112-776: Lambesc ( French pronunciation: [lɑ̃bɛsk] ) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southern France . Lambesc is located in the heart of Provence at the foot of the Côtes mountain range, near the Alpilles . The town has a strong historical and cultural heritage, being home to the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption,
224-421: A "realm of 100,000 steeples". Parishes lacked the municipal structures of post-Revolution communes. Usually, one contained only a building committee ( conseil de fabrique ), made up of villagers, which managed the buildings of the parish church, the churchyard, and the other numerous church estates and properties, and sometimes also provided help for the poor, or even administered parish hospitals or schools. Since
336-445: A category currently being phased out), made up of 33,327 communes (91.1 percent of all the communes of metropolitan France), and 52.86 million inhabitants, i.e., 86.7 percent of the population of metropolitan France. These impressive results however may hide a murkier reality. In rural areas, many communes have entered a community of communes only to benefit from government funds. Often the local syndicate has been turned officially into
448-530: A commune for their administration. This is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions: Furthermore, two regions without permanent habitation have no communes: In metropolitan France , the average area of a commune in 2004 was 14.88 square kilometres (5.75 sq mi). The median area of metropolitan France's communes at
560-537: A community of communes, the new community of communes in fact managing only the services previously managed by the syndicate, contrary to the spirit of the law which has established the new intercommunal structures to carry out a much broader range of activities than that undertaken by the old syndicates. Some say that, should government money transfers be stopped, many of these communities of communes would revert to their former status of syndicate, or simply completely disappear in places where there were no syndicates prior to
672-652: A deity of light or the sun (though this is disputed), similar to the Roman Apollo, his importance as a god of trade made him more comparable to Mercury, and Apollo was instead equated with the Celtic deity Belenus . Romans associated Mercury with the Germanic god Wotan , by interpretatio romana ; 1st-century Roman writer Tacitus identifies him as the chief god of the Germanic peoples. This association of Mercury and Wotan
784-574: A density of communes as France, and even there an extensive merger movement has started in the last 10 years. To better grasp the staggering number of communes in France, two comparisons can be made: First, of the original 15 member states of the European Union there are approximately 75,000 communes; France alone, which comprises 16 percent of the population of the EU-15, had nearly half of its communes. Second,
896-512: A market which took the name "Oppidum Amboliacense", which came to supply the Greek Massilia (1st and 2nd century BC). However, the perennial animosity, and a few violent conflicts between the Greeks of Marseilles and its hinterland natives led to the call from Marseilles for Roman intervention against the aboriginals. In 124 BC, Romans of Flaccus Flaccus occupied the whole territory, including
1008-756: A massive merger of communes, including by such distinguished voices as the president of the Cour des Comptes (the central auditing administrative body in France). In 1971 the Marcellin law offered support and money from the government to entice the communes to merge freely with each other, but the law had only a limited effect (only about 1,300 communes agreed to merge with others). Many rural communes with few residents struggle to maintain and manage basic services such as running water, garbage collection, or properly paved communal roads. Mergers, however, are not easy to achieve. One problem
1120-582: A much larger territory covering 449,964 km (173,732 sq mi) and yet is divided into only 290 municipalities ( kommuner ). Alsace has more than double the total number of municipalities of the Netherlands which, in spite of having a population nine times larger and a land area four times larger than Alsace, is divided into just 390 municipalities ( gemeenten ). Most of the communes in Alsace, along with those in other regions of France, have rejected
1232-525: A principality in 1688 and remained in the hands of the family of Lorraine de Brionne (1688–1789) until 1789, the year of the French Revolution . The outbreak of fever , which broke out in Marseille in 1720, terrorized the whole of Provence. Men were conscious of their impotence before it but took drastic measures to protect themselves. Lambesc's population was marked for more than a year as evidenced by
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#17328592801161344-498: A temple to Mercury . It remains as " Saint-Estève ", the remains of a Gallo-Roman rural settlement as well as another institution, organized and based on the farm in Grand Verger. The latter is divided into a pars urbana , a go fructuria. This site has been occupied since the 1st century AD. There are agricultural settlements, villas, and cemeteries, and the site index includes deposits of amphorae, dolia, and ceramics. We know from
1456-699: Is 35 km (14 sq mi); and in Germany , the majority of Länder have communes ( Gemeinden ) with a median area above 15 km (5.8 sq mi). Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of France's overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards. They usually group into
1568-589: Is a level of administrative division in the French Republic . French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy, or municipios in Spain. The UK equivalent are civil parishes . Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage
1680-599: Is also evidence of many trade partners, including the Etruscans , the Greeks of Massilia in particular, the other tribes of the federation Salyens or even of Liguria and Rome . Archaeologists have found that Lambesc was already occupied in the Bronze Age and Iron Age . There are also many hill forts and open institutions, which show the diversity of cultivated soils and development of metallurgical activities. They have also founded
