Valence, Drôme

• 1. The Door to the South

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  Valence has a saying: "À Valence le Midi commence." At Valence, the south begins. The city sits on the left bank of the Rhône, 100 km south of Lyon, at the place where every route between Paris and the Mediterranean converges. A Roman military camp took root on this river terrace more than two thousand years ago. From that camp grew a city that has spent the centuries since collecting remarkable stories. A medieval university once drew scholars from across Europe to this river town. A pope died here in exile, never making it back to Rome. A great writer studied in Valence before becoming one of the most celebrated figures in French literature. A young garrison soldier, stationed here in his twenties, would eventually reshape the continent. Each story has the same explanation. This city cannot be avoided.

• 2. The Roman Foundation

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  In August 121 BC, the army of Quintus Fabius Maximus defeated the Allobroges at the Battle of the Isère River. That victory cleared the Rhône corridor for Roman settlement. Valentia was planted on a terrace of the left bank, 5 km south of the Isère confluence. The name came from the Latin valentia, meaning strength. The city had been the seat of the Segovellauni, a Gallic people who already possessed a celebrated school before the conquest. Under Augustus it became a Roman colony. Under Valentinian I it was an important city of Viennensis Prima. Roman planners gave Valentia an orthonormal grid. Two orientations governed the streets, one inclined roughly 12 degrees east of north and the other about 23 degrees. The central artery was the Via Agrippa, running from the southern gate to the Tower of Aion in the north. Along its length stood a forum, probably flanked by a basilica, a curia, and a temple. The thermae were found between the Rue du Théâtre and Rue Vernoux. The city also had a circus, an amphitheatre near the Rhône, a theatre on its northern edge, and an odeon. The curved outline of the odeon is marked on the ground at the museum entrance today. The ramparts were built between 15 BC and 15 AD. Excavations in 1869 uncovered a monumental southern gate with two protruding towers. Its sandstone facade was decorated with a frieze of shields, leggings, and breastplates.

  In 413, the Visigoths under Ataulf seized the city. Successive waves of Burgundians and Franks followed. Each new power bricked up the Roman gates and severed the main axes of the ancient plan. One line of Burgundian succession left a notable trace: Chilperic II ruled Valence from 473 to 493, when he was killed by his brother Gundobad. His daughter Clotilde married Clovis, King of the Franks, in 493. In 890, the widow of King Boso of Provence had their son Louis III crowned King of Provence in Valence. That coronation showed how deeply the city had become embedded in the politics of the Frankish world.

• 3. The Medieval Crossing

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  At the end of the 15th century, Valence was the capital of hauling along the Rhône towpath. North of the city, vessels on the river could sometimes be sailed upstream. At Valence, the rise was particularly difficult, and boats faced a forced stop. An entire profession grew up around this constraint. Haulers pulled teams of boats and boat trains upstream, with crews numbering from a few dozen to several hundred men. Each man drew a mass of about a ton. The city was also one day's journey from Lyon and a crossroads into the mountain routes to the east. Salt was another driver of commerce. One of Valence's four medieval gates, the Saunière gate, took its name from the salt trade. The city was a regular stopping point on the pilgrimage road to Compostela.

  Two powers competed for control: the Bishop and the Count of Valentinois. In 1275, the pope united the bishopric of Valence with that of Die, strengthening the bishops against the counts. The citizens placed themselves under the protection of the dauphin. In 1456, Louis XI confirmed their rights and privileges on equal terms with those of the rest of Dauphiné. Louis II was the last count of Valentinois. On his death, his daughter Louise de Poitiers and close relatives sold the county in 1419 to the future Charles VII of France. In 1424, the County of Valentinois was formally attached to the crown. The second half of the 15th century and the opening of the 16th would come to be remembered as a golden age for the city.

• 4. Scholars and Schismatics

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  On the 26th of July 1452, the dauphin Louis, future Louis XI, founded the University of Valence. It grew quickly. Renowned professors arrived from many countries, including Jacques Cujas, who built the institution's reputation through teaching law, theology, medicine, and the arts. After his coronation, Louis XI confirmed his support by issuing letters patent for the university on the 12th of October 1461. In March 1480, the king was still personally supporting his preferred institution. The dauphin had earlier donated the Saunière gate to the city, along with several nearby houses. These became what was called a delphinal palace, later occupied by the Recollects. In 1476, during a stay in Valence, Louis XI allowed a market in the town and confirmed tax privileges for the city.

  This golden age ended in 1562. Troops under the Protestant Baron des Adrets occupied the city and partially or completely destroyed every religious building in Valence. The city had become the centre of Protestantism for the province by 1563. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 dealt a fatal blow to the city's industry, commerce, and population. The university disappeared in 1792 during the French Revolution and was reborn only at the end of the 20th century, eventually becoming part of the Community Grenoble Alpes University. The writer François Rabelais had passed through Valence earlier, studying here in 1532 before moving on to Lyon, where the library trade was flourishing.

