Agen

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Agen
Agen coat of arms
Agen (France)
Agen
region Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department Lot-et-Garonne
Arrondissement Agen
Canton Agen-1 (main town)
Agen-2 (main town)
Agen-3
Agen-4 (main town)
Community association Agen
Coordinates 44 ° 12 '  N , 0 ° 37'  E Coordinates: 44 ° 12 '  N , 0 ° 37'  E
height 37-162 m
surface 11.49 km 2
Residents 33,576 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 2,922 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 47000
INSEE code 47001
Website Agen

Agen - place view

Agen ([ aʒɛ ]) is a southern French city and a city (commune) in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine . With 33,576 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) who call themselves Agenais or Agenois , it is the capital ( prefecture ) of the Lot-et-Garonne department .

Location and climate

Agen lies at a height of approx. 50  m on the Garonne and on the parallel side canal ( Canal latéral à la Garonne ) , which crosses the river here with an imposing canal bridge. The city is also on the A62 autoroute between Toulouse (driving distance approx. 115 km) in the south-east and Bordeaux (140 km) in the north-west. The climate is warm to temperate; Rain (approx. 745 mm / year) falls over the year.

Population development

year 1800 1851 1901 1954 1999 2017
Residents 9,876 16,027 22,482 32,593 30,170 33,576
Source: Cassini and INSEE

The steady population growth is mainly based on the loss of jobs in the countryside as a result of the mechanization of agriculture ( rural exodus ).

economy

The area around the city is characterized by huge plantations with plum trees . Crusaders brought the fruit to France from the Middle East in the 11th century. The monks in the nearby Lot Valley may have been the first to dry the plums and sell them as dried fruit . Today around 35,000 tonnes of prunes leave the Agen factories every year.

history

Antiquity

The Agen area was probably inhabited since the Neolithic Age. The place was around 200 BC. Chr. A Celtic settlement of Nitiobrogen that of the Celts Aginnum (or Agennum was called). 107 BC BC it was perhaps the scene of the battle of Agen , in which a Roman army under the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus suffered a defeat against the Tigurines ; however, this military conflict may also have taken place near Lake Geneva . Around 56 BC Chr. The settlement was during the Gallic War of Julius Caesar conquered.

The Celtic oppidum was originally located on the hill known as the Ermitage in the north of Agens , but the Nitiobrogen moved it to the plain during the Roman era , where the Garonne and its tributary Mass enclosed a triangular area. With the establishment of the Civitas Aginnensis in Aquitaine by Emperor Augustus , their empire definitely came to an end. According to recent excavations, the prosperous settlement during the imperial era was not only located in the south of today's city, as long assumed, but also extended to the north of the modern city. Remains of the temples of Diana and Jupiter and an amphitheater remain from the Roman era, as well as altars, statues, mosaics and inscriptions.

St. Caprasius is said to have been the first Christian bishop of Agen and, like St. Fides , suffered martyrdom in Agen under Emperor Diocletian in 303 AD . The diocese of Agen was founded in the 4th century . At that time the city was the second most important in the province of Aquitania secunda . To 407 fell Vandals in Agenais one that followed for about 418 almost a century, long owned by the Visigoths was.

Middle Ages and Modern Times

In 509 Clovis conquered Agen, which consequently fell to the Merovingians . In 843, 853 and 922 it was attacked by the Normans . Since the 12th century, the city had a certain autonomy and some freedoms and privileges repeatedly confirmed. The citizens became fairly independent of their bishop, although he was nominally their overlord along with the king. The city was administered by consuls, albeit oligarchically rather than democratically. During the wars against the Cathars at the beginning of the 13th century, Agen changed hands several times. Arnaud IV. De Rovinha , who served as Bishop of Agen from 1209 to 1228, was an ardent supporter of Simon de Montfort . As a result of the war, the Cathars were cruelly persecuted as heretics by a newly established inquisition tribunal in Agen .

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the city was heavily disputed between the English and the French. In the initial phase of the Hundred Years War it came to the English through the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 , but after its break it was conquered and recaptured twice. In 1372 the Duke of Anjou set up his headquarters here. Although he lost the city the next year, he was able to take it again in 1374. While some of the towns and castles of Agenais were temporarily under English rule, Agen remained almost permanently in French hands until the end of the war (1453). In 1453 the English finally withdrew completely from the Agenais.

In 1463 Agen was hit by a plague epidemic . Civil revolts broke out in 1481 and 1514, as the city's government was in the hands of the consuls, who often abused their power. These tumults were suppressed and for a long time only members of the upper class managed the commune.

The Reformation also found supporters in Agen, but the city as a whole remained decidedly Catholic and was in contrast to the neighboring Nérac , which was a stronghold of the Huguenots . These seized Agens in 1562 and 1569, but were driven out both times by Blaise de Monluc , who fought in the area in his last years until his death (1577). Military occupation by the King of Navarre, later Henry IV , Agen was handed over to Biron in 1578 and was under the control of this marshal and that of his successor Matignon for the next ten years . In 1589 the citizens of Agens sided with the Holy League and recognized the Cardinal of Bourbon as King of France. They had to fight against their Seneschal Saint-Chamarand, who sided with the King of Navarre, who fell in an attack on the city in 1591. It was not until 1594 that they recognized Henry IV as king.

During the uprising of Nérac and other cities in 1621, Agen remained King Louis XIII. loyal to. In 1628 and 1631 plague epidemics occurred again here. The introduction of the salt tax led to unrest in 1635. The outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) was enthusiastically received in Agen and it became the capital of the Lot-et-Garonne department.

Attractions

  • Musée Municipal des Beaux Arts with paintings by Goya including El Globo , Sisley's September morning , one of Corot's most beautiful landscapes, The Pond of Avray , as well as works by Francis Picabia and Gustave Caillebotte . The jewel of the collection is the marble Vénus du mas , a statue from the 1st century BC discovered nearby in 1876 . Chr.
  • Agen canal bridge (580 meters long, 23 arches), built by Jean-Baptiste de Baudre between 1839 and 1842
  • Ducourneau Theater by architect Guillaume Tronchet, completed in 1906
  • Agen Cathedral , built in Romanesque and Gothic styles

  • town hall

  • Musée Municipal des Beaux Arts

  • Canal bridge

  • Ducourneau Theater

Personalities

Town twinning

literature

Web links

Commons : Agen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Agen - climate tables
  2. ↑ Agen - Plums
  3. ↑ Caesar . De bello Gallico 1, 7, 4; 1, 12, 7; 1, 14, 7; Titus Livius , Ab urbe condita librorum periochae 65; among others
  4. ^ So Friedrich Münzer : Cassius 62. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE). Volume III, 2, Stuttgart 1899, column 1738.
  5. ^ M. Klefstad-Sillonville:  Aginnum (Agen), Lot-et-Garonne, France . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .