Provence

Provence is a historic province in southeastern France between the River Rhone, the Mediterranean and the Alps. Provence is now part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The province got its name because it was the first Roman province outside the Italian region.

Provence is known for its food, wine and perfume, its beautiful and wild nature and, not least, its light that has attracted many artists over the years. Provence is a well-known holiday resort, for the sun, but also for adventures such as the Stone Age cave paintings, Roman ruins and many other buildings.

The inhabitants of Provence, Provencal, have a distinctive culture of their own literature and speak a language of their own that originated in the Latin language (which also came from French), Provencal or Occitan.

History

The oldest known population in these areas was the ancient people of the Iberians, who were later forced west of the Rhone by Ligurians, who, in turn, in the 200s BC. began to give way to thinning. By the coast Phoenicians and Greeks had settled colonies. Massilia (Marseille) became one of the premier trading places on the Mediterranean.

During the 200s BC made the Romans southern Gallia into a Roman province that included the Languedoc, Dauphiné and Provence, and which was called Provincia gallica. After all of Gallia was conquered, the Romans called it Provincia or Gallia narbonensis. Then most of the Languedoc at the beginning of the 400s AD was captured by Visigoths, and Dauphiné in the middle of the same century by Burgundians, the name Provincia was restricted to the area between the Rhone, the Durance, the Alps and the Mediterranean, and which belonged to the Romans until the 470s when it was also conquered by Visigoths.

Provence then belonged to Estonians and after the year 536 it became part of France. During this chaotic time, Provence was ruled by Frankish kings from the meroving dynasty, then the Carolingian dynasty with kings descended from Karl Martell, and then became part of the kingdom of Charlemagne (742-814). After Karl the Bald died in 879, his brother-in-law, Boso of Provence, broke out of the Carolingian kingdom and was chosen as the first ruler of Provence as an independent state. From 933 it became part of the Kingdom of Burgundy, and from 1032 the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. In the 9th century, the country was constantly exposed to plundering by Arabs and Berbers.

The Count of Arles, who owned larger parts of Provence, and therefore also called Count of Provence, was in weak connection with the German kings. When their family died on the men's side in 1093, Provence by marriage in 1112 went to Count Raimund Berengar I of Barcelona from the house of Aragonia. His family died on the men's side in 1245 with Raimund Berengar IV, and Provence passed through his daughter's marriage to Charles of Anjou, brother of the French king. Karl then became king of Naples and Sicily. Her heirs owned Provence until 1382 when Johanna I of Naples deposed Louis I of Anjou, brother of King Charles V of France, as his heir. His last relative, Charles III of Anjou, was childless, and deposited the French Crown Prince Charles VIII as the heir, and this united Provence with the French crown.

Later, Provence was established as a province in France and a government that lasted until 1789 when the division of ministries was redistributed as Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur

Source: Wikipedia