• 5. The Smuggler and the Soldier

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  Valence had 7,100 inhabitants in the 1700s, and those inhabitants bore the burden of housing soldiers. In 1714, a municipal deliberation sought to ease the load. A barracks was built in the Rue Bouffier, a temporary camp that quickly proved too small. The city invested 190,000 livres to build a proper barracks in the Rollin quarter, north of the Roman road. That installation had to accommodate 12,000 men and 20,000 horses stationed in the city.

  In May 1755, the saga of Louis Mandrin ended in Valence. Mandrin had made himself a legend by stealing from the Ferme Générale, the royal tax-farming system, and redistributing the proceeds. After spending several days in the city prison, he was sentenced to death. He died on the breaking wheel. His body was displayed for three days, and people came from across the region to pay him a last tribute. His death in Valence ended his crimes but also began a legend, as he had marked the minds of his contemporaries deeply.

  Napoleon Bonaparte was assigned to Valence from 1785 to 1786, serving with the La Fère artillery regiment. He returned many times afterward. On the 12th of October 1799, crossing the city during his return from the Egyptian expedition, he stopped at the posthouse. His former landlady came to welcome him. He gave her a cashmere from India, later donated to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. He also left a compass and a powder spoon, both recorded in the collection of the Museum of Valence in 1862. That same day, Napoleon met the future Cardinal Spina, who would later negotiate on behalf of Pope Pius VII in the Concordat of 1801.

• 6. Revolution and Papal Exile

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  News of the storming of the Bastille reached the Valence region around the 20th of July 1789. It brought hope but also fear of an aristocratic counter-plot. A Great Fear swept through the villages of the region, and communities began arming themselves. National guards formed quickly, but local federations of mutual assistance also emerged, bypassing the old provincial divisions. The region held a series of federation celebrations through the winter and spring. Valence invited surrounding communities on the 31st of January and brought together 16,000 guards from 293 communes. The national Fête de la Fédération fell on the 14th of July 1790. It was celebrated simultaneously in Paris and in 250 other cities across France, including Valence.

  Pope Pius VI had been forced from the Vatican when France established the Roman Republic in 1798, placing the former Papal States under French control. He arrived in Valence in exile and died there on the 29th of August 1799, six weeks after reaching the city. He was the 250th pope of the Catholic Church and had reigned longer than any of his predecessors. After political intrigue lasting more than two years, his body did not leave Valence for the Vatican until the 24th of December 1801.

• 7. A City Under Fire

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  During World War II, Valence suffered several Allied aerial bombardments aimed at destroying the bridge over the Rhône. On the 2nd of August 1944, bombing of the railway depot at Portes-lès-Valence, south of the city, destroyed 51 locomotives. Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded among railway workers and the surrounding population. On the 15th of August 1944, bombs fell on the city itself, destroying several quarters and buildings including the hospital and killing 280 people. Four days later, on the 19th of August, a German train loaded with nitroglycerin exploded in the quarter of La Palla. The blast caused 335 casualties among civilians, soldiers, and resistance fighters. The northern part of the city was almost completely razed. Today that area is occupied by administrative buildings: the general treasury, social security offices, the post office, and police headquarters. From the old prefecture, only a single gate survived the destruction, and it has been carefully preserved since.

  In 1943, the Resistance in Drôme began to organise and grow throughout the department. The introduction of the STO, the forced labour programme, drove young men to refuse service in Germany and join the Maquis. Resistance cells spread in small units across the department, supported by a population that was increasingly willing to act.

• 8. The Armenian Quarter

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  After the Armenian genocide of 1915, many Armenians took refuge in France in the 1920s. Valence employers travelled to Marseille to recruit 150 of the first arrivals in 1922. By 1926, 827 Armenians had settled in Valence. By 1931 the number had reached 1,670, many of them originally from Bursa, Malatya, and Harput. They worked mainly as labourers or founded small businesses, which accounted for 25 percent of employed persons in the community. A neighbourhood took shape between Boulevard Vauban, Rue Farnerie, Rue Madier-Montjau, and Boulevard d'Alsace, a district that became 40 percent Armenian. By 1956, the community numbered 2,500 people, representing 6 percent of Valence's population. That made it the fourth-largest Armenian community in France, after Paris, Lyon, and Marseille.

  Newspapers, cinemas, dance halls, and the Armenian Sports Union all flourished in the Armenian village on the Rue de Fontlozier. The community developed a notably strong collective identity. In 1946, half of the 2,000 Armenians of Valence opted for French citizenship. In 1947, 200 Armenians from Valence accepted an offer to return to Soviet territories, a move that proved to be a failure. The community later welcomed new refugees escaping turmoil in Syria during the 1950s and 1960s. More came from Lebanon during its civil war in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, 7,500 people in Valence belong to this community, making it one of the largest in France. The Rue d'Arménie and the Place Missak Manouchian carry those origins in their names. Twenty-eight associations remain active in the quarter today, among them an Evangelical Church, Armenian courts, and the House of Armenian Culture.