Narbonne

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a town of France; department of Audé, on the La Robine branch of the Canal du Midi; 8 miles from the Mediterranean and 93 E. S. E. of Toulouse. The removal since 1865 Austria and Sardinia, and Napoleon of the fortifications has been an improvement, but the place remains dirty and Victor Emanuel. The allies defeated 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 city hall, 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. It has varied industries, including the production of leather, wines, and tools. Narbonne is the Narbo Martius of the Romans, their earliest colony (118 b. c.) beyond the Alps; and was a place of great commercial it flourished greatly, its schools for a importance. Under Tiberius long time rivalling those of Rome. About 309 A. D. it became the capital of Gallia Norbonensis, and had its capitol, forum, theater, aqueducts, triumphal arches, etc. In it was taken by the Visigoths, 719 by the Saracens, from whom it was in 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 deteriorated. Varro and Montfaucon were natives. Pop. about 28,000.