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Béziers

Béziers (French pronunciation: ​[bezje];[3][4] Occitan: Besièrs) is a subprefecture of the Hérault department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, which is centred on bullfighting. A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event.[5]

Béziers
Besièrs (Occitan)
Aerial view of Béziers
Location of Béziers
Béziers
Béziers
Coordinates: 43°20′51″N 3°13′08″E / 43.3476°N 3.219°E / 43.3476; 3.219Coordinates: 43°20′51″N 3°13′08″E / 43.3476°N 3.219°E / 43.3476; 3.219
CountryFrance
RegionOccitania
DepartmentHérault
ArrondissementBéziers
CantonBéziers-1, 2 and 3
IntercommunalityCA Béziers Méditerranée
Government
 • Mayor (2020–2026) Robert Ménard[1] (DVD)
Area
1
95.48 km2 (36.87 sq mi)
Population
 (Jan. 2019)[2]
78,308
 • Density820/km2 (2,100/sq mi)
DemonymBiterrois
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
34032 /34500
Elevation4–120 m (13–394 ft)
(avg. 17 m or 56 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

The town is located on a small bluff above the river Orb, about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the Mediterranean coast and 75 kilometres (47 miles) southwest of Montpellier. At Béziers, the Canal du Midi passes over the river Orb by means of the Pont-canal de l'Orb, an aqueduct claimed to be the first of its kind.[6]

History

Béziers is one of the oldest cities in France. Research published in March 2013 shows that Béziers dates from 575 BCE, making it older than Agde (Greek Agathe Tyche, founded in 525 BCE) and slightly younger than Marseille (Greek Massalia, founded in 600 BCE).[7]

The site has been occupied since Neolithic times, before the influx of Celts. Roman Betarra was on the road that linked Provence with Iberia. The Romans refounded the city as a new colonia for veterans in 36–35 BCE and called it Colonia Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum. Stones from the Roman amphitheatre were used to construct the city wall during the third century.

Béziers exported wine to Rome. A dolia discovered in an excavation near Rome is marked, "I am a wine from Baeterrae and I am five years old." Another is simply marked, "white wine of Baeterrae."[citation needed] Béziers was conquered by the Muslims and remained part of Islamic Iberia between 720 and 752.

From the 10th to the 12th centuries, Béziers was the centre of a Viscountship of Béziers.[citation needed] The viscounts ruled most of the coastal plain around Béziers, including the town of Agde. They also controlled the major east–west route through Languedoc, which roughly follows the old Roman Via Domitia, with the two key bridges over the Orb at Béziers and over the Hérault at Saint-Thibéry.[citation needed]

After the death of Viscount William around 990, the viscounty passed to his daughter Garsendis and her husband, Count Raimond-Roger of Carcassonne (d. c. 1012). It was then ruled by their son Peter-Raimond (d. c. 1060) and his son Roger (d. 1067), both of whom were also counts of Carcassonne.[citation needed]

Roger died without issue and Béziers passed to his sister Ermengard and her husband Raimond-Bertrand Trencavel. The Trencavels ruled for the next 142 years, until the Albigensian Crusade, a formal crusade (holy war) authorised by Pope Innocent III.[citation needed]

Massacre at Béziers

Béziers was[when?] a Languedoc stronghold of Catharism, which the Catholic Church condemned as heretical and which Catholic forces exterminated in the Albigensian Crusade.

The crusaders reached Béziers on 21 July 1209. Béziers' Catholics were given an ultimatum to hand over the heretics or leave before the crusaders besieged the city and to "avoid sharing their fate and perishing with them".[8] However, many refused and resisted with the Cathars. The town was sacked the following day and in the bloody massacre no one was spared, not even Catholic priests and those who took refuge in the churches.[citation needed]

One of the commanders of the crusade was the Papal legate Arnaud-Amaury (or Arnald Amalaricus, abbot of Citeaux). When asked by a crusader how to tell Catholics from Cathars once they had taken the city, the abbot supposedly replied, "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius" ("Kill them all, for the Lord knoweth them that are His"). (This oft-quoted phrase is sourced from Caesarius of Heisterbach along with a story of all the heretics who desecrated a copy of the Gospels and threw it down from the town's walls.[9]) Amalric's own version of the siege, described in his letter to Pope Innocent III in August 1209 (col. 139), states:

While discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics, the servants and other persons of low rank and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders. To our amazement, crying "to arms, to arms!", within the space of two or three hours they crossed the ditches and the walls and Béziers was taken. Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt ...[10]

The invaders burned the Cathedral of Saint Nazaire, which collapsed on those who had taken refuge inside. The town was pillaged and burnt. By some accounts, none were left alive—by others, there were a handful of survivors.[citation needed] (A plaque opposite the cathedral records the "Day of Butchery" perpetrated by the "northern barons".)[citation needed]

Later Middle Ages

Despite the massacre, the city was repopulated. A few parts of the Romanesque cathedral of St-Nazaire had survived the carnage, and repairs started in 1215. The restoration, along with that of the rest of the city, continued until the 15th century.

Béziers became part of the royal domain in 1247.

Rule of the city was for a long time divided among three powers: the Bishopric, which reached its apogee in the 16th and 17th centuries when it was held by the Bonsi family, allied to the Medici; the consuls, local magistrates created at the end of the 12th century; and finally the king, represented by a "Viguier for judicial affairs", and from the 17th century onwards by a sub-delegate of the Intendant.

Béziers was not damaged in the Hundred Years' War.

On 8 September 1381, a riot broke out at the seat of the municipal council, rioters setting the Town House on fire. The councillors tried to take refuge in the tower, but fire spread there as well, and they all died either by fire or in jumping from the tower to the square.

Early modern times

King Charles IX passed through the city during his royal tour of France (1564–1566), accompanied by the Court and the great men of the kingdom: his brother Henry, the Duke of Anjou, his distant cousin Henri of Navarre, and the Cardinal of Bourbon with the Cardinal of Lorraine.

In 1551, Béziers became the seat of a seneschal, being removed from the jurisdiction of the seneschals of Carcassonne.

