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80-527: La Grande-Motte ( French pronunciation: [la ɡʁɑ̃d mɔt] ; Occitan : La Mota Granda ) is a commune in the Hérault département in Occitanie in southern France . It is a popular seaside resort and port near Montpellier , built in the 1960s and 1970s. La Grande-Motte is characterized by homogeneous architecture; many of the prominent buildings are pyramidal in form. With 2 million tourists per year it

160-542: A common origin (see Occitano-Romance languages ). The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Catalan troubadours such as Guerau de Cabrera , Guilhem de Bergadan, Guilhem de Cabestany, Huguet de Mataplana , Raimon Vidal de Besalú, Cerverí de Girona , Formit de Perpinhan, and Jofre de Foixà wrote in Occitan. At

240-636: A consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the Ibero-Romance languages (e.g. betacism ; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; - ch - in place of - it -), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. /h/ in place of /f/ ; loss of /n/ between vowels; intervocalic -r- and final -t/ch in place of medieval - ll -). There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there

320-682: A cultural hub, with several museums, monuments, theatres and libraries. The modern city is the centre of an urban agglomeration including, among others, the municipality of Rende , where the University of Calabria is located. Situated at the confluence of two historical rivers, the Busento and the Crati , Cosenza stands 238 m above sea level in a valley between the Sila and the coastal range of mountains. The old town, overshadowed by its Swabian castle, descends to

400-514: A dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people. Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping. Cosenza The ancient town is the seat of the Cosentian Academy , one of the oldest academies of philosophical and literary studies in Italy and Europe . To this day, Cosenza remains

480-533: A green environment. The architect of the project, Jean Balladur, drew inspiration from pre-Columbian pyramids such as Teotihuacan, Mexico; and from modernist architecture in Brazil, especially the work of architect Oscar Niemeyer . Balladur developed the master plan for the seaside resort on a site of 750 hectares comprising 450 hectares of land and 300 hectares of wetland. The plan included principles for settlement, with guidelines for each plot, including zones for camping,

560-446: A narrow arch, and a wooden choir installed in 1635. The exact origins of the Duomo ( Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta ) are unknown; it was probably built during the first half of the eleventh century. An earthquake destroyed the cathedral on 9 June 1184, and rebuilding was completed by 1222, when the cathedral was consecrated by Emperor Frederick II . At some point during the first half of

640-729: A part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups: According to this view, Catalan is an ausbau language that became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group. Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct. A sociolect of the Gascon dialect spoken by Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Gascony . It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts of Hebrew loanwords. It went extinct after World War 2 with

720-492: A plebiscite proclaimed the annexation of Calabria to the new Kingdom of Italy. Founded in 1448, the Church of San Domenico combines Medieval and Renaissance architectural elements. Its most interesting feature is the rose window defined by 16 little tuff columns. The wooden portal (1614) is inlaid with floral motifs, figures of saints, and coats of arms. Inside the church are works by the sanfilese painter Antonio Granata, such as

800-463: A prisoner at his father's command. Louis III of Naples and Margaret of Savoy married in the castle and they both settled there in 1432. All signs of the ancient Saracen structure have now disappeared. In the internal cloister, the modifications made by the Bourbons in order to convert it into a prison can also be seen. The entrance-hall is covered by ogival arches with engraved brackets. A wide corridor

880-540: A second Occitan immigration of this period was assimilated by the similar Navarro-Aragonese language , which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings of Aragon . In the 14th century, Occitan across the whole southern Pyrenean area fell into decay and became largely absorbed into Navarro-Aragonese first and Castilian later in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423, Pamplona 's boroughs unified). Gascon-speaking communities were called to move in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in

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960-538: A single written standard form, nor does it have official status in France, home to most of its speakers. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, whereas others are based on a particular dialect. These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France, as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects. According to

1040-410: A town centre, a marina, and a city park. The landscaper Pierre Pillet collaborated on the project, selecting plant species that were tolerant of the marine climate. Jean Balladur imagined a green city. Parking was placed no more than 600 meters away from the beach, to allow visitors to walk there, but keeping all development away from the beach itself. The project incorporated large open spaces surrounding

