Narbonne

Narbonne, a town in the French department of Aude, on the La Robine branch of the Canal du Midi, 8 miles from the Mediterranean and 93 by rail ESE. of Toulouse. The removal since 1865 of the fortifications has been an improvement, but the place remains dirty and unattractive, with only three noteworthy buildings. These are the Romanesque church of St Paul (1229); the quondam cathedral of St Just (1272-1332), only the fine Gothic choir of which, 131 feet high, has been completed; and the former archbishop's palace, now the hôtel-de-ville, in one of whose three old towers Louis XIII. in 1642 signed the order to arrest Cinq Mars, and in which are a good museum, a library, and a picture-gallery. The white heather-honey of Narbonne maintains its ancient celebrity; the wine is chiefly used for blending purposes. Pop. (1872) 14,150; (1891) 27,150. Narbonne is the Nurbo Martius of the Romans, their earliest colony (118 B.C.) beyond the Alps; and, situated on the high-road to Spain and the basin of the Garonne, was a place of great commercial importance. Under Tiberius it flourished greatly, its schools for a long time rivaling those of Rome. About 309 A.D. it became the capital of Gallia Narbonensis, and had its capitol, forum, theatre, aqueducts, triumphal arches, &c. In 412 it was taken by the Visigoths, in 719 by the Saracens, from whom it was recovered by Pepin in 759, to fall just a century later to the arms of the Northmen. During the 11th and 12th centuries it was a prosperous manufacturing city, but subsequently it decayed. Varro and Mont-faucon were natives.