Barbentane

Barbentane (; oc, Barbentana) is a commune of the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southern France.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Barbentanais'' or ''Barbentanaises'' in French.

Geography

Barbentane is located at the northernmost point of the Bouches-du-Rhône department immediately south-west of Avignon near a rocky plateau and stretching a few kilometres across a flat low area and low hills where the urban area is located. The northern border of the commune is the departmental border between Bouches-du-Rhône and Vaucluse in the east, which passes through the commune and the town and continues west, then south-west, to Boulbon. The D570N from Graveson in the south-east passes along the eastern border of the commune then goes east to Rognonas. The D34 goes east from the town to join the D570N. The D77D goes south-east from the town and also joins the D5470N. The D35E goes south from the village to join the D81 in the south. The main railway line from Avignon to the south passes through the east of the commune with the Barbentane-Rognonas Station east of the town. Apart from the town there are also the districts of La Chinquine, Carrière, Le Grand Roumette, Cambageon, Fontgisclar, La Bruyère, Bragalance, and Mas de Basette. The slopes in the south of the commune are forested while the rest of the commune is mostly farmland, with an urban area containing a significantly sized town at the base of the slopes.Google Maps
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Hydrography

The north-western tip of the commune is the confluence of the Durance river, which forms the western border. The ''Canal des Alpines'' comes from the east and passes through the commune to continue south-west, parallel to the Rhône.

Geology

From a geological point of view there are two components of the commune's surface area:

* to the north and east, facing the present town, is a large plain which dates from the recent Quaternary period. It consists of modern alluvium from the Rhône and the Durance is located at one metre deep under very rich and intensely cultivated land which has neither pebbles nor gravel;
* to the west and south the Montagnette massif was formed by two uprisings. The first dates from the Neocomian period (70 million years ago) and the other is Miocene (10 million years ago).

This ''Montagnette'' hilly area has an area of about 6000 hectares, of which 2/3 are covered with Aleppo pines. About a quarter of the area is in the commune of Barbentane but the highest point, at 167m, is in the commune of Boulbon at ''Mount Raous'', about 800m west of Frigolet Abbey.

Toponymy

The first written evidence of Barbentane dates from the 9th century. Despite its late appearance this ancient name probably indicates a water source at the foot of a rocky rise: in Ligurian the syllable ''ar'' refers to water and ''tan'' to a cliff; and the prefixes ''barva'' or ''borvo'' are widespread throughout Europe. The etymology of Barbentane would be closer to spa towns such as La Bourboule, Barbotan-les-Thermes, etc.

Until the end of the 19th century the spelling was ''Barbantane'' with an "a" but the name is now consistently always spelled with an e instead, as Barbentane.

Barbentane is called ''Barbentana'' according to the classical norm of Occitan and ''Barbentano'' according to the Mistralian norm.

History

Prehistory and Antiquity

Originally there were three separate occupied sites on the territory. The oldest is ''Fretta'' which disappeared in the 6th century but whose name has survived in the form of ''Frigolet''. The other two sites of ''Bellinto'' and ''Barbentane'' are much better-known.

In 1957 excavations near the site of Fretta, a Chasséen human bone was discovered in a burial pit (right parietal bone from the 5th millennium BC) amongst various flints and animal bones (near Carrière district).

The Ligurians were the oldest people in the area who retained their name. Over time they associated with the Celts which resulted in the Celto-Ligurians. The name ''Bellinto'' came from these Celto-Ligurians (''Bel'' meaning "ferry" and ''linto'' meaning "flat-bottomed boat") for the place where a ferry was permitted to cross the Durance to Jerusalem. Well before that date, however, Bellinto already existed and it is likely that the most illustrious of its occupants during this period was Gaius Marius. This Roman general established his camp in the Montagnette before going to crush the Cimbri and the Teutons on the plain of Pourrières (near Aix-en-Provence) in 102 BC.

This came at the time of the Pax Romana which lasted for four centuries and of which many vestiges remain (sarcophagi and foundations in the upper village, etc.)

Middle Ages

A time of peace was followed the successive invasions of the Alemanni, the Vandals, the Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, the Franks, the Lombards, the Normans, and the Saracens.

The first known mention of a lord, in 1133, concerned Guillaume de Barbentane whose direct descendants until Marquis ''Henry de Puget de Cabassole du Réal de Barbentane'' were always from Barbentane. Guillaume lived in the ''Maison des Chevaliers'' (Knight's House), completed in 1178. As a borderland, Barbentane was alternately a fief of the Kingdom of France and of the Holy Roman Empire. It also benefited as a place of passage: a ferry crossing of the Durance