1792-564: Is approximately 20 km. To the north, the hills rise to 484 m, extending the Massif des Costes which lies to the west. Further east are the limestone reliefs of the Alps of Provence . It is initiated by the valley of the Touloubre ( Salon-de-Provence ). Around the village, the plains are fertile with irrigation and the many streams; wheat , the wine and olives are grown. Originally Lambesc
1904-641: Is seen in the English language day-name Wednesday and the French Mercredi. Mercury is known to the Romans as Mercurius and occasionally in earlier writings as Merqurius, Mirqurios or Mircurios , had a number of epithets representing different aspects or roles, or representing syncretisms with non-Roman deities. The most common and significant of these epithets included the following: In Virgil 's Aeneid , Mercury reminds Aeneas of his mission to found
2016-402: Is that mergers reduce the number of available elected positions, and thus are not popular with local politicians. Moreover, citizens from one village may be unwilling to have their local services run by an executive located in another village, whom they may consider unaware of or inattentive to their local needs. In December 2010 the law n° 2010-1563 regarding reform of territorial collectivities
2128-486: Is the Proto-Indo-European root merĝ- for "boundary, border" (cf. Old English " mearc ", Old Norse " mark " and Latin " margō ") and Greek οὖρος (by analogy of Arctūrus / Ἀρκτοῦρος ), as the "keeper of boundaries," referring to his role as bridge between the upper and lower worlds. Mercury did not appear among the numinous di indigetes of early Roman religion . Rather, he subsumed
2240-509: Is the only administrative unit below the commune in the French Republic but exists only in these three communes. These municipal arrondissements are not to be confused with the arrondissements that are subdivisions of French départements : French communes are considered legal entities , whereas municipal arrondissements, by contrast, have no official capacity and no budget of their own. The rights and obligations of communes are governed by
2352-652: Is the smallest and oldest administrative division in France . " Commune " in English has a historical association with socialist and collectivist political movements and philosophies. This association arises in part from the rising of the Paris Commune (1871) which could have more felicitously been called, in English, "the rising of the City of Paris". There is nothing intrinsically different between "town" in English and commune in French. The French word commune appeared in
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#17328592801162464-548: The Code général des collectivités territoriales (CGCT) which replaced the Code des communes (except for personnel matters) with the passage of the law of 21 February 1996 for legislation and decree number 2000-318 of 7 April 2000 for regulations. From 1794 to 1977 — except for a few months in 1848 and 1870-1871 — Paris had no mayor and was thus directly controlled by the departmental prefect. This meant that Paris had less autonomy than certain towns or villages. Even after Paris regained
2576-665: The Etruscan deity Turms ; both gods share characteristics with the Greek god Hermes . He is often depicted holding the caduceus in his left hand. Similar to his Greek equivalent Hermes, he was awarded a magic wand by Apollo , which later turned into the caduceus , the staff with intertwined snakes. The name "Mercury" is possibly related to the Latin words merx ("merchandise"; cf. merchant , commerce , etc.), mercari ( to trade ), and merces ( wages ); another possible connection
2688-526: The House of Lorraine ). Mary of Lorraine bequeathed it on 6 February 1686, to Mr. Armagnac , Grand Equerry of France. The barony included several hamlets (The Chapusse La Tour-de-Janet, Janet, Douau, Upper Libran, La Font-d'Arles, The Coussou, The Fedon, Sues and Garandeau) that constitute its fiefs. In 1589, Valletta laid siege to the city. After 300 guns given, the garrison under Esmenard of Vautubière capitulated. The latter and eleven of his men were hanged on
2800-615: The LGV Méditerranée during spring 1996. Under the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI , Lambesc played an important political role in the history of Provence. For a hundred years, 1646 to 1786, the General Assemblies of communities in the country of Provence sat there, which earned the city the name "Versailles Aachen". There are still some very beautiful mansions around the city. (Hotel de Cadenet Charleval, Laura of Pagy Valbonne, Faudran of Laval, and Saint Chamas). Lambesc became
2912-525: The Marseille Provence Airport , and 60 km from Avignon To the west of Lambesc, within 500 meters north of the old riverbed of "The Concernade", a small Neolithic settlement with evidence of post holes was discovered during the work of LGV Méditerranée . Another settlement was discovered in 1995 in a nearby valley. Traces of occupation (homes, septic, lithic material) from the Neolithic to
3024-549: The National Assembly ( Assemblée Nationale ) passed a law creating the commune, designed to be the lowest level of administrative division in France, thus endorsing these independently created communes, but also creating communes of its own. In this area as in many others, the work of the National Assembly was, properly speaking, revolutionary: not content with transforming all the chartered cities and towns into communes,
3136-477: The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 by Francis I , the priest in charge of the parish was also required to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. Except for these tasks, villages were left to handle other issues as they pleased. Typically, villagers would gather to decide over a special issue regarding the community, such as agricultural land usage, but there existed no permanent municipal body. In many places,
3248-584: The Porta Capena on their heads . Mercury features in the first published comic book story of Jack Kirby , Mercury in the 20th Century , published in Red Raven Comics 1, 1940. The United States' so-called Mercury dime , issued from 1916 to 1945, actually features a Winged Liberty and not the god Mercury, but despite wearing a Phrygian cap instead of a winged helm, the coin bears his name due to resemblance. The United States E-6B aircraft flown by
