is a city and
Commune of southern
France , ''
Préfecture '' (capital) of the
Gard ''
Département ''.
The city derives its name from
Nemausus 'From The Source'. The contemporary symbol and shield of the city of Nîmes, a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription 'COLNEM' or short version of 'Colonia Nemausus', is a reference to the colony of Roman legions veterans in Caesar's Nile campaigns. At the end of fifteen years of soldiering, the veterans were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nîmes.
Nîme was located on the
Via Domitia , a
Roman Road constructed in
118 BC , connecting
Italy to
Spain .
The site on which the built-up area of Nimes has become established in the course of centuries is part of the edge of the alluvial plain of the Vistrenque River which buts up against low hills: to the North-East, the Mr. Duplan; to the South-West, Montaury; to the West, Mt. Cavalier and the knoll of Canteduc.
The site know as Serre Paradis belongs to the New Stone Age (Neolithic). This deposit reveals the presence of semi-nomadic cultivators in the period 4000 to 3500 BC on the future emplacement of Nimes. The population of the site increased during the thousand-year period of the Bronze Age.
The menhir of Courbessac (or La Poudriere) stands in a field, near the airstrip. This limestone monolith of over 2 metres in height dates to about 2500 BC, and must be considered as the oldest monument of Nimes.
The Bronze Age has left us traces of a village of huts and branches.
The Warrior of Grezan is considered to be the most ancient indigenous sculpture in southern Gaule. The hill named Mt. Cavalier was the site of the early oppidum: city which gave birth to the city. In the
3rd to
2nd Century BC a surrounding wall was built, closed at the summit by a dry-stone tower, which was later incorporated into the masonry of The Tour Magne. The Wars of Gaule and the fall of Marseilles (
49 BC ) allowed Nîmes to regain its autonomy under Rome.
It was about
50 BC that Nimes became a Roman colony, as witness the earliest coins which bear the abbreviation NEM. COL, "Colony of Nemausus". Some years later a sanctuary and other constructions connected with the fountain were raised on the site. Nimes was already under Roman influence, though it was Augustus who made the city the capital of Narbonne province, and gave it all its glory.
Augustus gave the town a ring of ramparts six kilometres long, reinforced by fourteen towers, with gates of which two remain today, the Porte Auguste and the Porte de France. The city had an estimated population of 60,000. He had the Forum built and perhaps also the aqueduct. Nothing remains of certain monuments, the existence of which is known from inscriptions or architectural fragments found in the course of excavations. It is know that the town had civil basilica, a curia, a gymnasium and perhaps a circus. The amphitheatre dates from the end of the
2nd Century AD. The family of
Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius was originated in Nemausus.
This prosperity was to stay with the town until the end of the
3rd Century . Already there was risk of invasion, and the decadence of Rome allowed the barbarian hordes to be even more audacious. Visigoths, Burgunds, and Ostrogoths came one after the other to pillage the riches of the Empire.
After the Gallo-Roman period, in the days of invasion and decadence, the Christian Church, already established in Gaule since the
1st Century AD, appeared be the last refuge open to civilization. Remarkably organized and directed by men of great worth, it took bit by bit a preponderant place in the march of time.
After the barbarian invasions the population had to face incursions by Moors from Spain (AD
710 ). This occupation, strange to say, was beneficial for the Nimes region. It came to an end in
754 under Pepin the Short. The town, ruined by so many troubles and invasions was now only a shadow of the opulent Gallo-Roman city. The local powers installed themselves in the amphitheatre.
Carolingian rule brought relative peace with it, but feudal times in the
12th Century brought local troubles which lasted until the days of St.Louis. During this period Nimes was jointly administered by a lay power resident in the old amphitheatre, where lived the Viguier and the Knights of the Arena, and the religious power based in the Bishop's place complex, around the cathedral, its chapter and the Bishop's house; meanwhile the city was represented by four Consuls who sat in the Maison Carrée.
