Inheritance

2000 years of history for an exceptional architectural heritage
Menhirs and dolmens, oppida and Roman monuments, Roman churches and vaults, cathedrals and castles, villages and strengthened cities, the architectural heritage of Languedoc-Roussillon is of an opulent and rare diversity. Since Prehistory, in Tautavel, the men had elected as a hunting ground this ground of Roussillon covered today with vines. In Lozere, more than 150 menhirs stand on the only "the Cham of the Bung" close to Mende.

In Languedoc-Roussillon, the Roman vestiges are legion! In 118 before our era, the Roman proconsul Domitius founded the town of Narbonne and built Via Domitia, that was a real link between Rome and the territories conquered in Spain. In Nimes the arenas, perfectly preserved, the Carré House, the Temple of Diane or the Magne Tower, dominating the city, are some of the Roman jewels which enamel the area still today. At around fifty of kilometers from there, the Bridge of Gard, a symbol of the genius of the Roman builders, reveals their mastery, allowing the routing of water to Nimes.

The Middle Ages was the other ostentation period of the genius builder in Languedoc-Roussillon. Everywhere, cities and monuments still testify : in Gard, Aigues-Mortes and its high ramparts; Saint-Gilles on the Ways of Saint Jacques de Compostelle and his abbey with triple Roman gate, Uzès and its four medieval towers -, in Lozere the strengthened boroughs of Florac, Barre des Cevennes and Guard-Guerin; in Herault, Montpellier and its historical heart, with its Saint-Pierre cathedral and its sumptuous private mansions, or Saint Guilhem le Désert and its sublime abbey of Gellone.

In Aude, the imposing and fairy-like city of Carcassonne as well as the citadels of Aguilar, Peyrepertuse, Puilaurens, Quéribus, becoming refuges of Cathares, are the witnesses of a warlike Middle Age. The need to defend oneself initiates a particular architecture of the villages which a circular enclosure delimits, around the church or a castle.

In theEastern Pyrenees, Perpignan offers its majestic Palace of the Kings of Majorque, without forgetting the jewels of Romanesque art, appeared in Roussillon in X th century, with the abbeys of Saint Michel de Cuxa, Saint Martin of Canigou or the priory of Serrabone.

The XVth XVIth XVIIth and XVIIIth century also deposited in Languedoc-Roussillon a rich collection of architectural treasures. Louis XIV entrusts to Pierre-Paul Riquet, the realization of the Channel of The South.
Transformed into "Versailless du Languedoc" by the prince de Conti Armand de Bourbon, Pézenas also appears among the jewels of the regional inheritance. In another style, that is military, Vauban left in Roussillon some of his more beautiful prints: the "buried" castle of Salses, or the reinforced fortifications of Collioure, a franc city to Gonflent and Mount-Louis.

At the XVIIIth century, noble and notable make build private mansions or small castles in in the middle of gardens competing the refinement. Later, the cities bloom and the rise of the vineyard gives rise to residences called "madnesses".

Since the Eighties, the cities deliver a duel of contemporary architecture. The new materials replace the stone and are combined with glass and metal under the crook of great architects, like Norman Foster or Ricardo Bofill.