3360-613: The United States , with a territory fourteen times larger than that of the French Republic, and nearly five times its population, had 35,937 incorporated municipalities and townships at the 2002 Census of Governments, fewer than that of the French Republic. The number of barangays in the Philippines, villages of Indonesia, and muban in Thailand also have a higher number than the French communes. There have long been calls in France for
3472-402: The caduceus , a herald's staff with two entwined snakes that was Apollo 's gift to Hermes. He was often accompanied by a rooster , herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility , and a tortoise, referring to Mercury's legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell. Like Hermes, he was also a god of messages, eloquence and of trade, particularly of the grain trade . He
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3584-444: The mairies . These abrupt changes profoundly alienated devout Catholics, and France soon was plunged into the throes of civil war , with the fervently religious regions of western France at its center. It would take Napoleon I to re-establish peace in France, stabilize the new administrative system, and make it generally accepted by the population. Napoleon also abolished the election of the municipal councils, which now were chosen by
3696-702: The prefect , the local representative of the central government. Today, French communes are still very much the same in their general principles as those that were established at the beginning of the Revolution. The biggest changes occurred in 1831, when the French Parliament re-established the principle of the election of municipal councils, and in 1837 when French communes were given legal "personality", being now considered legal entities with legal capacity. The Jacobin revolutionaries were afraid of independent local powers, which they saw as conservative and opposed to
3808-413: The senior military officer of one of the legions. The senate and the consuls, in particular the conservative Appius, were outraged at this decision, and it inflamed the ongoing situation. The dedication occurred on 15 May, 495 BC. The temple was regarded as a fitting place to worship a swift god of trade and travel, since it was a major center of commerce as well as a racetrack. Since it stood between
3920-600: The 11th-century Romanesque chapel of St. Anne's Goiron, as well as Manivert, a local art and archaeological museum. The town's special character and its beautiful environs, including the Luberon massif, attracts international tourism to the area. Lambesc is located on a hillside in the Massif de la Trévaresse , 1.5 km from the Canal de Marseille . It is 20 km from Aix-en-Provence and Gare d'Aix-en-Provence TGV , 15 km from Salon de Provence , 30 km from Marignane and
4032-533: The 12 Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon . He is the god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, communication (including divination ), travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery, and thieves; he also serves as the guide of souls to the underworld and the "messenger of the gods". In Roman mythology, he was the son of Maia , one of the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas , and Jupiter . In his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to
4144-547: The 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia , for a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis , 'things held in common'. As of January 2021, there were 35,083 communes in France , of which 34,836 were in metropolitan France , 129 in the overseas departments , and 83 in the overseas collectivities and New Caledonia . This is a considerably higher total than that of any other European country , because French communes still largely reflect
4256-503: The 1999 census was even smaller, at 10.73 square kilometres (4.14 sq mi). The median area gives a better sense of the size of a typical mainland France commune than the average area since the average includes some very large communes. In Italy , the median area of communes ( comuni ) is 22 km (8.5 sq mi); in Belgium it is 40 km (15 sq mi); in Spain it
4368-401: The 36,683 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants and, with 4,638,000 inhabitants, these smaller communes constitute just 7.7 percent of the total population. In other words, just 8 percent of the French population live in 57 percent of its communes, whilst 92 percent are concentrated in the remaining 43 percent. Alsace , with an area of 8,280 km (3,200 sq mi), and now part of
4480-639: The Bronze Age have been found. The site was reoccupied until the Bronze Age IIIb (as evidenced by funerary structure type mounds, a mold foundry, and a small dwelling) before being finally abandoned in the Iron Age. Lambesc has evidence of a Celtic-Ligurian settlement ( Saluvii ) Salyens and of the Tritolii , tribes which have left a multitude of sites ( oppidum establishment of plains, places of worship etc.). There
4592-614: The Castle Taillades. Following the decree of 14 May 1991, defining the seismic zoning map of France, Bouches-du-Rhône was cut up as follows: The land of Lambesc comprised no less than 22 portions. The management of the manor was mainly provided by the "vassals" of the Prince. The rest of Lambesc was regrouped into a "general council of the community", with a municipal system adopted since 1715. Communes of France The commune ( French pronunciation: [kɔmyn] )
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4704-468: The Gallo-Roman population of Lambesc that they revered a local water deity, near an ancient spring, where three dedications to Iboïte were found. One of them is that of an M (...) Amoena, freed man of Pompeii . Another from Sextus Pompeius Theophilus, a prepaid' Proculus , and the last of Decimus Ratius Bassus, prepaid Decimus. An inscription was found, to the god Mercury , on an altar of limestone to