The city served as a rear base during various wars of the modern period, especially those against the Habsburgs. It was only once directly threatened. During the War of the Spanish Succession, the British in 1710 landed at Sète and moved to within a few kilometres of Béziers, before being repulsed by the Duke of Roquelaure. Béziers was at the heart of the Montmorency Revolt in 1632. It was in Béziers that Gaston d'Orléans and Henri II de Montmorency, Governor of Languedoc, met at the beginning of the rebellion. It was also here that the king, by the Edict of Béziers (October 1632), abolished the privileges of the province. (They were restored in 1649.)

During the 18th century, Béziers prospered, notably thanks to the cultivation of vines which enabled it to become an important centre for alcohol trading.

French Revolution

During the French Revolution, citizens of Béziers met in a revolutionary society created in May 1790 and numbering up to 400 members. It had several successive names: first, "The Literary and Patriotic Cabinet", a name still derived from the social life of the Ancien Régime; it then became "Society of the Friends of the Constitution and Liberty". Later becoming affiliated to the Jacobin Club of Paris, the Béziers organization was accordingly renamed the "Society of the Jacobins"; then, the abolition of the French monarchy precipitated two further changes of name: "Society of Brothers and Friends of the Republic" and then "Regenerated Society of the Jacobins, Friends of the Republic".

From 1790 to 1800, Béziers was the chief town of the district of Béziers. The city did not take part in the Girondin ("Federalist") movement.

Napoleon the Third, 1851

In the repression following Louis Napoléon's coup d'état in 1851, troops fired on and killed Republican protesters in Béziers. Others were condemned to death or transported to Guiana, including a former mayor who died at sea attempting to escape from there. In the Place de la Révolution a plaque and a monument by Jean Antoine Injalbert commemorates these events. (Injalbert also designed the Fontaine du Titan in Béziers' Plâteau des Poètes park.)

The Languedoc vine growers' revolt in Béziers, 1907

While elsewhere in France, the area planted with vines was decreasing, it increased in the Departments of Aude, Gard, Hérault and the Pyrenees-Orientales. Together, these supplied some 40% of French wine production. Haut Languedoc, and more particularly the Biterrois and Béziers, proclaimed themselves to be "The World Capital of Wine" and grew rapidly. Great fortunes were made. Large landowners, coming from industry, finance or the liberal professions, gained possession of immense vineyards.

There was also a growing foreign competition, with smuggled wines appearing on the market. The fraudsters remained unpunished. In 1892, the winegrowers of the Midi demanded "The restoration and enforcement of customs duties". But the market remained partly held by wines made from imported dried grapes (such as grapes from Corinth), and wines called "wet" (adulterated with water). Though the vintners attached great importance to this unfair competition, in fact it did not represent more than 5% of the market.[citation needed]

On 12 May 1907, no less than 150,000 protesters gathered in Béziers with the declared aim of "Defending the Southern Viticulture". The crowd spilled into Paul-Riquet and the Champ-de-Mars. The slogans on the banners Proclaimed: "Victory or death! Enough of talking, the time has come for action! Death to fraudsters! Bread or death! Live by working or die fighting!".

The demonstrators, who came from more than 200 communes, were joined by numerous Biterrois employees and shopkeepers. The event ended with speeches on the Place de la Citadelle, (now Place Jean-Jaurès). the Speakers included Marcelin Albert who issued an ultimatum to the government, demanding that it raise the price of wine, Ernest Ferroul who advocated tax refusal and the Béziers Mayor Émile Suchon, (close to Clemenceau), who took a stand in support of the winegrowers' struggle. There were some minor incidents during the dispersal of the demonstrators.

On 16 May, the Béziers municipal council, of Radical and Socialist tendency, resigned. The pressure of the street continued. The police station and the town hall façade were set on fire. Alerted, Georges Clemenceau decided to launch a counterattack. The 17th regiment of line infantry, composed of reservists and conscripts, was on his orders transferred from Béziers to Agde on 18 June 1907.

On the evening of 20 June, learning of the Narbonne shooting, about 500 soldiers of the 6th company of the 17th regiment mutinied, plundered the armory and headed for Béziers. They traveled about twenty kilometers by night. On 21 June, in the early morning, they arrived in town. They were warmly welcomed by the Biterrois, "fraternizing with the demonstrators, and peacefully opposing the armed forces". The soldiers sat down on the Allées Paul Riquet and the population offered them wine and food.

The South was on the brink of insurrection. In Paulhan, the railway was taken out of commission by protesters who stopped a military convoy sent to quell the mutineers. In Lodève, the sub-prefect was taken hostage. The military authorities were not ready to accept this mutiny, apprehensive that the example of the 17th regiment would give similar ideas to other regiments in the region.

In Paris, the Republic trembled, as Clemenceau had to face a vote of no confidence. However, he survived by letting the military command urgently negotiate with the mutineers. In the afternoon, after obtaining a guarantee that no sanctions will be imposed on them, the 17th soldiers put down their arms and marched to the station under escort, without any major incident. On 22 June, they returned by train to their barracks. Clemenceau announced the end of the mutiny and gained a parliamentary vote of confidence by 327 votes to 223.

On 23 June, a law was finally passed, which repressed the massive chaptalisation of the wines.

Negotiations and the scale of the movement prevented collective punishment: the mutineers of the 17th were assigned to Gafsa (Tunisia), a place where soldiers were often sent for "disciplinary companies", but these soldiers remained outside this framework, and were under ordinary military status. There was therefore no penal sanction for the revolt of the 17th, contrary to the legend that developed on this subject. However, during the First World War, haunted by their reputation as deserters, many of them were sent to the front line, particularly in the bloody assaults of 1914.

The mutiny of soldiers of the 17th has remained in historical memory, especially with the words of Montéhus' anti-militarist song "Gloire au 17", with the refrain: "Salute, salute to you / Brave soldiers of the seventeenth...."

