Alès lies 40 kilometres (25 miles) north-northwest of Nîmes, on the left bank of the river Gardon d'Alès, which half surrounds it. It is located at the foot of the Cévennes, near the Cévennes National Park. Alès station has rail connections to Nîmes, Mende and Clermont-Ferrand.
History
Alès may be the modern successor of Arisitum, where, in about 570, Sigebert, King of Austrasia, created a bishopric. In his campaign against the Visigoths, the Merovingian king Theudebert I (533–548) conquered part of the territory of the Diocese of Nîmes. His later successor Sigebert set up the new diocese, comprising fifteen parishes in the area controlled by the Franks, which included a number of towns to the north of the Cevenne: Alès, Le Vigan, Arre, Arrigas, Meyrueis, Saint-Jean-du-Gard, Anduze, and Vissec. The diocese disappeared in the 8th century with the conquest of the whole of Septimania by the Franks.[3][4] No longer a residential bishopric, Arisitum is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[5]
After the Edict of Nantes, Alès was one of the places de sûreté given to the Huguenots. Louis XIII took back the town in 1629, and the Peace of Alès, signed on 29 June of that year, suppressed the political privileges of the Protestants, while continuing to guarantee toleration.[6]
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"The town is one of the most important markets for raw silk and cocoons in the south of France, and the Gardon supplies power to numerous silk-mills. It is also the centre of a mineral field, which yields large quantities of coal, iron, zinc and lead; its blast-furnaces, foundries, glass-works and engineering works afford employment to many workmen."[6]
Historically, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:
"The streets are wide and its promenades and fine plane-trees make the town attractive; but the public buildings, the chief of which are the Saint-Jean-Baptiste cathedral, a heavy building of the 18th century, and the citadel, which serves as barracks and prison, are of small interest."[6]
^Saltet, Louis (1902). "L'évêché d'Arisitum". Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique, publié par l'Institut Catholique de Toulouse (in French). 7–8: 220–231.
^"Alès". Fédération d'Associations Eternel Alphonse Daudet (FederationAlphonseDaudet.fr) (in French). Archived from the original on 30 September 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
^"Town Twinning". east-ayrshire.gov.uk. East Ayrshire Council. Retrieved 20 April 2021.