4816-558: The National Assembly also decided to turn all the village parishes into full-status communes. The Revolutionaries were inspired by Cartesian ideas as well as by the philosophy of the Enlightenment . They wanted to do away with all the peculiarities of the past and establish a perfect society, in which all and everything should be equal and set up according to reason, rather than by tradition or conservatism. Thus, they set out to establish administrative divisions that would be uniform across
4928-556: The Provence. One can get to Lambesc from Paris, the east, the north, and the west by high-speed rail , stopping at Gare d'Aix-en-Provence TGV , and then taking a shuttle bus. One can also take a Corail rail car on the Transport express régional to Gare d'Aix-en-Provence . To get to Lambesc from Marseille Provence Airport , the bus can be used, making a connection at either Aix-en-Provence or Salon-de-Provence . The route by taxi or Uber
5040-494: The Région Grand Est, used to be the smallest of the regions of metropolitan France , and still has no fewer than 904 communes. This high number is typical of metropolitan France but is atypical when compared with other European countries. It shows the distinctive nature of the French commune as a geo-political or administrative entity. With its 904 communes, Alsace has three times as many municipalities as Sweden , which has
5152-452: The benefit of poorer suburbs. Moreover, intercommunal structures in many urban areas are still new, and fragile: Tensions exist between communes; the city at the center of the urban area often is suspected of wishing to dominate the suburban communes; communes from opposing political sides also may be suspicious of each other. Two famous examples of this are Toulouse and Paris. In Toulouse, on top of there being six intercommunal structures,
5264-523: The central government's calls for mergers and rationalization. By way of contrast, in the German states bordering Alsace, the geo-political and administrative areas have been subject to various re-organizations from the 1960s onward. In the state of Baden-Württemberg , the number of Gemeinden or communities was reduced from 3,378 in 1968 to 1,108 in September 2007. In comparison, the number of communes in Alsace
5376-410: The chartered cities) suddenly became legal entities for the first time in their history. This is still the case today. During the revolution, approximately 41,000 communes were created, on territory corresponding to the limits of modern-day France (the 41,000 figure includes the communes of the departments of Savoie , Haute-Savoie and Alpes-Maritimes which were annexed in 1795, but does not include
5488-472: The church of the Trinitarians and the other in the chapel of Bourras, where a few years earlier the general meetings of communities in the country of Provence were held. The Chairman of the National Assembly did not hesitate on 13 June 1790 to send support to the mayor and municipal officers of the city, and expressed the satisfaction of the National Assembly on the wise and measured steps they had taken "despite
5600-527: The city of Toulouse chartered by the counts of Toulouse). These cities were made up of several parishes (up to c. 50 parishes in the case of Paris), and they were usually enclosed by a defensive wall . They had been emancipated from the power of feudal lords in the 12th and 13th centuries, had municipal bodies which administered the city, and bore some resemblance with the communes that the French Revolution would establish except for two key points: In
5712-606: The city of Rome. In Ovid's Fasti , Mercury is assigned to escort the nymph Larunda to the underworld. Mercury, however, falls in love with Larunda and makes love to her on the way. Larunda thereby becomes mother to two children, referred to as the Lares , invisible household gods . Mercury's temple in Rome was situated in the Circus Maximus , between the Aventine and Palatine Hills, and
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#17328592801165824-454: The command of the Marquis de La Barben, to purchase 80 pounds of drugs and medicines, fines given to anyone who opens the doors and windows closed, [...] foreign provision of a line of six soldiers in the direction of Saint-Cannat, another line towards Taillades and another towards the path of Berre, security provided by the bourgeois guard. On 25 March 1789, a meeting of the people of Lambesc
5936-721: The convent by the revolutionaries. Federalists do not the Republicans before General Carteaux. It was during these fierce battles that Theresa Figueur ( Alias Madame Sans-Gene ), acting as a gunner, was arrested in Marseilles and taken prisoner to Lambesc. The girl soldier was faced with a simple alternative: enlist under the banner of the Republic or the guillotine. She chooses the first solution. Illustrious guests stayed in Lambesc: In 1564, King Charles IX and Queen Catherine de' Medici , with
6048-544: The country: the whole of France would be divided into départements , themselves divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons, themselves divided into communes, no exceptions. All of these communes would have equal status, they would all have a mayor at their head and a municipal council elected by the inhabitants of the commune. This was a real revolution for the thousands of villages that never had experienced organized municipal life before. A communal house had to be built in each of these villages, which would house
6160-547: The current market place, at the location of the current post since 1989), and oil mills. See History of the Post Office of Lambesc The 6.2 Ms Provence earthquake destroyed many houses and left 46 people dead on 11 June 1909. The shock occurred on the Trévaresse Fault and had a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme) . It affected Lambesc, Rognes , Saint-Cannat , Vernègues , and Pélissanne ). In 1944, resistance
6272-425: The decision to the popular assembly, and also decreed that whichever was chosen should also exercise additional duties, including presiding over the markets, establish a merchants' guild, and exercising the functions of the pontifex maximus . The people, because of the ongoing public discord, and in order to spite the senate and the consuls , instead awarded the honour of dedicating the temple to Marcus Laetorius,
