Largentière ( ; ''L'Argentièira'' in Occitan) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the
Ardèche
Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in the
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (ARA; ; frp, Ôvèrgne-Rôno-Ârpes; oc, Auvèrnhe Ròse Aups; it, Alvernia-Rodano-Alpi) is a region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Au ...
region in southern France.
It is located in the narrow valley of the Ligne, approximately ten kilometres southwest of Aubenas.
Largentiere is the smallest sub-prefecture in France.
Its name, adopted in the thirteenth century in place of its more ancient name Segualeriae (Ségualières), refers to the silver mines in the area between the tenth and fifteenth centuries, when the silver-bearing lead ores in intrusive veins in the Largentières sandstone were exploited under the authority of the Counts of Toulouse and the
Bishops of Viviers
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Viviers ( la, Dioecesis Vivariensis; french: Diocèse de Viviers ) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. Erected in the 4th century, the diocese was restored in the Concordat of 1822 ...
, whose title ''barons de Largentière'' was linked to the bishopric.
Population
Economy and transportation
A busy industrial town in the nineteenth century, when it housed silk mills its principal industry is now tourism. Its only railroad station was rased in 1982, leaving the town accessible only by road.
Sights
Besides its twelfth- to fifteenth-century château, the town conserves its thirteenth-century church, Nôtre-Dame-des-Pommiers,"Our Lady of the apple orchards"; an inscription of 1490 records the gift of the stone pulpit in Occitan: ''hieu Pierre Guarnier de Colens ay donat aquesta chadiera al convent''. its Renaissance hôtel de ville, its ''palais de justice'', and the ''Tour Argentière'' that collected the mines' produce for guarded transport.
Personalities
*
Joseph ben Abba Mari ben Joseph ben Jacob Caspi
Joseph ben Abba Meir ben Joseph ben Jacob Ibn Kaspi, also known as Yosef Caspi (1280 Arles—1345 Majorca),Kahan. M. Joseph Kaspi - from Arles to Majorca. ''Iberia Judaica'' VIII 016 pp. 181-192. At https://www.academia.edu/22766219/Kahan_M_JOS ...
(1279—1340), a prominent Jewish medieval philosopher.