1120-469: A unitary language, as it lacks an official written standard . Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the Rhaeto-Romance languages , Franco-Provençal , Astur-Leonese , and Aragonese ), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classic dialect continuum that changes gradually along any path from one side to

1200-608: A written account in Occitan from Pamplona centered on the burning of borough San Nicolas from 1258, while the History of the War of Navarre by Guilhem Anelier (1276), albeit written in Pamplona, shows a linguistic variant from Toulouse . Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from

1280-410: Is "probably not more divergent from Occitan overall than Gascon is". There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects. Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups: Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups: In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as

1360-614: Is a Romance language spoken in Southern France , Monaco , Italy 's Occitan Valleys , as well as Spain 's Val d'Aran in Catalonia ; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania . It is also spoken in Calabria ( Southern Italy ) in a linguistic enclave of Cosenza area (mostly Guardia Piemontese ). Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as

1440-415: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Occitan language Italy Occitan ( English: / ˈ ɒ k s ɪ t ən , - t æ n , - t ɑː n / ; Occitan pronunciation: [utsiˈta, uksiˈta] ), also known as lenga d'òc ( Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɒ ˈðɔ(k)] ; French : langue d'oc ) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to as Provençal ,

1520-460: Is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility . Gascon is the most divergent, and descriptions of the main features of Occitan often consider Gascon separately. Max Wheeler notes that "probably only its copresence within the French cultural sphere has kept [Gascon] from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but

1600-504: Is a wooden statue of Saint Francis of Paola; while on the left side of the nave, on another altar, is a wooden statue of San Michele Arcangelo. The Madonna with Child in Glory and Saints Paul and Luke (1551) was painted by Pietro Negroni . In the apse, a sixteenth-century triptych made by Cristoforo Faffeo represents the Madonna and Child in glory with saints Catherine and Sebastian . At the back of

1680-615: Is dominated by some fleur-de-lis from the House of Anjou coat of arms . They are engraved on the ribbed Hohenstaufen arches. The church of Sant'Agostino , also known as the Spirito Santo , was built in 1507 by the Augustinians . The original portal has several inscriptions in Gothic characters. The interior has a series of paintings from the eighteenth century. Further on a narrow street leads to

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1760-470: Is home to a wooden seventeenth-century crucifix, the altar of the Madonna della Febbre and the statue of the Madonna with Child , in marble, dating to the sixteenth century. The sacristy has a painted wooden ceiling, a wooden armadio representing episodes from the Passion of Christ, and paintings of saints and Franciscan friars. The stone arch is characterized by the painting of St. Francis of Paola , while on

1840-510: Is one of the favorite resorts of the French. On 24 August 2024, the Beth Yaacov synagogue was targeted in an explosion and attempted arson attack. A police officer was injured. The suspect, who wore a Palestinian flag , was later arrested in Nimes . French president Emmanuel Macron characterized the incident as "a terrorist act". The suspect was a 33-year old man, originally from Algeria . Two of

1920-413: Is the other native language. Up to seven million people in France understand the language, whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921. In 1860 , Occitan speakers represented more than 39% of the whole French population (52% for francophones proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s and fewer than 7% in 1993. Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being

2000-462: Is worthier and better suited for romances and pastourelles ; but [the language] from Limousin is of greater value for writing poems and cançons and sirventés ; and across the whole of the lands where our tongue is spoken, the literature in the Limousin language has more authority than any other dialect, wherefore I shall use this name in priority. The term Provençal , though implying a reference to

2080-518: The òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("this"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud ("this [is] it"). Old Catalan and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc ( òc ). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the Latin sic , "thus [it is], [it

2160-622: The Romance of Flamenca (13th century), the Song of the Albigensian Crusade (1213–1219?), Daurel e Betó (12th or 13th century), Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur (11th century) and Tomida femina (9th or 10th century). Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours ( trobadors ) and trobairitz : At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe. It

2240-582: The Gascon language ) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken (in the Val d'Aran ). Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be