6384-460: The departments of modern-day Belgium and Germany west of the Rhine , which were part of France between 1795 and 1815). This was fewer than the 60,000 parishes that existed before the revolution (in cities and towns, parishes were merged into one single commune; in the countryside, some very small parishes were merged with bigger ones), but 41,000 was still a considerable number, without any comparison in
6496-412: The difference residing in the lack of administrative powers. Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials including a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ). They have extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy. A commune
6608-526: The division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution . (1) Within the current limits of metropolitan France, which existed between 1860 and 1871 and from 1919 to today. (2) Within the current extent of overseas France, which has remained unchanged since the independence of the New Hebrides in 1980. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes; even uninhabited mountains or rain forests are dependent on
6720-483: The earlier Dei Lucrii as Roman religion was syncretized with Greek religion during the time of the Roman Republic , starting around the 4th century BC. His cult was introduced also by influence of Etruscan religion in which Turms had similar characteristics. From the beginning, Mercury had essentially the same aspects as Hermes , wearing winged shoes ( talaria ) and a winged hat ( petasos ), and carrying
6832-437: The east of the town. In the same area, a dedication to the tutelary deities was discovered: "Sextus has fulfilled his vow against Suleviae willingly and rightfully". In the Middle Ages, in the valley of the Concernade, the small town of Lambesc was built on a rocky headland, now 'Church Square'. Previously the local 'castrum', or fort, sat on this promontory. Local toponymy suggests the "neighborhood villains" lived there, which
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#17328592801166944-427: The end of the afternoon, following the storming of the Bastille , the provost of the merchants of Paris, Jacques de Flesselles was shot by the crowd on the steps of Paris City Hall. Although in the Middle Ages the provosts of the merchants symbolized the independence of Paris and even had openly rebelled against King Charles V , their office had been suppressed by the king, then reinstated but with strict control from
7056-480: The fact that there are pronounced differences in size between French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a hamlet of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a few hundred inhabitants, but there are also a small number of communes with much higher populations. In metropolitan France 57 percent of
7168-400: The form 'Lambescho' around 1200 AD. The peculiarity of its name is that "Lambesc" has always been spelled out in the Occitan language Provence , although Arnaud d'Agnel gallicised it as the "Lambs" in 1477. The residents are called Lambescain(s) . Lambesc can be accessed by car on Route nationale 7 ; its position places the town at the crossroads of the principle tourist attractions in
7280-558: The form of a law on 22 March 1890, which provided for the establishment of single-purpose intercommunal associations. French lawmakers having long been aware of the inadequacy of the communal structure inherited from the French Revolution for dealing with a number of practical matters, the so-called Chevènement law of 12 July 1999 is the most recent and most thoroughgoing measure aimed at strengthening and simplifying this principle. In recent years it has become increasingly common for communes to band together in intercommunal consortia for
7392-484: The future King Henri III , and the Prince of Navarre, the future Henri IV . It is a stop on the Grand Tour of France made by early royal courts: in 1631 by Prince of Condé , in 1639 Prince Casimir of Poland , in 1657 Queen Christina of Sweden . Finally, Madame de Sévigné came several times to Lambesc to visit her daughter Franchise , wife of Count Grignan, lieutenant general of the king in Provence. Camille de Lorraine (1726–1788), brother of Charles Louis de Lorraine,
7504-548: The king, and so they had ended up being viewed by the people as yet another representative of the king, no longer the embodiment of a free municipality. Following that event, a "commune" of Paris was immediately set up to replace the old medieval chartered city of Paris, and a municipal guard was established to protect Paris against any attempt made by King Louis XVI to quell the ongoing revolution. Several other cities of France quickly followed suit, and communes arose everywhere, each with their municipal guard. On 14 December 1789,
7616-437: The kingdom. A parish was essentially a church, the houses around it (known as the village), and the cultivated land around the village. France was the most populous country in Europe at this time, with a population of approximately 25 million inhabitants in the late 18th century ( England in contrast had only 6 million inhabitants), which accounts for the large number of parishes. French kings often prided themselves on ruling over
7728-653: The law. In urban areas, the new intercommunal structures are much more a reality, being created by local decision-makers out of genuine belief in the worth of working together. However, in many places, local feuds have arisen, and it was not possible to set up an intercommunal structure for the whole of the urban area: some communes refusing to take part in it, or even creating their own structure. In some urban areas like Marseille there exist four distinct intercommunal structures! In many areas, rich communes have joined with other rich communes and have refused to let in poorer communes, for fear that their citizens would be overtaxed to
7840-552: The least money per inhabitant, whereas urban communities are given the most money per inhabitant, thus pushing communes to form more integrated communities where they have fewer powers, which they might otherwise have been loath to do if it were not for government money. The Chevènement law has been extremely successful in the sense that a majority of French communes now have joined the new intercommunal structures. On 1 January 2007, there were 2,573 such communities in metropolitan France (including five syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle ,
