Lodève (French pronunciation: [lodɛv] ; Occitan: Lodeva, [luˈðeβɔ]; Latin: Luteva) is a commune in the department of Hérault, in the region of Occitania, southern France. It is a subprefecture of the department. The derivation of the city's name is from Gaulish Luteva, composed of lut-, swamp, mud + suffix -eva. It might therefore translate as the muddy place or the swamp city.
Location
255 m
Lodève Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Lodève, Hérault, southern France. The edifice is a typical example of local Gothic architecture.
Lodève is an ancient town of Celtic origin, situated some 50 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast. It sits at the foot of the mountains of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, about 45 kilometres north-west of Montpellier. The former Diocese of Lodève, probably founded towards the end of the 4th century, was suppressed during the French Revolution and was not restored; its territory was instead attached to the Diocese, later Archdiocese, of Montpellier. In 1877, the Bishop of Montpellier was granted the privilege by Pope Pius IX on including the title of the former diocese of Lodève in his own titulature. The bishops and archbishops have not done so.
The cathedral, the former seat of the Bishops of Lodève, was classed a national historical monument in 1840.
279 m
The canton of Lodève is an administrative division of the Hérault department, southern France. Its borders were modified at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Lodève.
279 m
The Bishopric of Lodève is a former Roman Catholic diocese in southern France. Its episcopal see was located in Lodève, in the modern department of Hérault. It was a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Narbonne. In 1790, the diocese was suppressed by the National Constituent Assembly, and in 1801 by Pope Pius VII. Its territory is now part of the archdiocese of Montpellier.
The seat of the bishop was in the cathedral of Saint Genesius, dedicated in 975.
465 m
The arrondissement of Lodève is an arrondissement of France. It is part of the Hérault département. Its INSEE code is 342 and its capital city is Lodève. It has 122 communes. Its population is 146,845, and its area is 2,005.0 km2.
It is the northernmost of the arrondissements of the department. The main towns in the arrondissement, with more than 7,000 inhabitants in 2019, are Saint-Gély-du-Fesc, Clermont-l'Hérault and Lodève.
2.8 km
Soumont is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France.
This mud could be a clay, called argillite, which was use during ancient history to produce pottery.