Agen

Agen [ aʒɛ ] is a town in the French region of Aquitaine. With 33 620 inhabitants ( 1 January 2011), who call themselves Agenais or Agenois, it is the largest city in the department of Lot- et- Garonne.

The city is the seat of the prefecture of the department. The prefecture also manages the district Agen, which consists of twelve cantons. Agen is the capital (French: chef- lieu) of the cantons Agen Centre, Agen -Nord, Nord-Est - Agen, Agen Agen -Ouest and Sud -Est.

Geography

Agen is located on the Garonne, and the parallel Lateral Canal à la Garonne ( German: Canal de Garonne ) which crosses here with an imposing canal bridge the river. The city also lies at the Autoroute A62 between Toulouse ( 115 km) to the southeast and Bordeaux ( 140 km) to the northwest.

History

Agen was around 200 BC a Celtic settlement of Nitiobrogen, which was called by the Celts Aginnum. Later it was the site of the Battle of Agen. By 56 BC the settlement was conquered during the Gallic War by Julius Caesar.

Attractions

  • The Musée Municipal des Beaux Arts ( Municipal Museum of Fine Arts ), with paintings by Goya, including El Globo, Sisley September morning, one of the most beautiful landscapes of Corot, The pond of Avray, as well as works by Francis Picabia and Gustave Caillebotte. Jewel of the collection is the Vénus du mas marble, a 1876 discovered near statue from the 1st century BC
  • The canal bridge from Agen ( 580 meters long, 23 sheets ), built by Jean -Baptiste de Baudre in between 1839 and 1842.
  • The theater Ducourneau by architect Guillaume Tronchet, completed in 1906.

Theatre Ducourneau

Musée Municipal des Beaux Arts

Canal Bridge

Economy

The surrounding area is characterized by large plantations with plum trees. Crusaders brought the fruit in the 11th century from the Middle East to France. The monks at the nearby valley of the Lot were the first, the dried plums and sold as dried fruit. Today, annual leave around 35,000 tons of prunes the factories of Agen.

Sports

Agen is the stronghold of the French rugby sport.

Sons and daughters of the town

  • Alain Aspect ( born 1947 ), physicist
  • Pierre Billaud (1970-2001), journalist, war correspondent
  • Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint -Vincent (1780-1846), naturalist, botanist and Colonel
  • Thierry van den Bosch ( b. 1974 ), motorcycle racer
  • Francis Cabrel ( born 1953 ), musician
  • Emmanuel Flipo (born 1958 ), artist
  • Jacques Jasmin (* 1798-1864 ), writer
  • Bernard Germain Etienne Médard de La Ville- sur- Illon, comte de La Cepede (1756-1825), natural scientist and the first Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour
  • Marcel -Frédéric Lubin - Lebrère (1891-1972), rugby union player
  • Jean -Marie Maury (1907-1994), Archbishop of Reims
  • Gaël Morel (born 1972 ), actor
  • Florimond de Raemond (1540-1601), historian, lawyer, counter- reformer and friend of Michel de Montaigne
  • Stéphane Rideau (born 1976 ), actor
  • Yves Saint -Martin ( b. 1941 ), jockey
  • Joseph- Barnabé Saint- Sevin (1727-1803), violinist and composer of classical music
  • Joseph Justus Scaliger (1570-1609), one of the greatest scholars of the second half of the 16th century
  • Michel Serres ( born 1930 ), philosopher

Twinning

  • Germany Dinslaken, Germany, since March 23, 1975
Arrondissement Arrondissement of Agen Cantons of France Postal codes in France A62 autoroute Alfred Sisley Lot (river) Yves Saint-Martin Structurae Aiguillon (Lot-et-Garonne) Astaffort Lusignan-Petit Nicole (Lot-et-Garonne)
34686
de