7952-414: The local feudal lord ( seigneur ) still had a major influence in the village's affairs, collecting taxes from tenant-villagers and ordering them to work the corvée , controlling which fields were to be used and when, and how much of the harvest should be given to him. Additionally, some cities had obtained charters during the Middle Ages, either from the king himself or from local counts or dukes (such as
8064-618: The lords of Lambesc Philippe and Pierre d'Alamanon, followed by the lords of La Roque-d'Anthéron , plundered the Silvacane Abbey . The castle that remains today is a 9th-century tower, inside the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption (1700–1741). This church succeeded Notre-Dame-de-la-Rose (13th-century). The nave of Our Lady of Hope of the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence was
8176-564: The lowest communes' median population of all the European countries (communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may cover a smaller area, as mentioned above, but they are more populated). This small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy, where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium (11,265 inhabitants), or even Spain (564 inhabitants). The median population given here should not hide
8288-480: The main community of Toulouse and its suburbs is only a community of agglomeration, although Toulouse is large enough to create an Urban Community according to the law. This is because the suburban communes refused an urban community for fear of losing too much power, and opted for a community of agglomeration, despite the fact that a community of agglomeration receives less government funds than an urban community. As for Paris, no intercommunal structure has emerged there,
8400-488: The many deliberations between 2 August 1720 and 17 August 1721. Preventive measures were taken against the scourge: a ban on trade with foreigners, the need to erect fences and barricades to confine the city and suburbs, eviction of a family of 15 in Marseille, designation of a road to allow free movement for foreigners to avoid their contact with Lambescains, construction of walls with lime and sand [...] more than 40 men under
8512-461: The maximum allowable pay of the mayor and deputy mayors, and municipal campaign finance limits (among other features) all depend on the population echelon into which a particular commune falls. Since the PLM Law of 1982, three French communes also have a special status in that they are further divided into municipal arrondissements : these are Paris, Marseille , and Lyon . The municipal arrondissement
8624-486: The mayors. Civil marriages were established and started to be performed in the mairie with a ceremony not unlike the traditional one, with the mayor replacing the priest, and the name of the law replacing the name of God (" Au nom de la loi, je vous déclare unis par les liens du mariage. " – "In the name of the law, I declare you united by the bonds of marriage."). Priests were forced to surrender their centuries-old baptism, marriage, and burial books, which were deposited in
8736-425: The meetings of the municipal council as well as the administration of the commune. Some in the National Assembly were opposed to such a fragmentation of France into thousands of communes, but eventually Mirabeau and his ideas of one commune for each parish prevailed. On 20 September 1792, the recording of births, marriages, and deaths also was withdrawn as a responsibility of the priests of the parishes and handed to
8848-521: The north, cities tended to be administered by échevins (from an old Germanic word meaning judge), while in the south, cities tended to be administered by consuls (in a clear reference to Roman antiquity), but Bordeaux was administered by jurats (etymologically meaning "sworn men") and Toulouse by capitouls ("men of the chapter"). Usually, there was no mayor in the modern sense; all the échevins or consuls were on equal footing, and rendered decisions collegially. However, for certain purposes, there
8960-518: The number of communes in the process – the Gemeinden of West Germany were decreased from 24,400 to 8,400 in the space of a few years – France only carried out mergers at the margin, and those were mostly carried out during the 19th century. From 41,000 communes at the time of the French Revolution, the number decreased to 37,963 in 1921, to 36,569 in 2008 (in metropolitan France). Thus, in Europe, only Switzerland has as high
9072-404: The number of municipalities compared to the large and populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (396 Gemeinden in September 2007). Despite differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ), which jointly manage the commune from the municipal hall ( mairie ), with exactly the same powers no matter
9184-625: The only partially successful statute enacted in 1966 and enabling urban communes to form urban communities or the more marked failure of the Marcellin law of 1971, the Chevènement law met with a large measure of success, so that a majority of French communes are now involved in intercommunal structures. There are two types of these structures: In exchange for the creation of a community, the government allocates money to them based on their population, thus providing an incentive for communes to team up and form communities. Communities of communes are given
9296-491: The penultimate Prince of Lambesc, Marie de Lorraine (1671–1724), Princess of Monaco and her brother, Louis-Alphonse Ignatius (1675–1704) called the 'Bailiff of Lorraine "(1701) also visited. On 31 May 1807 Sues was attached to Lambesc. On 4 March 1886, the last hermit and gatekeeper known as St. Anne Goiron Jean Cluny (1810–1886) died. In the early 1900s, Lambesc had 2,352 residents, a stock market, factories for jams and preserves (the old cannery and Barbier Dauphin, located in
