Hérault (département)

Hérault
Department
Prefecture building of the Hérault department, in Montpellier
Coat of arms
Location of Hérault in France
Coordinates: 43°21′N 3°13′E / 43.350°N 3.217°E / 43.350; 3.217Coordinates: 43°21′N 3°13′E / 43.350°N 3.217°E / 43.350; 3.217
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Prefecture	Montpellier
Subprefectures	Béziers Lodève
Government
• President of the General Council	André Vezinhet (PS)
Area
• Total	6,101 km2 (2,356 sq mi)
Population (2013)
• Total	1,092,331
• Rank	20st
• Density	180/km2 (460/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Department number	34
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	25
Communes	343
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Hérault (French: [eʁo]; Occitan: Erau [eˈɾaw]) is a department in southern France named after the Hérault river. It is part of the Occitanie region of the country.

Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.

At the beginning of the 20th century, viticulture in the region was devastated by a slump in sales combined with disease affecting the vines, and thousands of small scale producers revolted. This revolt was suppressed very harshly by the government of Georges Clemenceau.

The catastrophic frost of the winter of 1956 damaged the olive trees, and the olive-growing regions did not recover until the late 1980s. Many of the olive-industry co-ops closed.

During the second half of the twentieth century the Montpellier basin saw some of the most rapid population growth in France.

Hérault is part of the current region of Occitanie and is surrounded by the departments of Aude, Tarn, Aveyron, Gard, and the Mediterranean (Gulf of Lion) on the south. The department is very geographically diverse, with beaches in the south, the Cévennes mountains in the north, and agricultural land in between.