Geography

Climate

Béziers has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa). The average annual temperature in Béziers is 15.1 °C (59.2 °F). The average annual rainfall is 595.7 mm (23.45 in) with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 24.1 °C (75.4 °F), and lowest in January, at around 7.5 °C (45.5 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Béziers was 42.0 °C (107.6 °F) on 7 July 1982; the coldest temperature ever recorded was −16.0 °C (3.2 °F) on 16 January 1985.

Climate data for Béziers (1981–2010 averages, extremes 1970−present)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 21.5
(70.7)
24.7
(76.5)
29.2
(84.6)
32.4
(90.3)
35.9
(96.6)
39.2
(102.6)
42.0
(107.6)
41.3
(106.3)
38.8
(101.8)
33.2
(91.8)
25.7
(78.3)
22.0
(71.6)
42.0
(107.6)
Average high °C (°F) 11.6
(52.9)
12.7
(54.9)
16.0
(60.8)
18.4
(65.1)
22.5
(72.5)
27.3
(81.1)
30.7
(87.3)
30.1
(86.2)
25.9
(78.6)
20.7
(69.3)
15.3
(59.5)
12.1
(53.8)
20.3
(68.5)
Daily mean °C (°F) 7.5
(45.5)
8.1
(46.6)
11.0
(51.8)
13.3
(55.9)
17.1
(62.8)
21.2
(70.2)
24.1
(75.4)
23.6
(74.5)
19.9
(67.8)
16.0
(60.8)
11.2
(52.2)
8.1
(46.6)
15.1
(59.2)
Average low °C (°F) 3.4
(38.1)
3.5
(38.3)
6.0
(42.8)
8.2
(46.8)
11.7
(53.1)
15.0
(59.0)
17.6
(63.7)
17.2
(63.0)
13.9
(57.0)
11.3
(52.3)
7.0
(44.6)
4.1
(39.4)
9.9
(49.8)
Record low °C (°F) −16.0
(3.2)
−7.4
(18.7)
−9.6
(14.7)
−4.1
(24.6)
0.2
(32.4)
5.9
(42.6)
7.8
(46.0)
7.6
(45.7)
2.5
(36.5)
−4.0
(24.8)
−9.3
(15.3)
−9.0
(15.8)
−16.0
(3.2)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 53.3
(2.10)
63.3
(2.49)
37.7
(1.48)
49.6
(1.95)
47.0
(1.85)
27.6
(1.09)
16.9
(0.67)
29.4
(1.16)
56.9
(2.24)
91.1
(3.59)
68.8
(2.71)
54.1
(2.13)
595.7
(23.45)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 5.3 4.8 4.6 5.5 5.6 3.7 2.2 3.8 3.8 5.7 5.1 5.0 55.0
Source: Meteociel[11]

Population

The inhabitants of Béziers are known as Biterrois, after Baeterrae, the Roman name for the town.

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1793 12,501—    
1800 14,535+2.18%
1806 14,565+0.03%
1821 16,140+0.69%
1831 16,769+0.38%
1836 16,233−0.65%
1841 18,874+3.06%
1846 19,596+0.75%
1851 19,333−0.27%
1856 23,557+4.03%
1861 24,270+0.60%
1866 27,722+2.70%
1872 31,468+2.13%
1876 38,227+4.98%
1881 42,915+2.34%
1886 42,785−0.06%
1891 45,475+1.23%
1896 48,012+1.09%
YearPop.±% p.a.
1901 52,310+1.73%
1906 52,268−0.02%
1911 51,042−0.47%
1921 56,008+0.93%
1926 65,754+3.26%
1931 71,527+1.70%
1936 73,305+0.49%
1946 64,561−1.26%
1954 64,929+0.07%
1962 73,538+1.57%
1968 80,481+1.52%
1975 84,029+0.62%
1982 76,647−1.31%
1990 70,996−0.95%
1999 69,153−0.29%
2007 72,462+0.59%
2012 72,970+0.14%
2017 77,177+1.13%
Source: EHESS[12] and INSEE (1968–2017)[13]

Attractions

  • Saint-Nazaire Cathedral: Situated in the high part of town, it occupies a picturesque site, visible from afar when approaching Béziers on the road from Narbonne. A remarkable example of middle Gothic architecture from the 14th century, the vaulted nave, 14 m (45.93 ft) wide, reaches a height of 32 m (104.99 ft). The total length is 50 m (164.04 ft). The western rose window has a diameter of 10 m (32.81 ft).
  • The Plateau des Poètes (1867): This vast English-style (formal) park was laid out by landscape artists, the Bulher brothers. It contains numerous statues of poets and a monumental fountain of the Titan by Injalbert. The park connects the station with the allées Paul Riquet...
  • The allées Paul Riquet where a large bronze statue by David d'Angers celebrates the creator of the Canal du Midi, Pierre-Paul Riquet. The same sculptor created the bas reliefs which decorate the neo-Classical façade of the Municipal Theatre (1844) at the top of the allées.[14] At times of the Feria, festivities are centred in these alleys.
  • Arenas: Béziers has two arenas, one dating from the Roman era whose structures and foundations have been preserved following major works in the Saint-Jacques district, and the other built in 1905 in the style of Spanish bullrings by Fernand Castelbon de Beauxhostes. The latter is one of the largest such structures in France (seating 13,100). The arena hosts concerts and, every August, a bullfighting festival (the Féria).
  • The Fine Arts Museum (musée des Beaux-Arts), founded in 1859, received in 1934 the legacy of Injalbert's widow and, in 1975, drawings and the art collection of Jean Moulin. Among the museum's works are canvasses by Hans Holbein, Sébastien Bourdon, Géricault, Vincent van Gogh, Chaïm Soutine and Henri Goetz.
  • The musée Saint-Jacques, installed in a former barracks, has collections showing life in the Béziers region (Biterrois).
  • Le Pont Vieux is a stone bridge crossing the Orb (Middle Ages).
  • Le Cimetière Vieux (Old Cemetery), created in the 18th century, is a true open-air museum with numerous tombs and works of art by local sculptors, including Jean Magrou and Injalbert.
  • Pierre-Paul Riquet's Canal du Midi (17th century) Béziers installations: the Pont-canal de l'Orb canal aqueduct; the Fonserannes staircase locks; the hapless Fonserannes "water slope";[15] and the Fonserannes lock continuation (now also hors service) to the River Orb.