2320-636: The Hellenic influences of the Ionian colonies. It was in this province that the Battle of Pandosia was fought, in which a small Italic army composed of Brettii and Lucanians defeated the uncle of Alexander the Great , who was known as Alexander of Epirus . Over the centuries, Cosenza maintained a distinctive character, that marked it out among the cities of the region. Under Emperor Augustus , it became an important stopover on

2400-461: The UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages , four of the six major dialects of Occitan (Provençal, Auvergnat , Limousin and Languedocien) are considered severely endangered , whereas the remaining two ( Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine ) are considered definitely endangered . The name Occitan comes from the term lenga d'òc ("language of òc "), òc being the Occitan word for yes. While

2480-574: The Val d'Aran cited c.  1000 ), but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349). While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the early 13th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, the Navarro-Aragonese , both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquests south to Zaragoza , Huesca and Tudela between 1118 and 1134. It resulted that

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2560-772: The Visitation , the Circumcision , the Adoration of the Shepherds , and the Adoration of the Magi . In the apse is the altarpiece Transit of the Virgin (1570). The cymatium houses a painting portraying the Coronation of the Virgin , while at the base of the two columns are paintings of two unidentified saints that are attributed to Michele Curia, the "Master of Montecalvario". The wooden choir dates to

2640-552: The Apostoli, of the Salvatore, and of the Madonna, as well as a splendid iconostasis . In the modern part of Cosenza, in an area stretching from the pedestrianized Corso Mazzini to Piazza Bilotti, lies the open-air "Museo MAB" ( Museo all'aperto Bilotti ). The museum hosts a wide range of modern art sculptures that stand in the street for residents and tourists. The sculptures were donated to

2720-537: The Bourbons. After the proclamation in 1799 of the short-lived Parthenopean Republic and a vain resistance, the town was finally occupied for the Bourbons by Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo 's Lazzari . Cardinal Ruffo was native of the province of Cosenza. From 1806 to 1815, Cosentians fought hard against French domination. Cruel suppressions characterised that period and it was a cradle of the Carbonari secret societies. In 1813,

2800-592: The Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living in Nice , who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew. All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French,

2880-646: The Roman route via Popilia , which connected Calabria to Sicily . During the Roman Empire, the town benefited from municipal privileges. In 410 AD, Alaric I , king of the Visigoths , sacked the city of Rome , becoming the first foreign enemy to capture the city in more than 800 years. Alaric amassed a great amount of treasure during his conquest of Rome. According to the historian Jordanes , after sacking Rome Alaric headed south with his troops, advancing easily until reaching

2960-503: The Virgins" stands in via Gaetano Argento. The external part of the main entrance is made of decorated tuff, while the internal part is carved of wood. The convent contains a sixteenth-century painting of the Annunciation . In front of it, is the thirteenth-century Madonna del Pilerio attributed to Giovanni da Taranto , while on the walls are four other anonymous sixteenth-century paintings:

3040-508: The altar is a wooden choir built in 1679 by M. Domenico Costanzo da Rogliano. On the wall of the sacristy are remains of frescoes dating back to 1550–1600. On the vault are some pastels representing scenes from the life of the Saint from Paola. The small church of San Salvatore serves the parish that professes the Byzantine-Albanian faith. Inside the nave are a wooden ceiling, some frescoes of

3120-533: The ancient structure of the church. In the 1940s the work was finally completed. The tomb of Isabella of Aragon , wife of king Philip III of France is in the transept. A long aisle links the Duomo to the palace of the archbishop, the Palazzo Arcivescovile , which houses an Immacolata by Luca Giordano . One can also see a rare and precious Stauroteca . A Stauroteca is a relic containing fragments of wood from

3200-462: The area of Cosenza, where he died. No one is certain how this happened: Some believe he contracted a disease that took his life, while others feel that his death came from an attack by enemy forces. In any case, his troops honored their king by burying him in a tomb in Cosenza. His burial place is said to have been at the confluence of the Busento and Crathis rivers. A horde of slaves were used to divert

3280-475: The canvas depicting the Madonna of the Rosary between Saints Dominic and Agnese da Montepulciano preserved in the ancient choir used today as a sacristy in the church (late eighteenth century). The high altar is made of polychrome marble (1767). In the transept, there is a Deposition and a San Vincenzo Ferreri (late eighteenth century, anonymous). The sacristy is noted for its ribbed vault, a double lancet window with

