Bitter memories

Saint-Nazaire Cathedral. The original VIIth church was destroyed by Vandals and this mid-Gothic one dates from the XIVth C. The altar is quite different from Northern ones and from the Spanish ones I found. The rose window is 10m across and the vaulted nave 14m wide, reaching a height of 32m.

Like the Chelsea Pensioners Hospital, the Romans established a town on the road that linked Provence with Iberia for veterans in 36–35 BC, called Colonia Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum.
They built on a location used since Neolithic times, before the Celts arrived. Béziers dates from 575 BC, making it older than Agde (Greek Agathe Tyche, founded in 525 BC) and a bit younger than Marseille (Greek Massalia, founded in 600 BC). The inhabitants have been known as Biterrois ever since, and have every right to be bitter as everyone seems to think they can boss the locals around.

We have seen the Catholic Church imposing its will by sanctioning territorial ambition, and a similar event followed Louis Napoléon's coup d'état in 1851, when troops fired on Republican protesters in Béziers. Those not shot then were captured and either condemned to death or transported to French Guiana. In the Place de la Révolution, outside the Cathedral and the old Palais de Justice, Jean Antoine Injalbert carved a monument to the 3200 deported souls. The bust on top enscribed RF stands for Republique Francaise, the woman represents the failed rebels and the bust is of a former mayor who died trying to escape.Read more