Capestang (; oc, Cabestanh) is a
commune in the
Hérault department in southern France.
History
In
antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
, the nearby marshes were crossed by the 1500-metre-long
Roman Pont Serme
The Pont Serme or Pons Selinus, later called the Pons Septimus, was a Roman bridge of the Via Domitia in Hérault, southern France. The approximately 1500 m long viaduct crossed the wide marshes of the Orb and the Etang de Capestang west o ...
.
[Colin O’Connor: Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press 1993, , p. 99] The bridge carried the
Via Domitia
The Via Domitia was the first Roman road built in Gaul, to link Italy and Hispania through Gallia Narbonensis, across what is now Southern France. The route that the Romans regularised and paved was ancient when they set out to survey it, and ...
as it neared Narbonne on its southward strategic journey to Spain. The town's name derives from caput stagnum - referring to the fact that the town sat at the head of a large etang (a large natural saline and shallow lake - very common in the area and the source of wealth and sustenance - salt, fish, game birds.)
The Archbishops of Narbonne built their summer residence in the town - substantial vestiges remain, especially of the palace wherein a 15th-century ceiling - and there is an impressive collegial church (12th to 15th centuries with earlier vestiges) whose massive tower dominates the surrounding countryside to this day.
The canal du Midi also passes just to the north of the town as it winds its way from the Aude into the Herault.
The crusading armies passed the town after the sack of Béziers in 1209 en route for Carcassonne - and in 1356 the Black Prince reached the eastern extreme of his extensive chevauche, having raised the short siege of Narbonne, where he burnt the bourg, and having allowed his troops to damage the neighbouring village of Ouveillan. Capestang, like Cuxac d' Aude and other villages, may have paid to be spared the fate of Ouveillan - or it may have had more robust defences or have been saved by intelligence of the impending arrival of a large army coming from Beaucaire.
There is a plaque in the square to resistance hostages shot by the SS on the 9 August 1944 (3 days after DDay).
Population
See also
*
Communes of the Hérault department
*
Capestang bridge :
The Capestang bridge over the Canal du Midi at PK 189 at Capestang
Capestang (; oc, Cabestanh) is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France.
History
In antiquity, the nearby marshes were crossed by the 1500-metre-long Roman Po ...
References
Communes of Hérault
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