Bourg-Saint-Andéol (; ) is a commune in the

Ardèche Ardèche (; , ; ) is a Departments of France, department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche (river), Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.department in the Rhône Valley in southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Geography

It lies directly along the river

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

at the southeast end of the department south of the smaller town Viviers, from Pierrelatte eastwards across the river in the ''département''

Drôme Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.

and from Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the north of the ''département'' of

Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;Ardèche Gorges in Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche.

History

The Gallic settlement on a rocky peak over the

was called ''Bergoiata''. Near the town is a sculpted

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

of the god

Mithras Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman Empire, Roman mystery religion focused on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian peoples, Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (''yazata'') Mit ...

. It acquired its present name after Saint Andeolus, the 'apostle of the

Vivarais Vivarais (; ; {{cite web , url=http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/orblatv.html , title = ORBIS LATINUS - Letter V) is a traditional region in the south-east of France, covering the ''département'' of Ardèche, named after its capital Vivier ...

', a disciple of St. Polycarp, supposedly arriving from Asia Minor, who evangelized the area under Emperor

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

, and was martyred in 208. The region was named ''Helvia'' in Julius Caesar's ''De Bello Gallico'', with Alba-la-Romaine as capital city, then

from the mediaeval times after the see of Viviers, a region of

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

province during Ancien Régime until ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

s'' were created at the French Revolution. Due to the citizen's engagement for the Revolution, the town's name rejected a while the little known saint and was named ''Bourg-sur-Rhône''. (At the Napoleonic times, Andéol had already been brought in back...) * It had been the seat of a ''bailli'' (royal magistrate). And the bishop of Viviers had settled several decades in Renaissance times in the city (the Bishops' Palace). It is the seat of the mother houses of the Congregation of the Presentation of Mary and of the Religious Congregations of the Presentation. The city had grown and become one of the most important towns of county

due to its position on the Rhône (boatmen ''mariniers du Rhône'', trade and business in hide, fabric, wine, oil). Several patricians' houses are still to be seen in the centre of the city (although a part of it was bombed by Allied forces at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, missing the hanging bridge - which was replaced afterwards by the existing one).

Economy

Bourg-Saint-Andéol is the shopping center for surrounding villages. In the mid 80es, several factories closed and economy almost drowned (ceramics). Nowadays, Pierrelatte with the site of

Tricastin The Tricastin () is a natural and historic region in the southern Rhône valley of southeastern France comprising the southwestern portion of the Drôme department and the northwestern portion of Vaucluse and centered on the modern town of Saint-P ...

, first atomic energy plant in France, makes that many residents of Bourg-Saint-Andéol earn their livelihood by working over the

. Another noticeable economical source of the area - already a typical

mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

zone - is wine, with the Côtes du Rhône ''méridionales'' (southern) gathering four other ''communes'' around the city (Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche, Saint-Just and Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche). An oil mill has been recently re-established for olive harvests in the area.

Tourism

The area is popular for tourism and summer homes, and the city is known as having the richest cultural heritage in

Mithra Mithra ( ; ) is an ancient Iranian deity ('' yazata'') of covenants, light, oaths, justice, the Sun, contracts, and friendship. In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing protector of Truth ( ...

near the Vauclusian springs of the Tourne. Several former noble or grand-bourgeois 18th century places are regularly used for local and visitors during summer season. A mediaeval fort with embellishments dating from the 15th and 17th century, the entire construction a classified historical monument, the Bishops' palace of Bourg-Saint-Andéol with inside the museum René Margotton, front of

, is one of the largest and most complex in the

region.

Population

Culture

* A national institute of clownery art has been settled in Bourg-Saint-Andéol, the ''Institut National des Arts du Clown''.

Twin cities

* Monschau in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

(

Eifel The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...

) since 1975 * Albertirsa in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

since 1998 * Gaggiano in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

since 2002

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourgsaintandeol Communes of Ardèche Ardèche communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia Populated places on the Rhône Populated riverside places in France