9408-403: The place of the former communes, which are represented by a delegated mayor and a delegated council. Between 2012 and 2021, about 820 communes nouvelles have been established, replacing about 2,550 old communes. The expression "intercommunality" ( intercommunalité ) denotes several forms of cooperation between communes. Such cooperation first made its appearance at the end of the 19th century in
9520-686: The plebeian stronghold on the Aventine and the patrician center on the Palatine, it also emphasized the role of Mercury as a mediator . Because Mercury was not one of the early deities surviving from the Roman Kingdom , he was not assigned a flamen (priest), but he did have his own major festival, on 15 May, the Mercuralia . During the Mercuralia, merchants sprinkled water from his sacred well near
9632-541: The populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. Communes vary widely in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris , to small hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. Communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes ( "lieu dit" or "bourg" ),
9744-501: The province of Gaul Narbonne. What remained of the army of Salyens Toutomotulus, its king and its leaders, fled and found refuge with the Savoyards. The last Salyens revolt in the region was in 90 BC. After the peace, Rome distributed lands and settlements to the veterans of the legions for use with the Salyens who survived the war. They founded an establishment vicus , on the site of
9856-495: The provision of such services as refuse collection and water supply. Suburban communes often team up with the city at the core of their urban area to form a community charged with managing public transport or even administering the collection of local taxes. The Chevènement law tidied up all these practices, abolishing some structures and creating new ones. In addition, it offered central government finance aimed at encouraging further communes to join in intercommunal structures. Unlike
9968-489: The revolution, and so they favored a powerful central state. Therefore, when they created the communes, they deprived them of any legal "personality" (as they did with the départements ), with only the central state having legal "personality." By 1837 that situation was judged impractical, as mayors and municipal councils could not be parties in courts. The consequence of the change, however, was that tens of thousands of villages which had never had legal "personality" (contrary to
10080-465: The right to elect its own mayor in 1977, the central government retained control of the Paris police. In all other French communes, the municipal police are under the mayor's supervision. French communes were created at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789–1790. Before the revolution, France's lowest level of administrative division was the parish ( paroisse ), and there were up to 60,000 of them in
10192-517: The ruins of the temple of Mercury in 810, by Eldrad son of Ardrad, the first Lord Lambesc. San-Peyre was sacked by Ramon Berenguer IV in 1222. In the 12th century, the Abbey of Saint-André of Villeneuve-les-Avignon owned the church of St. John in the valley Valbonette, which enabled it to raise revenues. This church- priory was sold to the Abbey Silvacane at the end of the twelfth century. In 1358,
10304-406: The same as those designed at the time of the French Revolution more than 200 years ago, with the same limits. Countless rural communes that had hundreds of inhabitants at the time of the French Revolution now have only a hundred inhabitants or fewer. On the other hand, cities and towns have grown so much that their urbanized area is now extending far beyond the limits of their commune which were set at
10416-403: The same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes . The median population of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a very small number, and here France stands absolutely apart in Europe, with
10528-414: The size of the commune. This uniformity of status is a legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences in status that existed in the kingdom of France. French law makes allowances for the vast differences in commune size in a number of areas of administrative law. The size of the municipal council, the method of electing the municipal council,
10640-510: The spot, thus paying the price for their loyalty to their lord the Duke of Guise. Lambeth, bastion of the ultra-Catholic cause, was occupied for several days by the royal troops of Henri III . In May 1590, in the urgency of an outbreak of child fever , a hospital was established in the Fédons. The latter was used for only three to four months, and was forgotten until discovered by the preliminary works for
10752-467: The suburbs of Paris fearing the concept of a "Greater Paris", and so disunity still is the rule in the metropolitan area, with the suburbs of Paris creating many different intercommunal structures all without the city. Mercury (mythology) Mercury ( / ˈ m ɜːr k j ʊr i / ; Latin : Mercurius [mɛrˈkʊrijʊs] ) is a major god in Roman religion and mythology , being one of
10864-609: The time of the revolution. The most extreme example of this is Paris, where the urbanized area sprawls over 396 communes. Paris in fact was one of the very few communes of France whose limits were extended to take into account the expansion of the urbanized area. The new, larger, commune of Paris was set up under the oversight of Emperor Napoléon III in 1859, but after 1859 the limits of Paris rigidified. Unlike most other European countries, which stringently merged their communes to better reflect modern-day densities of population (such as Germany and Italy around 1970), dramatically decreasing
10976-536: The turmoil that erupted in the city due to the resistance of the Royal Navy Regiment (aside from Marseille) against the new authority in place". The same year Lambesc became the county seat of the Canton . In 1793, a counter-revolutionary movement was led by the vicar Lambesc Angelier, who was later guillotined with other friends in Marseille. This period of unrest between Federated and Republicans, led to sacking of