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3360-452: The cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or, for that matter, in a home), and is likely to only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and, of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. Occitan speakers, as a result of generations of systematic suppression and humiliation (see Vergonha ), seldom use

3440-573: The city by the Italian-American entrepreneur and art collector, Carlo Bilotti. They include Saint George and the Dragon by Salvador Dalí , Hector and Andromache by Giorgio de Chirico , "the Bronzes" by Sacha Sosno , The Bather by Emilio Greco , The Cardinal by Giacomo Manzù , and various marble sculptures by Pietro Consagra . Cosenza is home to Serie B football team Cosenza Calcio . Cosenza

3520-406: The cross of Christ. It generally has a rectangular and flat rectangular cross or rectangular tee with cruciform recipe used to guard the relic. It was a gift from Emperor Frederick II to the Duomo upon consecration. The work was produced in workshops of the royal goldsmiths, better known as "Tiraz", in a cultural environment blending Arabic, Byzantine, and Western cultural elements. The "Convent of

3600-485: The early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending from San Sebastian to the river Bidasoa , where they settled down. The language variant they used was different from the ones in Navarre, i.e. a Béarnese dialect of Gascon. Gascon remained in use in this area far longer than in Navarre and Aragon, until the 19th century, thanks mainly to the fact that Donostia and Pasaia maintained close ties with Bayonne . Though it

3680-453: The early eleventh century. In the attempt to escape the devastation, the population left the town and sheltered on the surrounding hills where they built some small hamlets (still denominated as, casali ). By the first half of the eleventh century, Lombard Calabria became a feudal dukedom of the Normans , with Cosenza as the capital. The town soon rebelled against the rule of Roger Guiscard and

3760-414: The eighteenth century the church was covered by a baroque superstructure that obliterated the original structure and its works of art. In the first half of the nineteenth century the façade was transformed in neo-gothic style, which completely changed its character. At the end of the nineteenth century, Archbishop Camillo Sorgente entrusted restoration work to Pisanti, who recovered the original old arches and

3840-890: The end of the 11th century, the Franks , as they were called at the time, started to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula through the Ways of St. James via Somport and Roncesvalles , settling in various locations in the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon enticed by the privileges granted them by the Navarrese kings . They settled in large groups, forming ethnic boroughs where Occitan was used for everyday life, in Pamplona , Sangüesa , and Estella-Lizarra , among others. These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities that tended not to assimilate with

3920-522: The geographical territory in which Occitan is spoken is surrounded by regions in which other Romance languages are used, external influences may have influenced its origin and development. Many factors favored its development as its own language. Catalan in Spain's northern and central Mediterranean coastal regions and the Balearic Islands is closely related to Occitan, sharing many linguistic features and

4000-476: The language at the beginning of the 13th century by Catalan troubadour Raimon Vidal de Besalú(n) in his Razós de trobar : La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen. The French language

4080-456: The language in the presence of strangers, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes , which means northerners ). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders. Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced in Béarn because of

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4160-474: The language. Following the pattern of language shift , most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called Occitanists ) have attempted, in particular with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the Calandretas ), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is thought to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in

4240-516: The larger collection of dialects grouped under the name langues d'oïl ) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline occurred during the French Revolution , in which diversity of language was considered a threat. In 1903, the four Gospels ( "Lis Evangèli" , i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were translated into Provençal as spoken in Cannes and Grasse. The translation

4320-505: The last speakers being elderly Jews in Bayonne . About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French. Judeo-Provençal was a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews in Provence . The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century. The least attested of

4400-772: The latter term for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal . One of the oldest written fragments of the language found dates back to 960, shown here in italics mixed with non-italicized Latin: De ista hora in antea non decebrà Ermengaus filius Eldiarda Froterio episcopo filio Girberga ne Raimundo filio Bernardo vicecomite de castello de Cornone ... no·l li tolrà ni no·l li devedarà ni no l'en decebrà  ... nec societatem non aurà , si per castellum recuperare non o fa , et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo lo tornarà , per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundus l'en comonrà . Carolingian litanies ( c.  780 ), though