Other sites and monuments

  • The Cordier or Bagnols mill
  • Saint-Jacques Church
  • The Saint-Aphrodise Church
  • Church of the Madeleine
  • Saint Jude Church
  • Church of the Immaculate Conception and its glazed tile roof
  • The Capnau quarter
  • Island of Tabarka, on the Orb
  • The Municipal Theatre (19th century)
  • The Art Nouveau former Théâtre des Variétés
  • The market hall (end of the 19th century)
  • The Saint-Jean-d'Aureilhan estate
  • The Domaine de Bayssan
  • Chapelle du Jardin Notre-Dame (18th century)
  • Chapelle des Pénitents Bleus (18th century)

Other sights in the area include the Oppidum d'Ensérune archaeological site and the Étang de Montady, a marsh drained in 1247 to create a field and irrigation system which is visible from the Oppidum d'Ensérune.

Economy

Béziers is a principal centre of the Languedoc viticulture and wine making industries.

Transport

Road: The A9 autoroute between Italy and Spain skirts Béziers. The final link in the A75 autoroute between Pézenas and the A9 was completed in December 2010 and provides direct links to Clermont-Ferrand and Paris.

Rail: The Gare de Béziers is a railway station with connections to Toulouse, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Marseille, Paris, Barcelona and several regional destinations. TGV trains stop in Béziers, but the tracks between Montpellier and Spain are not yet high-speed tracks.

Air: Béziers Cap d'Agde Airport (previously Béziers-Agde-Vias Airport), owned by the Chamber of commerce and industry, provides connections to destinations in northern Europe. Following an extension to the runway which was completed in March 2007, Ryanair began flights to and from Bristol Airport in March 2008, and later to London Stansted and London Luton Airport.[16] Current (January 2013) destinations from this airport with Ryanair are Bristol, London Luton Airport, Paris Beauvais, Oslo Rygge, Manchester, Edinburgh, Weeze Airport[17] and Stockholm Skavsta, while Flybe serves Southampton.[18]

Canal: Primarily used today by trip boats and plaisanciers, the Canal du Midi is still used commercially to carry Languedoc wine to Bordeaux for blending.[19] The canals locks have a maximum length of 30 m, slightly less than the 38.5 m adopted under the later Freycinet standard. Although parts of the River Orb are navigable, they river is interrupted by a number of impassable weirs.

Sport

Béziers' rugby union team is AS Béziers Hérault, the football team is AS Béziers (2007) who play in Championnat National 2.

Notable people

Cultural references

Twinned towns

Béziers is twinned with:[20][21]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Populations légales 2019". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 29 December 2021.
  3. ^ Wells, John C. (2008), Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.), Longman, ISBN 9781405881180
  4. ^ "Béziers - Deutsch-Übersetzung - Langenscheidt Französisch-Deutsch Wörterbuch" (in German and French). Langenscheidt. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  5. ^
  6. ^ Beyond.fr tourist site
  7. ^ Ludovic Trabuchet (11 March 2013). . Midi Libre (in French). Archived from the original on 15 March 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  8. ^ Claude Lebédel (2011). Understanding the tragedy of the Cathars. Editions Ouest-France, 2011. p. 59f. ISBN 978-2-7373-5267-6.
  9. ^ "Medieval Sourcebook: Caesarius of Heisterbach: Medieval Heresies: Waldensians, Albigensians, Intellectuals". Fordham University. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  10. ^ Albigensian Crusade
  11. ^ "Normales et records pour Beziers-Courtade (34)". Meteociel. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  12. ^ Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Béziers, EHESS. (in French)
  13. ^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
  14. ^ Les allées Paul Riquet
  15. ^ This mechanised bypass was meant to relieve the bottleneck of the Fonserannes staircase locks and ease congestion, but, even though the design was a copy of a similar successful incline, it failed after only three operations and has lain disused ever since.
  16. ^ Midi Libre, 24 March 2008
  17. ^ "History". Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  18. ^ Aéroport de Béziers Cap d'Agde "Destinations". Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  19. ^ Travels with Lionel - Hart Massey
  20. ^ "Taiwan accentue sa coopération avec la ville de Béziers". taiwaninfo.nat.gov.tw (in French). Taiwan Info. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  21. ^ "Béziers: sur quatre jumelages, seul l'allemand perdure". midilibre.fr (in French). Midi Libre. 29 September 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2019.

Sources

External links

  • Official tourist office website for visiting Béziers 7 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine (In English)
  • Official website city of Béziers.
  • Photos "Festa d'Oc
  • History of Béziers
  • Béziers Congrès 11 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine

béziers, type, mathematically, defined, curve, bézier, curve, french, pronunciation, bezje, occitan, besièrs, subprefecture, hérault, department, occitanie, region, southern, france, every, august, hosts, famous, feria, which, centred, bullfighting, million, v. For the type of mathematically defined curve see Bezier curve Beziers French pronunciation bezje 3 4 Occitan Besiers is a subprefecture of the Herault department in the Occitanie region of Southern France Every August Beziers hosts the famous Feria de Beziers which is centred on bullfighting A million visitors are attracted to the five day event 5 Beziers Besiers Occitan Subprefecture and communeAerial view of BeziersFlagCoat of armsLocation of BeziersBeziersShow map of FranceBeziersShow map of OccitanieCoordinates 43 20 51 N 3 13 08 E 43 3476 N 3 219 E 43 3476 3 219 Coordinates 43 20 51 N 3 13 08 E 43 3476 N 3 219 E 43 3476 3 219CountryFranceRegionOccitaniaDepartmentHeraultArrondissementBeziersCantonBeziers 1 2 and 3IntercommunalityCA Beziers MediterraneeGovernment Mayor 2020 2026 Robert Menard 1 DVD Area195 48 km2 36 87 sq mi Population Jan 2019 2 78 308 Density820 km2 2 100 sq mi DemonymBiterroisTime zoneUTC 01 00 CET Summer DST UTC 02 00 CEST INSEE Postal code34032 34500Elevation4 120 m 13 394 ft avg 17 m or 56 ft 1 French Land Register data which excludes lakes ponds glaciers gt 1 km2 0 386 sq mi or 247 acres and river estuaries The town is located on a small bluff above the river Orb about 10 kilometres 6 2 miles from the Mediterranean coast and 75 kilometres 47 miles southwest of Montpellier At Beziers the Canal du Midi passes over the river Orb by means of the Pont canal de l Orb an aqueduct claimed to be the first of its kind 6 Contents 1 History 1 1 Massacre at Beziers 1 2 Later Middle Ages 1 3 Early modern times 1 4 French Revolution 1 5 Napoleon the Third 1851 1 6 The Languedoc vine growers revolt in Beziers 1907 2 Geography 2 1 Climate 3 Population 4 Attractions 5 Economy 6 Transport 7 Sport 8 Notable people 9 Cultural references 10 Twinned towns 11 Gallery 12 See also 13 References 13 1 Sources 14 External linksHistory EditBeziers is one of the oldest cities in France Research published in March 2013 shows that Beziers dates from 575 BCE making it older than Agde Greek Agathe Tyche founded in 525 BCE and slightly younger than Marseille Greek Massalia founded in 600 BCE 7 The site has been occupied since Neolithic times before the influx of Celts Roman Betarra was on the road that linked Provence with Iberia The Romans refounded the city as a new colonia for veterans in 36 35 BCE and called it Colonia Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum Stones from the Roman amphitheatre were used to construct the city wall during the third century Beziers exported wine to Rome A dolia discovered in an excavation near Rome is marked I am a wine from Baeterrae and I am five years old Another is simply marked white wine of Baeterrae citation needed Beziers was conquered by the Muslims and remained part of Islamic Iberia between 720 and 752 From the 10th to the 12th centuries Beziers was the centre of a Viscountship of Beziers citation needed The viscounts ruled most of the coastal plain around Beziers including the town of Agde They also controlled the major east west route through Languedoc which roughly follows the old Roman Via Domitia with the two key bridges over the Orb at Beziers and over the Herault at Saint Thibery citation needed After the death of Viscount William around 990 the viscounty passed to his daughter Garsendis and her husband Count Raimond Roger of Carcassonne d c 1012 It was then ruled by their son Peter Raimond d c 1060 and his son Roger d 1067 both of whom were also counts of Carcassonne citation needed Roger died without issue and Beziers passed to his sister Ermengard and her husband Raimond Bertrand Trencavel The Trencavels ruled for the next 142 years until the Albigensian Crusade a formal crusade holy war authorised by Pope Innocent III citation needed Massacre at Beziers Edit Main article Massacre at Beziers Beziers was when a Languedoc stronghold of Catharism which the Catholic Church condemned as heretical and which Catholic forces exterminated in the Albigensian Crusade The crusaders reached Beziers on 21 July 1209 Beziers Catholics were given an ultimatum to hand over the heretics or leave before the crusaders besieged the city and to avoid sharing their fate and perishing with them 8 However many refused and resisted with the Cathars The town was sacked the following day and in the bloody massacre no one was spared not even Catholic priests and those who took refuge in the churches citation needed One of the commanders of the crusade was the Papal legate Arnaud Amaury or Arnald Amalaricus abbot of Citeaux When asked by a crusader how to tell Catholics from Cathars once they had taken the city the abbot supposedly replied Caedite eos Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius Kill them all for the Lord knoweth them that are His This oft quoted phrase is sourced from Caesarius of Heisterbach along with a story of all the heretics who desecrated a copy of the Gospels and threw it down from the town s walls 9 Amalric s own version of the siege described in his letter to Pope Innocent III in August 1209 col 139 states While discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics the servants and other persons of low rank and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders To our amazement crying to arms to arms within the space of two or three hours they crossed the ditches and the walls and Beziers was taken Our men spared no one irrespective of rank sex or age and put to the sword almost 20 000 people After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt 10 The invaders burned the Cathedral of Saint Nazaire which collapsed on those who had taken refuge inside The town was pillaged and burnt By some accounts none were left alive by others there were a handful of survivors citation needed A plaque opposite the cathedral records the Day of Butchery perpetrated by the northern barons citation needed Later Middle Ages Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed October 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message Despite the massacre the city was repopulated A few parts of the Romanesque cathedral of St Nazaire had survived the carnage and repairs started in 1215 The restoration along with that of the rest of the city continued until the 15th century Beziers became part of the royal domain in 1247 Rule of the city was for a long time divided among three powers the Bishopric which reached its apogee in the 16th and 17th centuries when it was held by the Bonsi family allied to the Medici the consuls local magistrates created at the end of the 12th century and finally the king represented by a Viguier for judicial affairs and