11088-460: The work of Jean Vallon, author, with his brother Lawrence. Barony and the Principality as Louis XIV , the city became famous playing a political role in the history of Provence, which earned him the nickname" Versailles Aix." Until the 18th century many nobles, from noble families of Provence, ruled Lambesc. In 1453 and in 1688, the barony Lambesc belonged to the House of Guise (branch of
11200-571: The world at the time, except in the empire of China (but there, only county level and above had any permanent administration). Since then, tremendous changes have affected France, as they have the rest of Europe: the Industrial Revolution , two world wars , and the rural exodus have all depopulated the countryside and increased the size of cities. French administrative divisions, however, have remained extremely rigid and unchanged. Today about 90 percent of communes and departments are exactly
11312-428: Was adopted, which created the legal framework for the communes nouvelles (lit. "new communes"). A commune nouvelle can be created by merger of a number of communes at the request of the municipal councils of all the communes or at the initiative of the state representative in the department (the prefect ). The municipal council of the new commune can decide to create communes déléguées (lit. "delegated communes") in
11424-487: Was affected by the explosion of a German munitions train, parked at the station, which destroyed many houses. Lambeth was cited in the order of the division, with the award of the Croix de guerre 1939–1945 on 11 November 1948. In 814 AD the city was designated for the first time under the name Lambisco villa . The Ligurian suffix - iscum and could be Latin pre-fix 'lamb' (mountain) became Lambisco (in 965-977), and finally took
11536-495: Was among the most popular of Roman gods. The god of commerce was depicted on two early bronze coins of the Roman Republic, the sextans and the semuncia . When they described the gods of Celtic and Germanic tribes, rather than considering them separate deities, the Romans interpreted them as local manifestations or aspects of their own gods, a cultural trait called the interpretatio romana . Mercury, in particular,
11648-430: Was built in 495 BC. That year saw disturbances at Rome between the patrician senators and the plebeians , which led to a secession of the plebs in the following year. At the completion of its construction, a dispute emerged between the consuls Appius Claudius Sabinus Regillensis and Publius Servilius Priscus Structus as to which of them should have the honour of dedicating the temple. The Roman Senate referred
11760-497: Was called by the consuls and his council, at the Hotel du Janet, to prepare a list of grievances . Of the 790 heads of families called, 725 move and are quoted on the record. On 2 April Lambesc also elected eight delegates to represent the community in the drafting of a "provincial register of grievances." On 14 February 1790, the municipality was renewed but Lambesc was divided into two assemblies (royalists and revolutionaries); one met in
11872-699: Was crossed by four rivers: the Lavaldenan , Estagnol , the Concernade and Touloubre , of which only the latter still retains a significant flow. The catchment area of the village provides numerous springs, with various levels of dryness: the springs of Castle Calavon, Libran, Beauchamp, Toulouzan, Chapuis, the Font d'Arles, Viviers, Saint-Michel, Fontvive, Bois-Vert du Moulin Blanc, Suffren St., three in north-western Bonrecueil, Castle Calavon of Gréau and of Mondesir and southwest of
11984-961: Was one échevin or consul ranking above the others, a sort of mayor, although not with the same authority and executive powers as a modern mayor. This "mayor" was called provost of the merchants ( prévôt des marchands ) in Paris and Lyon; maire in Marseille, Bordeaux, Rouen , Orléans , Bayonne and many other cities and towns; mayeur in Lille ; premier capitoul in Toulouse; viguier in Montpellier ; premier consul in many towns of southern France; prêteur royal in Strasbourg ; maître échevin in Metz ; maire royal in Nancy ; or prévôt in Valenciennes . On 14 July 1789, at
12096-545: Was only reduced from 946 in 1971 (just before the Marcellin law aimed at encouraging French communes to merge with each other was passed, see Current debate section below) to 904 in January 2007. Consequently, the Alsace region—despite having a land area only one-fifth the size and a total population only one-sixth of that of its neighbor Baden-Württemberg—has almost as many municipalities. The small Alsace region has more than double
12208-494: Was organised throughout Lambesc, in the face of German occupation. The Resistance went into the hills on 5 June 1944, on the plateau and that of Manivert Seze. As a result of intense clashes on 12 June 1944, many guerrillas were arrested or shot on the spot after a few days, and then shot at various locations in the township. Monuments are found at various places in Lambesc, honouring the martyrs killed by Nazi bullets. 22% of Lambeth
12320-636: Was reported as becoming extremely popular among the nations the Roman Empire conquered; Julius Caesar wrote of Mercury being the most popular god in Britain and Gaul, regarded as the inventor of all the arts. This is probably because, in the Roman syncretism , Mercury was equated with the Celtic god Lugus , and in this aspect was commonly accompanied by the Celtic goddess Rosmerta . Although Lugus may originally have been
12432-533: Was the patron of travelers and the god of thievery as well. Mercury was also considered a god of abundance and commercial success, particularly in Gaul , where he was said to have been particularly revered. He was also, like Hermes, the Romans' psychopomp , leading newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Additionally, Ovid wrote that Mercury carried Morpheus 's dreams from the valley of Somnus to sleeping humans. Archeological evidence from Pompeii suggests that Mercury
12544-404: Was the poorest part of the Lambesc castrum. It was on this hill (the church square, Place Jean Jaurès, place du Castel). Towards the end of 15C and early 16C, as the first suburbs were created outside the old city walls, inns and other taverns developed. East of Lambesc, in the district of Saint-Peyre, remains Podium Amboliacense, the ruins of a medieval chapel. The chapel of St. Peter was built on
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