Riez

Roman temple

Coat of arms

Riez

Location within Provence-A.-C.d'A. region

Riez

Coordinates: 43°49′08″N 6°05′37″E / 43.8189°N 6.0936°ECoordinates: 43°49′08″N 6°05′37″E / 43.8189°N 6.0936°E

Country

France

Region

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Department

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

Government

• Mayor (2008–2014)

Michel Zorzan

Area¹

40 km² (20 sq mi)

Population (2008)²

1,760

• Density

44/km² (110/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

INSEE/Postal code

04166 / 04500

Elevation

473–680 m (1,552–2,231 ft)
(avg. 520 m or 1,710 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.

Riez is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France.

The densely built village sits where two small rivers join—the Auvestre and the Colostre—in a glacially widened valley.

Riez is located in a district of fields of commercially grown lavender, which support a honey-making industry. Truffles are found: there is a weekly truffle market on Wednesdays from late November through March.

The domed hill was the hillfort headquarters of the Reii a Celto-Ligurian tribe, who gave their name to the Roman community in the valley floor near it: Alebaece Reiorum it was called, then Alebaece Reiorum Appolinares (from the temple of Apollo of which four Corinthian columns yet stand). The name evolved to Regium (to the 8th century) then Regina (to the 11th century).

A bishop of Riez is known from an early date, though the first bishop is purely legendary. At the beginning of the 5th century, a certain St. Prosper of Reggio in Emilia figures in the history of Riez and was perhaps its bishop; however, the first certainly known bishop, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, is St. Maximus (433–460), who succeeded St. Honoratus as Abbot of Lérins and who, in 439, held a council at Riez with a view to effecting ecclesiastical reforms in the churches of southern Gaul. His name is commemorated in the Mont St-Maxime, which is surmounted by the Chapelle St-Maxim (a nunnery). His successor, St. Faustus of Riez (c. 461 – c. 493), also formerly Abbot of Lérins, was noted for his writings against Predestinationists; it was to him that Sidonius Apollinaris dedicated his Carmen Eucharisticum, in gratitude for hospitality received at Riez. Contumeliosus of Riez was deposed for adultery in 534. At a much later date Robert Ceneau (1530–1532), the pulpit orator afterwards Bishop of Avranches, and Gui Bentivoglio (1622–1625), the papal nuncio in France and a defender of French interests at Rome, who played an important role under Louis XIII, are also mentioned among the bishops of Riez. The diocese was suppressed on 29 November 1801, and its territory included in the diocese of Digne [1].

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Wikipedia