from the 17th century onwards by a sub delegate of the Intendant Beziers was not damaged in the Hundred Years War On 8 September 1381 a riot broke out at the seat of the municipal council rioters setting the Town House on fire The councillors tried to take refuge in the tower but fire spread there as well and they all died either by fire or in jumping from the tower to the square Early modern times Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed October 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message King Charles IX passed through the city during his royal tour of France 1564 1566 accompanied by the Court and the great men of the kingdom his brother Henry the Duke of Anjou his distant cousin Henri of Navarre and the Cardinal of Bourbon with the Cardinal of Lorraine In 1551 Beziers became the seat of a seneschal being removed from the jurisdiction of the seneschals of Carcassonne The city served as a rear base during various wars of the modern period especially those against the Habsburgs It was only once directly threatened During the War of the Spanish Succession the British in 1710 landed at Sete and moved to within a few kilometres of Beziers before being repulsed by the Duke of Roquelaure Beziers was at the heart of the Montmorency Revolt in 1632 It was in Beziers that Gaston d Orleans and Henri II de Montmorency Governor of Languedoc met at the beginning of the rebellion It was also here that the king by the Edict of Beziers October 1632 abolished the privileges of the province They were restored in 1649 During the 18th century Beziers prospered notably thanks to the cultivation of vines which enabled it to become an important centre for alcohol trading French Revolution Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed October 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message During the French Revolution citizens of Beziers met in a revolutionary society created in May 1790 and numbering up to 400 members It had several successive names first The Literary and Patriotic Cabinet a name still derived from the social life of the Ancien Regime it then became Society of the Friends of the Constitution and Liberty Later becoming affiliated to the Jacobin Club of Paris the Beziers organization was accordingly renamed the Society of the Jacobins then the abolition of the French monarchy precipitated two further changes of name Society of Brothers and Friends of the Republic and then Regenerated Society of the Jacobins Friends of the Republic From 1790 to 1800 Beziers was the chief town of the district of Beziers The city did not take part in the Girondin Federalist movement Napoleon the Third 1851 Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed October 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message In the repression following Louis Napoleon s coup d etat in 1851 troops fired on and killed Republican protesters in Beziers Others were condemned to death or transported to Guiana including a former mayor who died at sea attempting to escape from there In the Place de la Revolution a plaque and a monument by Jean Antoine Injalbert commemorates these events Injalbert also designed the Fontaine du Titan in Beziers Plateau des Poetes park The Languedoc vine growers revolt in Beziers 1907 Edit Main article Revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed October 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message While elsewhere in France the area planted with vines was decreasing it increased in the Departments of Aude Gard Herault and the Pyrenees Orientales Together these supplied some 40 of French wine production Haut Languedoc and more particularly the Biterrois and Beziers proclaimed themselves to be The World Capital of Wine and grew rapidly Great fortunes were made Large landowners coming from industry finance or the liberal professions gained possession of immense vineyards There was also a growing foreign competition with smuggled wines appearing on the market The fraudsters remained unpunished In 1892 the winegrowers of the Midi demanded The restoration and enforcement of customs duties But the market remained partly held by wines made from imported dried grapes such as grapes from Corinth and wines called wet adulterated with water Though the vintners attached great importance to this unfair competition in fact it did not represent more than 5 of the market citation needed On 12 May 1907 no less than 150 000 protesters gathered in Beziers with the declared aim of Defending the Southern Viticulture The crowd spilled into Paul Riquet and the Champ de Mars The slogans on the banners Proclaimed Victory or death Enough of talking the time has come for action Death to fraudsters Bread or death Live by working or die fighting The demonstrators who came from more than 200 communes were joined by numerous Biterrois employees and shopkeepers The event ended with speeches on the Place de la Citadelle now Place Jean Jaures the Speakers included Marcelin Albert who issued an ultimatum to the government demanding that it raise the price of wine Ernest Ferroul who advocated tax refusal and the Beziers Mayor Emile Suchon close to Clemenceau who took a stand in support of the winegrowers struggle There were some minor incidents during the dispersal of the demonstrators On 16 May the Beziers municipal council of Radical and Socialist tendency resigned The pressure of the street continued The police station and the town hall facade were set on fire Alerted Georges Clemenceau decided to launch a counterattack The 17th regiment of line infantry composed of reservists and conscripts was on his orders transferred from Beziers to Agde on 18 June 1907 On the evening of 20 June learning of the Narbonne shooting about 500 soldiers of the 6th company of the 17th regiment mutinied plundered the armory and headed for Beziers They traveled about twenty kilometers by night On 21 June in the early morning they arrived in town They were warmly welcomed by the Biterrois fraternizing with the demonstrators and peacefully opposing the armed forces The soldiers sat down on the Allees Paul Riquet and the population offered them wine and food The South was on the brink of insurrection In Paulhan the railway was taken out of commission by protesters who stopped a military convoy sent to quell the mutineers In Lodeve the sub prefect was taken hostage The military authorities were not ready to accept this mutiny apprehensive that the example of the 17th regiment would give similar ideas to other regiments in the region In Paris the Republic trembled as Clemenceau had to face a vote of no confidence However he survived by letting the military command urgently negotiate with the mutineers In the afternoon after obtaining a guarantee that no sanctions will be imposed on them the 17th soldiers put down their arms and marched to the station under