Nîmes. Descriptions & Excursions.

Nîmes is a city with population of 150 thousands inhabitants in the Occitanie region south-southwest of Lyon. Situated at the foot of some barren hills to the north and west of the city, Nîmes stands in a vine-planted plain extending south and east. The most famous 21 meter high Amphitheatre of Nimes was built for 20 thousand people probably in the 1st century CE.

Dubbed the most Roman city outside Italy, Nîmes has a rich history dating back to the Roman Empire when the city was a regional capital, and home to 50,000–60,000 people

Named after Nemausus, the genie of a sacred fountain, Nîmes was the capital of a Gaulish tribe that submitted to Rome in 121 BCE. The emperor Augustus founded a new city there and gave it privileges that rapidly brought it prosperity. In the 5th century Nîmes was plundered by the Vandals (a Germanic people) and the Visigoths (a westerly division of the Teutonic peoples known as the Goths). It was later occupied by the Saracens (Arabs), who were driven out in 737.

In the 10th century the city passed to the counts of Toulouse, and it was joined to the French crown in 1229. At the time of the Reformation, it became largely Protestant and suffered from persecution after the revocation in 1685 of the Edict of Nantes, which had accorded a measure of religious liberty to Protestants in 1598. Damaged in 1815 during the fighting between royalists and Bonapartists, Nîmes became prosperous once more with the coming of the railways later in the 19th century.

More informations You can find at the Official site of the Tourist Office of Nimes.