Béziers

**Béziers** () is a commune in the Hérault département in the Occitanie region in southern France. It is a subprefecture of the department and also the capital of the *arrondissement* of the same name.

Béziers is one of the oldest cities in France. Research shows that Béziers was built by Greeks in the 6th century BC. Some archaeologists think that Béziers could be the oldest town of France, even before Marseille.

## History 
The site where is Béziers has been occupied since Neolithic times, before the arrival of Celts. Roman *Betarra* was on the road that linked Provence with Iberia. The Romans refounded the city as a new place for veterans in 36–35&nbsp;BC and called it *Colonia Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum*. Stones from the Roman amphitheatre were used to construct the city wall during the 3rd century. The city was occupied by the Moors between 720 and 752.

Béziers was a Languedoc stronghold of Catharism, which the Catholic Church condemned as heretical and which Catholic forces exterminated in the Albigensian Crusade.

Béziers was the first place to be attacked. The crusaders got to the town on 21 July 1209 and burned the cathedral of Saint Nazaire. A few parts of the Romanesque cathedral survived, and repairs started in 1215. The restoration, along with that of the rest of the city, continued until the 15th century.

After the Louis Napoléon's coup d'état in 1851, troops killed protesters in Béziers. Others were condemned to death or taken to the Guiana.

## Geography 
The city is in the southeastern of the department, in the plain of Hérault (the *plaine héraultoise*). It is on a small cliff on the eastern side of the Orb river, a tributary of the Hérault river.

The *commune* has an area of , the largest *commune* in the department, and is at an altitude of about  above sea level. Béziers is at  to the southeast of the city of Montpellier and at  from the Mediterranean Sea.

The *commune* of Béziers is surrounded by the *communes* Boujan-sur-Libron, Maraussan, Lignan-sur-Orb, Villeneuve-lès-Béziers, Corneilhan, Sauvian, Colombiers, Cers, Montady, Maureilhan, Bassan and Vendres.

### Climate
The climate of Béziers, in the Köppen climate classification, is **Csa** - Mediterranean climate with hot summers.

## Population
The inhabitants of Béziers are known, in French, as *Biterrois* (women: *Biterroises*), from *Baeterrae*, the Latin name of the city.

With a population of 75,701, Béziers has a population density of  inhabitants/km2.

**Evolution of the population in Béziers**

Colors=
  id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
  id:darkgrey  value:gray(0.7)
  id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1)
  id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8)

ImageSize = width:500 height:373
PlotArea = left:50 bottom:30 top:30 right:30
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:90000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:10000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:5000 start:0
BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo

BarData=
 bar:1968 text:1968
 bar:1975 text:1975
 bar:1982 text:1982
 bar:1990 text:1990
 bar:1999 text:1999
 bar:2008 text:2008
 bar:2014 text:2014

PlotData=
 color:barra width:30 align:left

 bar:1968 from:0 till: 80481
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 84029
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 76647
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 70996
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 69153
 bar:2008 from:0 till: 71672
 bar:2014 from:0 till: 75701

PlotData=
 bar:1968 at: 80481 fontsize:S text: 80,481 shift:(-12,5)
 bar:1975 at: 84029 fontsize:S text: 84,029 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1982 at: 76647 fontsize:S text: 76,647 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1990 at: 70996 fontsize:S text: 70,996 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1999 at: 69153 fontsize:S text: 69,153 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2008 at: 71672 fontsize:S text: 71,672 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 75701 fontsize:S text: 75,701 shift:(-18,5)

Béziers forms with other four *communes* the urban area of Béziers with a population of 89,243 inhabitants (2013) and an area of . This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Béziers, formed by 40 *communes* with a population of 168,960 inhabitants (2013) and an area of .

## Administration 
Béziers is a subprefecture of the Hérault department, the capital of the *arrondissement* of Béziers and the administrative centre () of three cantons: Béziers-1, Béziers-2 and Béziers-3.

It is part of the intercommunality *Béziers Méditerranée* ().

### Sister cities 
Béziers is twinned with:
*  Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, since 1993
*  Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, since 1965
*  Stavropol, Stavropol Krai, Russia, since 1982
*  Stockport, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, since 1972

## Sites of interest 
* **Saint-Nazaire Cathedral** (*Cathédrale Saint-Nazaire*), from the 14th century.
* **Pont Vieux**, a stone bridge over the Orb, from the Middle Ages.
* **Canal du Midi**, a canal (17th century).

## Gallery 

File:Cathédrale Saint-Nazaire de Béziers et Pont Vieux de Béziers 2005-08-29.jpg|St. Nazaire cathedral and *Pont Vieux*.
File:Cathédrale Saint-Nazaire Béziers.JPG|*Saint-Nazaire* cathedral.
File:Beziers pont canal.jpg|*Canal du Midi* crossing the Orb river in Béziers.
File:Hôtel de ville de Béziers-6197.jpg|Town hall of Béziers.

## Related pages
* Arrondissement of Béziers
* Communes of the Hérault department

## References
## Other websites
* Ville de Béziers website 
* Communauté d'agglomération Béziers Méditerranée website 
* Béziers in Méditerranée Tourism Office