escort without any major incident On 22 June they returned by train to their barracks Clemenceau announced the end of the mutiny and gained a parliamentary vote of confidence by 327 votes to 223 On 23 June a law was finally passed which repressed the massive chaptalisation of the wines Negotiations and the scale of the movement prevented collective punishment the mutineers of the 17th were assigned to Gafsa Tunisia a place where soldiers were often sent for disciplinary companies but these soldiers remained outside this framework and were under ordinary military status There was therefore no penal sanction for the revolt of the 17th contrary to the legend that developed on this subject However during the First World War haunted by their reputation as deserters many of them were sent to the front line particularly in the bloody assaults of 1914 The mutiny of soldiers of the 17th has remained in historical memory especially with the words of Montehus anti militarist song Gloire au 17 with the refrain Salute salute to you Brave soldiers of the seventeenth Geography EditClimate Edit Beziers has a Mediterranean climate Koppen climate classification Csa The average annual temperature in Beziers is 15 1 C 59 2 F The average annual rainfall is 595 7 mm 23 45 in with October as the wettest month The temperatures are highest on average in July at around 24 1 C 75 4 F and lowest in January at around 7 5 C 45 5 F The highest temperature ever recorded in Beziers was 42 0 C 107 6 F on 7 July 1982 the coldest temperature ever recorded was 16 0 C 3 2 F on 16 January 1985 Climate data for Beziers 1981 2010 averages extremes 1970 present Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec YearRecord high C F 21 5 70 7 24 7 76 5 29 2 84 6 32 4 90 3 35 9 96 6 39 2 102 6 42 0 107 6 41 3 106 3 38 8 101 8 33 2 91 8 25 7 78 3 22 0 71 6 42 0 107 6 Average high C F 11 6 52 9 12 7 54 9 16 0 60 8 18 4 65 1 22 5 72 5 27 3 81 1 30 7 87 3 30 1 86 2 25 9 78 6 20 7 69 3 15 3 59 5 12 1 53 8 20 3 68 5 Daily mean C F 7 5 45 5 8 1 46 6 11 0 51 8 13 3 55 9 17 1 62 8 21 2 70 2 24 1 75 4 23 6 74 5 19 9 67 8 16 0 60 8 11 2 52 2 8 1 46 6 15 1 59 2 Average low C F 3 4 38 1 3 5 38 3 6 0 42 8 8 2 46 8 11 7 53 1 15 0 59 0 17 6 63 7 17 2 63 0 13 9 57 0 11 3 52 3 7 0 44 6 4 1 39 4 9 9 49 8 Record low C F 16 0 3 2 7 4 18 7 9 6 14 7 4 1 24 6 0 2 32 4 5 9 42 6 7 8 46 0 7 6 45 7 2 5 36 5 4 0 24 8 9 3 15 3 9 0 15 8 16 0 3 2 Average precipitation mm inches 53 3 2 10 63 3 2 49 37 7 1 48 49 6 1 95 47 0 1 85 27 6 1 09 16 9 0 67 29 4 1 16 56 9 2 24 91 1 3 59 68 8 2 71 54 1 2 13 595 7 23 45 Average precipitation days 1 0 mm 5 3 4 8 4 6 5 5 5 6 3 7 2 2 3 8 3 8 5 7 5 1 5 0 55 0Source Meteociel 11 Population EditThe inhabitants of Beziers are known as Biterrois after Baeterrae the Roman name for the town Historical populationYearPop p a 179312 501 180014 535 2 18 180614 565 0 03 182116 140 0 69 183116 769 0 38 183616 233 0 65 184118 874 3 06 184619 596 0 75 185119 333 0 27 185623 557 4 03 186124 270 0 60 186627 722 2 70 187231 468 2 13 187638 227 4 98 188142 915 2 34 188642 785 0 06 189145 475 1 23 189648 012 1 09 YearPop p a 190152 310 1 73 190652 268 0 02 191151 042 0 47 192156 008 0 93 192665 754 3 26 193171 527 1 70 193673 305 0 49 194664 561 1 26 195464 929 0 07 196273 538 1 57 196880 481 1 52 197584 029 0 62 198276 647 1 31 199070 996 0 95 199969 153 0 29 200772 462 0 59 201272 970 0 14 201777 177 1 13 Graphs are temporarily unavailable due to technical issues Source EHESS 12 and INSEE 1968 2017 13 Attractions EditSaint Nazaire Cathedral Situated in the high part of town it occupies a picturesque site visible from afar when approaching Beziers on the road from Narbonne A remarkable example of middle Gothic architecture from the 14th century the vaulted nave 14 m 45 93 ft wide reaches a height of 32 m 104 99 ft The total length is 50 m 164 04 ft The western rose window has a diameter of 10 m 32 81 ft The Plateau des Poetes 1867 This vast English style formal park was laid out by landscape artists the Bulher brothers It contains numerous statues of poets and a monumental fountain of the Titan by Injalbert The park connects the station with the allees Paul Riquet The allees Paul Riquet where a large bronze statue by David d Angers celebrates the creator of the Canal du Midi Pierre Paul Riquet The same sculptor created the bas reliefs which decorate the neo Classical facade of the Municipal Theatre 1844 at the top of the allees 14 At times of the Feria festivities are centred in these alleys Arenas Beziers has two arenas one dating from the Roman era whose structures and foundations have been preserved following major works in the Saint Jacques district and the other built in 1905 in the style of Spanish bullrings by Fernand Castelbon de Beauxhostes The latter is one of the largest such structures in France seating 13 100 The arena hosts concerts and every August a bullfighting festival the Feria The Fine Arts Museum musee des Beaux Arts founded in 1859 received in 1934 the legacy of Injalbert s widow and in 1975 drawings and the art collection of Jean Moulin Among the museum s works are canvasses by Hans Holbein Sebastien Bourdon Gericault Vincent van Gogh Chaim Soutine and Henri Goetz The musee Saint Jacques installed in a former barracks has collections showing life in the Beziers region Biterrois Le Pont Vieux is a stone bridge crossing the Orb Middle Ages Le Cimetiere Vieux Old Cemetery created in the 18th century is a true open air museum with numerous tombs and works of art by local sculptors including Jean Magrou and Injalbert Pierre Paul Riquet s Canal du Midi 17th century Beziers installations the Pont canal de l Orb canal aqueduct the Fonserannes staircase locks the hapless Fonserannes water slope 15 and the Fonserannes lock continuation now also hors service to the River Orb Other sites and monuments The Cordier or Bagnols mill Saint Jacques Church The Saint Aphrodise Church Church of the Madeleine Saint Jude Church Church of the Immaculate Conception and its glazed tile roof The Capnau quarter Island of Tabarka on the Orb The Municipal Theatre 19th century The Art Nouveau former Theatre des Varietes The market hall end of the 19th century The Saint Jean d Aureilhan estate The Domaine de Bayssan Chapelle du Jardin Notre Dame 18th century Chapelle des Penitents Bleus 18th century Other sights in the area include the Oppidum d Enserune archaeological site and the Etang de Montady a marsh drained in 1247 to create a field and irrigation system which is visible from the Oppidum d Enserune Economy EditBeziers is a principal centre of the Languedoc viticulture and wine making industries Transport EditRoad The A9 autoroute between Italy and Spain skirts Beziers The final link in the A75 autoroute between Pezenas and the A9 was completed in December 2010 and provides direct links to Clermont Ferrand and Paris Rail The Gare de Beziers