Montpellier, France

Montpellier
Top to bottom, left to right: L'aqueduc Saint-Clément, la Place de l'Europe, la Place de la Comédie, l'hôtel de région, la promenade du Peyrou, le Corum, l'arc de Triomphe, la cathédrale Saint Pierre.
Coat of arms
Montpellier
Location within Occitanie region  Montpellier
Coordinates: 43°36′43″N 3°52′38″E / 43.6119°N 3.8772°E / 43.6119; 3.8772Coordinates: 43°36′43″N 3°52′38″E / 43.6119°N 3.8772°E / 43.6119; 3.8772
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Department	Hérault
Arrondissement	Montpellier
Intercommunality	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	Philippe Saurel
Area1	56.88 km2 (21.96 sq mi)
Population (2012)2	268,456
• Rank	8th in France
• Density	4,700/km2 (12,000/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	34172 / 34000, 34070, 34080, 34090
Elevation	7–121 m (23–397 ft) (avg. 27 m or 89 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Montpellier (French pronunciation: ​[mɔ̃.pə.lje, mɔ̃.pe.lje];Occitan: Montpelhièr [mum.peˈʎɛ]) is a city in southern France. It is the capital of the Hérault department. Montpellier is the 8th largest city of France, and is also the fastest growing city in the country over the past 25 years. Nearly one third of the population are students from three universities and from three higher education institutions that are outside the university framework in the city. Located on the south coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, it is the third-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille and Nice.

Montpellier is one of the few large cities in France without any Roman heritage and also one of the few cities in southern France without a Greek foundation.

In the Early Middle Ages, the nearby episcopal town of Maguelone was the major settlement in the area, but raids by pirates encouraged settlement a little further inland. Montpellier, first mentioned in a document of 985, was founded under a local feudal dynasty, the Guilhem, who combined two hamlets and built a castle and walls around the united settlement. The two surviving towers of the city walls, the Tour des Pins and the Tour de la Babotte, were built later, around the year 1200. Montpellier came to prominence in the 12th century—as a trading centre, with trading links across the Mediterranean world, and a rich Jewish cultural life that flourished within traditions of tolerance of Muslims, Jews and Cathars—and later of its Protestants. William VIII of Montpellier gave freedom for all to teach medicine in Montpellier in 1180. The city's faculties of law and medicine were established in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad of Urach, legate of Pope Honorius III; the medicine faculty has, over the centuries, been one of the major centres for the teaching of medicine in Europe. This era marked the high point of Montpellier's prominence. The city became a possession of the Kings of Aragon in 1204 by the marriage of Peter II of Aragon with Marie of Montpellier, who was given the city and its dependencies as part of her dowry. Montpellier gained a charter in 1204 when Peter and Marie confirmed the city's traditional freedoms and granted the city the right to choose twelve governing consuls annually. Under the Kings of Aragon, Montpellier became a very important city, a major economic centre and the primary centre for the spice trade in the Kingdom of France. It was the second or third most important city of France at that time, with some 40,000 inhabitants before the Black Death. Montpellier remained a possession of the crown of Aragon until it passed to James III of Majorca, who sold the city to the French king Philip VI in 1349, to raise funds for his ongoing struggle with Peter IV of Aragon. In the 14th century, Pope Urban VIII gave Montpellier a new monastery dedicated to Saint Peter, noteworthy for the very unusual porch of its chapel, supported by two high, somewhat rocket-like towers. With its importance steadily increasing, the city finally gained a bishop, who moved from Maguelone in 1536, and the huge monastery chapel became a cathedral. In 1432, Jacques Cœur established himself in the city and it became an important economic centre, until 1481 when Marseille overshadowed it in this role.