4480-643: The leader sang in Latin , were answered to in Old Occitan by the people ( Ora pro nos ; Tu lo juva ). Other famous pieces include the Boecis , a 258-line-long poem written entirely in the Limousin dialect of Occitan between the year 1000 and 1030 and inspired by Boethius 's The Consolation of Philosophy ; the Waldensian La nobla leyczon (dated 1100), Cançó de Santa Fe ( c.  1054 –1076),

4560-454: The main buildings. Squares and parks, and sports and leisure services were also planned for the new city. Public and private beaches, the marina and water sports facilities complement the design. The Palais de Congrès (conference centre), a casino and the church of St. Augustine are also key elements. Sports facilities available in La Grande-Motte include: sailing, jet skiing, swimming and water skiing. This Hérault geographical article

4640-415: The modern Occitan-speaking area. After Frédéric Mistral 's Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. According to Joseph Anglade , a philologist and specialist of medieval literature who helped impose the then archaic term Occitan as the standard name, the word Lemosin was first used to designate

4720-422: The negative sense: for example, "Vous n'avez pas de frères?" "Si, j'en ai sept." ("You have no brothers?" "But yes, I have seven."). The name "Occitan" was attested around 1300 as occitanus , a crossing of oc and aquitanus ( Aquitanian ). For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan ) were referred to as Limousin or Provençal , after the names of two regions lying within

4800-488: The officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran. Across history, the terms Limousin ( Lemosin ), Languedocien ( Lengadocian ), Gascon , in addition to Provençal ( Provençal , Provençau or Prouvençau ) later have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan; nowadays, the term "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence , in southeast France. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish , Occitan does not have

4880-424: The other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects: The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages (e.g. nasal vowels ; loss of final consonants; initial cha/ja- instead of ca/ga- ; uvular ⟨r⟩ ; the front-rounded sound /ø/ instead of a diphthong, /w/ instead of /l/ before

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4960-431: The predominantly Basque -speaking general population. Their language became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility, and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from the early 13th century to the late 14th century. Written administrative records were in a koiné based on the Languedocien dialect from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features. Evidence survives of

5040-450: The province of Cosenza, most notably Rossano , refused to acknowledge the new governments of the Ostrogoths. Instead, they used their good fortune of having strong city walls and small Roman garrisons to hold out for centuries as semi-independent enclaves of the still extant Eastern Roman Empire in Italy. Bitterly disputed between the Saracens and the Lombards , the town was destroyed, then rebuilt around 988; only to be ravaged again in

5120-555: The province's history (a late addition to the Kingdom of France), though even there the language is little spoken outside the homes of the rural elderly. The village of Artix is notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language. The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16 million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people in France , Italy , Spain and Monaco . In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian , which

5200-466: The region of Provence , historically was used for Occitan as a whole, for "in the eleventh, the twelfth, and sometimes also the thirteenth centuries, one would understand under the name of Provence the whole territory of the old Provincia romana Gallia Narbonensis and even Aquitaine ". The term first came into fashion in Italy . Currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitan, using

5280-425: The river Crati. The modern city lies to the north, beyond the Busento, on level ground. Almost completely surrounded by mountains, Cosenza is subject to a microclimate scarcely influenced by the effects of the Mediterranean Sea. It experiences cold winters and hot summers. The ancient Consentia ( Ancient Greek : Κωσεντία ), capital of the Italic tribe of the Brettii , was a bulwark of the Italic people against

5360-429: The seventeenth century. In the fifteenth century, at Palazzo Falvo the Renaissance was introduced at Cosenza, in the Giostra Vecchia . Here are located the church and monastery of Saint Francis of Assisi . The Latin cross plan has a nave and two aisles. In the nave stands the impressive high wooden altar built in 1700. Above it is a painting by Daniele Russo representing the Perdono d’Assisi (1618). The left aisle

5440-428: The sixteenth century the town experienced a period of expansion as the seat of the Viceroy of Calabria. At the same time its cultural importance grew thanks to the foundation of the Accademia Cosentina ; among its most renowned members were Bernardino Telesio , Aulo Gianni Parrasio , the Martirano brothers, Antonio Serra , and others. In 1707, the Austrians succeeded the Spanish in the Kingdom of Naples , followed by

