Agde

Encyclopedia : A : AG : AGD : Agde

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Agde is a commune of the Hérault département, in southern France. Population (1999): 20,303.

Location

Agde is located on the river Hérault, 4 km from the Mediterranean Sea, and 750 km from Paris. Agde is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi, which connects to the Hérault at the lock ("L'Écluse Ronde d'Agde") just above Agde and debouches into the Mediterranean at Le Grau d'Agde.

History

Agde (Agathe Tyche, "good fortune"; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was a 5th century Greek colony of Phocaeans of Massilia. The symbol of the city, the bronze Ephebe of Agde, of the 4th century BCE, recovered from the sands of the Hérault, was joined in December 2001 by two Early Imperial Roman bronzes, of a child and of Eros, doubtless on their way to a villa in Gallia Narbonensis when they were lost in a shipwreck. In 506 the Council of Agde was held at Agde.

Architecture

Agde is known for the distinctive black basalt used in the local architecture, for example the Cathédrale Saint-Etienne built in the 12th century on the foundations of a 5th century Roman church.

See also

• Cap d'Agde

External links

• [Agde (official site)] (in French)
• [Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976:] "Agatha (Agde) Hérault, France"
• [Recent undersea find of bronzes]

 

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