Despite incessant feudal squabbling, Nimes saw a certain progress both in commerce and industry as well as in stockbreeding and associated activities.
After the last effort by Raymond VII of Toulouse, St. Louis managed to base Royal power in the region which became Languedoc. Nimes thus entered finally into the hands of the King of France.
During the
14th and
15th Centuries the Rhone Valley underwent an uninterrupted series of invasions which ruined the economy and brought about famine. Customs were forgotten, there were religious troubles and epidemics, all of which affected the city. Nimes, which was one of the Protestant strongholds, felt the full force of repression and fratricidal confrontments which continued until the middle of the
17th Century , adding to the misery of periodic outbreaks of plague.
In the middle of the 17th century Nimes experienced a period of prosperity. Population growth caused the town to expand, and slum housing to be replaced. Also to this period dates the reconstruction of Notre-Dame-Saint-Castor, the Bishop's palace and numerous mansions (Hotels). This 'renaissance' strengthened the manufacturing and industrial vocation of the city, the population rising from 21000 to 50000 inhabitants.
Also in this period the Fountain gardens were laid out, the areas surrounding the Maison Carrée and the Amphitheatre were cleared, whilst the entire population benefited from the atmosphere of prosperity.
Following the European economic crisis which hit Nimes with full force, the Revolutionary period awoke slumbering demons of political and religious antagonism. The White Terror added to natural calamities and economic recession, produced murder, pillage and arson until
1815 . Order was however restored in the course of the
19th Century , and Nimes became the metropolis of Bas-Languedoc, diversifying its industry towards new kinds of activity. At the same time the surrounding countryside adapted to market needs and shared in the general increase of wealth.
Nimes is already prepared to face the oncoming century and, having withstood the burden of two world wars, on the eve of the third millennium, is perhaps on the threshold of a new Golden Age.
Nîmes may have been one of the richest and finest Roman cities of Gaule. Several important remains of the
Roman Empire can still be seen in and around Nîmes:
- The elliptical Roman Amphitheatre , of the 1st or 2nd Century AD, is the best-preserved Roman arena in France. It was filled with medieval housing, when its walls served as Rampart s, but they were cleared under Napoleon . It is still used today as a Bull Fighting and concert arena.
- The Maison Carrée (''Square House''), a small Roman Temple dedicated to sons of Agrippa was built c. 19 BC . It is one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere.
- The 18th-century ''Jardins de la Fontaine'' (Gardens of the Fountain)
- The nearby Pont Du Gard , also built by Agrippa, is a well-preserved Aqueduct that used to carry water across the small Gardon river valley.
- The nearby Mont Cavalier is crowned by the ''Tour Magne'' ("Great Tower"), a ruined Roman tower.
Later monuments include:
- The Cathedral (Saint Castor), occupying, it is believed, the site of the temple of Augustus, is partly Romanesque and partly Gothic in style.
There is modern architecture at Nîmes too:
Norman Foster conceived the ''Carré d'art'' (1986), a museum of modern art and ''mediatheque'';
Jean Nouvel the Nemausus, a
Post-modern residential ensemble, and
Kisho Kurokawa a building in the form of a hemicycle to reflect the Amphitheatre.
Tree-shaded boulevards trace the foundations of its former
City Wall s.
Nîmes is historically known for its textiles.
Denim , the fabric of blue
Jeans , derives its name from this city (''
Serge de Nîmes)''.
The
Asteroid 51 Nemausa was named after Nîmes, where it was discovered in
1858 .
Nîmes twinned with:
- Preston , Lancashire , England , since 1955 .
- Verona , Italy , since 1960 .
- Braunschweig , Lower Saxony , Germany , since 1962 .
- Prague , Czech Republic , since 1967 .
- Frankfurt (Oder) , Germany , since 1976 .
- Salamanca , Spain , since 1979 .
- Rishon LeZion , Israel , since 1986 .
- Meknes , Morocco , since 2005 .