5520-445: The so-called “Area of the Bandiera Brothers ”, the Vallone di Rovito . Here, the insurrectionist patriots of 1844 were executed by a firing squad. In the Arenella, are the church and monastery of Saint Francis of Paola (1510). The interior, with a single nave, houses the tomb of Ottavio Cesare Gaeta. On the right wall, are two eighteenth-century paintings: a Sacra Famiglia and Madonna con San Francesco e Sant’Agostino . On an altar

5600-402: The suspect's associates were also detained. About 200 police officers were involved in the manhunt. In August 2024, Stephan Rossignol was mayor. He had been in 2012 a UMP candidate for Hérault's 9th constituency . La Grande-Motte is twinned with: The resort town of La Grande-Motte was largely built between 1960 and 1975 on virgin beachfront dunes, and is artificially irrigated to create

5680-525: The term would have been in use orally for some time after the decline of Latin, as far as historical records show, the Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc in writing. In his De vulgari eloquentia , he wrote in Latin, "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("for some say òc , others sì , yet others say oïl "), thereby highlighting three major Romance literary languages that were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes",

5760-573: The town saw many rebels executed. The local riots of 1821 and 1837 heralded the Risorgimento . They were followed by the uprising of 15 March 1844, which reached its climax with the “noble folly” of the Bandiera Brothers , who were executed together with some of their followers in the Vallone di Rovito in Cosenza. In 1860, some months after the rapid and overwhelmingly heroic deeds of Garibaldi's troops,

5840-649: The uprising spread through the valley of the Crathis, the town was involved in the see-sawing fight between Angevins and the Crown of Aragon . In 1432, King Louis III of Anjou settled in the castle of Cosenza with his wife Margaret of Savoy . When he died untimely, in 1434, he was buried in the cathedral. In 1500, in spite of resistance, Cosenza was occupied by the Spanish army led by Captain Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba . During

5920-480: The walls are some frescoes dating to the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Castello Svevo ("Swabian" or Hohenstaufen Castle) was originally built by the Saracens on the ruins of the ancient Rocca Brutia, around the year 1000. The castle was restored by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor , adding the octagonal tower to the original structure, in 1239. According to tradition, his son Henry lived in this castle, as

6000-595: The water from the Busento, allowing them to dig a tomb large enough for Alaric, his horse, and all of the treasure amassed from his conquests in Rome. Once the tomb was completed, the river was returned to its bed and the tomb covered with water. Then, to ensure that no one would reveal this location to anyone, Alaric's troops killed all of the slaves. In the centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, several towns in

6080-444: Was done], etc.", such as Spanish sí , Eastern Lombard sé , Italian sì , or Portuguese sim . In modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish, sí is usually used as a response, although the language retains the word oi , akin to òc , which is sometimes used at the end of yes–no questions and also in higher register as a positive response. French uses si to answer "yes" in response to questions that are asked in

6160-478: Was given the official Roman Catholic Imprimatur by vicar general A. Estellon. The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (in which the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Frédéric Mistral, among others, was involved) was attenuated by World War I , when (in addition to the disruption caused by any major war) many Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades. Because

6240-559: Was recaptured only after a long siege. Subsequently, under the Hohenstaufen rule, the town became the seat of the Court of Calabria ( Curia Generale ). Emperor Frederick II had a particular interest in the town: he promoted construction and economic activities, organising an important annual fair. Subsequently, Cosenza fought bitterly against the Angevin domination, supported by the clergy. While

6320-543: Was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of southern France well into the 20th century, it is now spoken by about 100,000 people in France according to 2012 estimates. There is a movement in regions of France where Occitan was widely spoken to introduce educational programs to encourage young people in these regions to learn the language. According to the 1999 census, there were 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom were also native French speakers) and perhaps another million people with some exposure to

6400-511: Was the maternal language of the English queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and kings Richard I (who wrote troubadour poetry) and John . With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) decreed that the langue d'oïl (French – though at the time referring to the Francien language and not

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