is a railway station with connections to Toulouse Montpellier Bordeaux Marseille Paris Barcelona and several regional destinations TGV trains stop in Beziers but the tracks between Montpellier and Spain are not yet high speed tracks Air Beziers Cap d Agde Airport previously Beziers Agde Vias Airport owned by the Chamber of commerce and industry provides connections to destinations in northern Europe Following an extension to the runway which was completed in March 2007 Ryanair began flights to and from Bristol Airport in March 2008 and later to London Stansted and London Luton Airport 16 Current January 2013 destinations from this airport with Ryanair are Bristol London Luton Airport Paris Beauvais Oslo Rygge Manchester Edinburgh Weeze Airport 17 and Stockholm Skavsta while Flybe serves Southampton 18 Canal Primarily used today by trip boats and plaisanciers the Canal du Midi is still used commercially to carry Languedoc wine to Bordeaux for blending 19 The canals locks have a maximum length of 30 m slightly less than the 38 5 m adopted under the later Freycinet standard Although parts of the River Orb are navigable they river is interrupted by a number of impassable weirs Sport EditBeziers rugby union team is AS Beziers Herault the football team is AS Beziers 2007 who play in Championnat National 2 Notable people EditJedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi 1270 1340 poet philosopher and physician Abraham Bedersi 13th century Provencal Jewish poet Pierre Paul Riquet 1609 or 1604 1680 engineer and canal builder responsible for the construction of the Canal du Midi Paul Pellisson 1624 1693 author Jean Barbeyrac 1674 1744 jurist Jean Jacques d Ortous de Mairan 1678 1771 geophysicist Jean Henri Nicolas Bouillet 1729 1790 physician and Encyclopediste mayor of Beziers from 1787 to 1790 Pierre Jean Porro 1750 1831 guitarist composer and music publisher Joseph Henri baron de Jesse 1755 1794 nobleman and president of the National Constituent Assembly Jean Gailhac 1802 1890 priest educator and founder of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Agenor Azema de Montgravier 1805 1863 archeologist and Chef d escadron in the Artillery Jean Antoine Ernest Constans 1833 1913 statesman Jean Antoine Injalbert 1845 1933 sculptor Valentin Duc 1858 1915 operatic tenor Gustave Fayet 1865 1925 artist art collector owner of Abbaye de Fontfroide Jean Magrou 1869 1945 sculptor Henri Fescourt 1880 1946 film director Mario Cazes 1890 1972 composer conductor and violinist Jean Moulin 1899 1943 a hero of the French Resistance in the Second World War Edgar Faure 1908 1988 statesman Gabriel Bacquier 1924 2020 baritone Christian Metz 1931 1993 film theorist Jean Pierre Escalettes b 1935 former president of the French Football Federation 2005 2010 Elisabeth Daynes b 1960 sculptor Damien Comolli b 1972 football director Julien Rodriguez b 1978 Olympique de Marseille footballer Jeremy Clement b 1984 Saint Etienne footballer Aurelie Kamga b 1985 athlete Alexandra Rosenfeld b 1986 Miss France 2006 Miss Europe 2006 Richard Gasquet b 1986 French tennis player Thomas Heurtel b 1989 basketball player Jim Pla b 1992 racing driver Amale b 1993 wrestlerCultural references EditThe Kate Mosse novels Labyrinth and The Winter Ghosts draw on the history of Carcassonne Beziers and the Cathars Alan Tunbridge commemorated the Cathars in his song Massacre at Beziers Parts of the town especially the cathedral figure prominently in Francois Truffaut s film Une belle fille comme moi Twinned towns EditSee also List of twin towns and sister cities in France Beziers is twinned with 20 21 Heilbronn Germany since 1965 Anping Tainan Taiwan Chiclana de la Frontera Spain since 1993 Stavropol Russia since 1982 Stockport United Kingdom since 1972 Maaloula Syria since 2014Gallery Edit The old bridge Map Saint Nazaire cathedral Le domaine de Saint Jean d Aureilhan neo Gothic style tower 19th century Eglise de la Madeleine Place Gabriel Peri View from Beziers to the river Orb showing a weir and the Ancien Moulin de Bagnols Fonserannes Locks on the Canal du MidiSee also EditGuillaume Bottazzi painter of a mural Les Muriers Blancs on eight facades of two buildings in Beziers Communes of the Herault department Occitania SeptimaniaReferences Edit Repertoire national des elus les maires in French data gouv fr Plateforme ouverte des donnees publiques francaises 13 September 2022 Populations legales 2019 The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies 29 December 2021 Wells John C 2008 Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd ed Longman ISBN 9781405881180 Beziers Deutsch Ubersetzung Langenscheidt Franzosisch Deutsch Worterbuch in German and French Langenscheidt Retrieved 22 October 2018 Beziers Tourist Site Beyond fr tourist site Ludovic Trabuchet 11 March 2013 Des revelations sur le passe grec de Beziers Midi Libre in French Archived from the original on 15 March 2013 Retrieved 26 March 2013 Claude Lebedel 2011 Understanding the tragedy of the Cathars Editions Ouest France 2011 p 59f ISBN 978 2 7373 5267 6 Medieval Sourcebook Caesarius of Heisterbach Medieval Heresies Waldensians Albigensians Intellectuals Fordham University Retrieved 16 September 2011 Albigensian Crusade Normales et records pour Beziers Courtade 34 Meteociel Retrieved 5 June 2022 Des villages de Cassini aux communes d aujourd hui Commune data sheet Beziers EHESS in French Population en historique depuis 1968 INSEE Les allees Paul Riquet This mechanised bypass was meant to relieve the bottleneck of the Fonserannes staircase locks and ease congestion but even though the design was a copy of a similar successful incline it failed after only three operations and has lain disused ever since Midi Libre 24 March 2008 History Retrieved 8 April 2015 Aeroport de Beziers Cap d Agde Destinations Retrieved 21 January 2013 Travels with Lionel Hart Massey Taiwan accentue sa cooperation avec la ville de Beziers taiwaninfo nat gov tw in French Taiwan Info 16 February 2015 Retrieved 21 November 2019 Beziers sur quatre jumelages seul l allemand perdure midilibre fr in French Midi Libre 29 September 2013 Retrieved 21 November 2019 Sources Edit Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Beziers Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed Cambridge University Press External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beziers Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Beziers Official tourist office website for visiting Beziers Archived 7 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine In English Official website city of Beziers Website of Beziers and Biterrois Photos Festa d Oc History of Beziers Beziers Congres Archived 11 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Beziers amp oldid 1149575245, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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