Agen

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Agen is a town and commune located in the Aquitaine région in southern France, on the river Garonne, 84 miles above Bordeaux. It is the préfecture of the Lot-et-Garonne département.

Sights

The 12th century cathedral of Agen, St. Caprais, is one of the barest handful of large churches in France with a double nave; the curious and impractical plan may be a regional trait, since one of the others is the Church of the Jacobins in relatively nearby Toulouse.

Transportation

Agen is connected by the A62 motorway to both Toulouse and Bordeaux. By train it is around an hour from Toulouse, and around an hour from Bordeaux. It has a very small airport mostly used for business flights and leisure flying.

Ecclesiastical history

The diocese comprises the Département of Lot and Garonne. It has been successively suffragan to the archdioceses of Bordeaux (under the old regime), Toulouse (1802-22), and Bordeaux again (since 1822).

Legends which do not antedate the ninth century concerning the hermit, St. Caprasius, martyred with St. Fides by Dacianus, Prefect of the Gauls, during the persecution of Diocletian, and the story of Vincentius, a Christian martyr (written about 520), furnish no foundation for later traditions which make these two saints early bishops of Agen.

The first bishop of Agen known to history is St. Phoebadius, friend of St. Hilary, who published (in 357) a treatise against the Arians and figured prominently at the Council of Rimini in 359.

Among the bishops of Agen were Wilhelmus II, sent by Pope Urban IV (1261-64) to King St. Louis in 1262 to ask his aid in favor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople; Bertrand de Goth, whose uncle of the same name was raised from the Archbishopric of Bordeaux to the Papal See under the name of Clement V (1305-14), and during his pontificate visited the city of Agen; Cardinal Jean de Lorraine (1538- 50); the Oratorian Jules Mascaron, a celebrated preacher, transferred from the see of Tulle, to that of Agen (1679-1703); Hebert, who was curé of Versailles, had contributed to the withdrawal of Madame de Montespan from the royal court, and who when appointed Bishop of Agen (1703) had as vicar-general until 1709 the celebrated Belsunce; de Bonnac (1767-1801), who in the parliamentary session of 3 January, 1792, was the first to refuse to sign the constitutional oath. The church of St. Caprasius, a splendid specimen of Romance architecture, dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, has been made the cathedral in place of the church of St. Etienne, which was unfortunately destroyed during the Revolution.

The diocese of Agen comprised (end of 1905) 278,740 inhabitants, 47 first class parishes, 397 second class parishes, and 27 vicariates, formerly with State subventions.

Miscellaneous

In France, it is famous as the "capital of the prune". This is a local produce, which you can most notably buy either as a sweet (prunes stuffed with prune purée) or as an after-dinner delight (prunes soaked in Armagnac - a type of brandy).

Births

Agen was the birthplace of:

• Bernard Palissy (c. 1510-1590), potter - according to some accounts, he may have been born in Saintes
• Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609), scholar
• Pierre Dupuy (1582-1651), scholar
• Godefroi, Comte d'Estrades (1607-1686), diplomatist and marshal
• Bernard Germain Étienne comte de La Ville-sur-Illon La Cépède (1756-1825), naturalist
• Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1780-1846), naturalist
• Jacques Jasmin (1798-1864), Provençal poet
• Joseph Chaumié (1849-1919), politician
• Michel Serres (born 1930), philosopher and author
• Jacques Sadoul (born 1934), author
• Jean Cruguet (born 1939), jockey who won the U.S. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
• Francis Cabrel (born 1953), singer-songwriter and guitarist
• Bernard Campan (born 1958), actor and film director

Twin towns

Agen is twinned with:

• Touapse, Russia
• Dinslaken, Germany
• Llanelli, Wales
• Toledo, Spain

See also

• St Faith
• SU Agen, a French rugby union club based in Agen
• Agenais, or Agenois, a former province of France

Sources and external links

• [site de la ville]
• [office de tourisme]

 

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