montpellier-herault.com/histoire-generale1.html). It is a major industrial centre, producing textiles, metal goods, wine, printed materials and chemicals.

History

Montpellier is one of the few cities in France that does not have a Roman background. In the early Middle Ages the nearby episcopal town of Maguelone was the major settlement in the area, but raids by pirates probably encouraged settlement a little further inland. The city was founded in the 8th century but came to prominence in the 10th century as a trading centre under the rule of the counts of Toulouse. It became a possession of the kings of Aragon by the marriage of Peter II of Aragon with Mary of Montpellier. James III of Majorca sold the city to the French king Philip VI to raise funds for his ongoing struggle with Peter IV of Aragon.

At the time of the Reformation, many of its inhabitants became Protestants (or Huguenots as they were known in France) and it became a stronghold of Protestant resistance to the (mainly Catholic) French crown. In 1622, King Louis XIII beseiged the city and took it after eight months. During the 19th century the city developed into an industrial centre. In the 1960s, its population grew dramatically after French settlers in Algeria were resettled in the city following Algeria's independence from France.

Notable sights

The University of Montpellier is one of the oldest in France, having been granted a charter in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad von Urach and confirmed by Pope Nicholas IV in a papal bull of 1289. It was suppressed during the French Revolution but was re-established in 1896.

Several housing projects have been designed by the Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill.

The city has a fine botanical garden, the first in France, founded in 1593. Near the university is the 14th century cathedral of Saint-Pierre, distinguished mainly for its very unusual porch supported by two high, somewhat rocket-like towers. Nearby is a triumphal arch, the Porte du Peyrou, of 1691 designed in the Doric style with later carvings glorifying King Louis XIV of France. The 17th century Aqueduc St-Clément is a 17th century aqueduct covering an 800m span across the eponymous Les Arceaux ("The Arches") district of the city; it was used to bring water from the St Clément spring 14 km away. The aqueduct emptied into a water tank near the triumphal arch, from where the water would run downhill to fill fountains and public water points.

Famous inhabitants of Montpellier
Montpellier was the birthplace of:

Antoine Jerome Balard (1802-1876), chemist
Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889), painter
Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870), Impressionist painter
Auguste Comte (1798-1857), a founder of the discipline of sociology
Léo Malet (1909-1996), crime novelist
Guillaume Mathieu, comte Dumas (1753-1837), military leader
Charles Bernard Renouvier (1815-1903), philosopher
Émile Saisset (1814-1863), philosopher
François Rabelais (1493-1553) and Nostradamus (1503-1566) studied at the University of Montpellier.

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