Browse / France / Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur / Barcelonnette
Barcelonnette
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azurtown
Barcelonnette
Total population
2,539
Demographic figures from INSEE. Overview below cites Wikipedia and may reference a different year.
City facts
Facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Overview
Barcelonnette is a commune of France and a subprefecture in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It is located in the southern French Alps, at the crossroads between Provence, Piedmont and the Dauphiné, and is the largest town in the Ubaye Valley. The town's inhabitants are known as Barcelonnettes.
Read more on WikipediaHistory & geography
History
The Barcelonnette region was populated by Ligures from the 1st millennium BC onwards, and the arrival of the Celts several centuries later led to the formation of a mixed Celto-Ligurian people, the Vesubians. Polybius described the Vesubians as belligerent but nonetheless civilised and mercantile, and Julius Caesar praised their bravery. The work History of the Gauls also places the Vesubians in the Ubaye Valley. Following the Roman conquest of Provence, Barcelonnette was included in a small province with modern Embrun as its capital and governed by Albanus Bassalus. This was integrated soon afterwards into Gallia Narbonensis. In 36 AD, Emperor Tiberius transferred Barcelonnette to the province of the Cottian Alps. The town was known as Rigomagensium under the Roman Empire and was the capital of a civitas (a provincial subdivision), though no Roman money has yet been found in the canton of Barcelonnette. The town of Barcelonnette was founded in 1231 by Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence. According to Charles Rostaing, this act of formal "foundation", according certain privileges to the town, was a means of regenerating the destroyed town of Barcilona. Control of the area in the Middle Ages swung between the Counts of Savoy and of Provence. In 1388, after Count Louis II of Provence had left to conquer Naples, the Count of Savoy Amadeus VIII took control of Barcelonnette; however, it returned to Provençal control in 1390, with the d'Audiffret family as its lords. On the death of Louis II in 1417 it reverted to Savoy, and, although Count René again retook the area for Provence in 1471, it had returned to Savoyard dominance by the start of the 16th century, by which point the County of Provence had become united with the Kingdom of France due to the death of Count…
Geography
Barcelonnette is situated in the wide and fertile Ubaye Valley, of which it is the largest town. It lies at an elevation of 1132 m (3717 ft) on the right bank of the Ubaye River, and is surrounded by mountains which reach peaks of over 3000 m; the tallest of these is the Needle of Chambeyron at 3412 m. Barcelonnette is situated 210 km from Turin, 91 km from Nice and 68 km from Gap. As a result of its relief and geographic situation, the Ubaye Valley has an "abundance of plant and animal species". The fauna is largely constituted of golden eagles, marmots, ibex and vultures, and the flora includes a large proportion of larches, génépis and white asphodels. but there are only light winds as a result of the relief. }} None of the 200 communes of the department is entirely free of seismic risk; the canton of Barcelonnette is placed in zone 1b (low risk) by the determinist classification of 1991 based on seismic history, and zone 4 (average risk) according to the probabilistic EC8 classification of 2011. The commune is also vulnerable to avalanches, forest fires, floods, and landslides. The town has been subject to several orders of natural disaster: floods and mudslides in 1994 and 2008, and landslides in 1996 and 1999. The strongest recorded earthquakes in the region occurred on 5 April 1959, with its epicentre at Saint-Paul-sur-Ubaye and a recorded intensity of 6.5 at Barcelonnette, and on 17 February 1947, with its epicentre at Prazzo over the Italian border.
Excerpted from the corresponding Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA).
Geography
Coordinates & boundaries from the US Census TIGER/Line shapefiles.
Climate
Air quality
Walkability
Amenities nearby
Wildlife & biodiversity
Earthquake history
Photos
Sights & places nearby
Notable people from here
Nearby places in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- La Conchette1.1 mi away
- Saint-Pons1.3 mi away · pop. 604
- Le Sauze1.7 mi away
- Le Super Sauze2.6 mi away
- Pra-Loup 16002.7 mi away
- Molanès2.7 mi away
- Les Thuiles3.8 mi away · pop. 369
- Fours Saint-Laurent5.1 mi away
- La Condamine-Châtelard6.8 mi away · pop. 154
- Tournoux8.3 mi away
- Les Clarionds8.5 mi away
- Saint-Barthélémy9.3 mi away
Geography & sun
Elevation, sunrise/sunset and daylight from Open-Meteo. Solar climatology from NASA POWER.
Nearby airports
Public attention
Pageview totals from the Wikimedia Pageviews API.
Books about this place
Recent natural events nearby
Ground air-quality sensors
Recently spotted species
Events
Gallery
Official Identifiers
INSEE — French National Institute of Statistics
- INSEE code
- 04019
- Department
- 04
- Region
- 93
- Population (Wikidata)
- 2,518
geo.api.gouv.fr
Sources
- • Wikipedia
- • Wikidata
- • Open-Meteo / sunrise-sunset.org
- • Wikipedia Pageviews API
- • INSEE — French national statistics, via geo.api.gouv.fr (official commune code, population, surface, department, region)
- • INSEE — French National Institute of Statistics — geo.api.gouv.fr