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Concept
Uzès
Summary
Uzès (y.zɛs; Usès) is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. In 2017, it had a population of 8,454. Uzès lies about north-northeast of Nîmes, west of Avignon, and south-east of Alès.
Originally Ucetia or Eutica in Latin, Uzès was a small Gallo-Roman oppidum, or administrative settlement. The town lies at the source of the Alzon river, at Fontaine d'Eure, from where a Roman aqueduct was built in the first century BC, to supply water to city of Nîmes, away. The most famous stretch of the aqueduct is the Pont du Gard, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which carried fresh water over splendid arches across the Gardon river.
Jews were apparently settled there as early as the 5th century. Saint Ferréol, Bishop of Uzès, was said to have admitted them to his table. Complaints were made of him to King Childebert I for this issue, whereupon the bishop was required to turn against them, expelling those Jews from Uzès who would not convert to Christianity. After his death (581), many of the converts who had been baptised returned to Judaism. In 614 the Christian government expelled Jews from the region.
In early 8th century, Uzès was a fortified civitas and bishopric under the Archbishop of Narbonne. During the Umayyad conquest of Gothic Septimania, Uzès became the northernmost stronghold of Muslim Spain circa 725. Charles Martel laid siege to the stronghold in 736, but it remained in Gothic-Andalusian hands up to 752. That year counts loyal to Ansemund of Nîmes ceded numerous of strongholds to the Frankish Pepin the Short. In 753 the stronghold rebelled against the Franks after Ansemund's assassination, but the uprising was suppressed and a Frankish trustee of Pepin imposed.
In the 13th century, Uzès hosted a small community of Jewish scholars, as well as a community of Cathars.
Like many cloth-manufacturing centers (Uzès was known for its serges), residents of the city and the surrounding countryside had become strongly Protestant during the 16th century, and religious and class conflicts played out in the Wars of Religion.
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