Aigues-Mortes
is famous for the well-preserved city walls. The town is
located in the Gard
département, near the northern border of the
Languedoc-Roussillon region in the South of France. It lies
in the coastal marshland of the Petite
Camargue. Its altitude is 0 – 3 m above sea level,
and is liable to flooding.
Natives of Agues Mortes are called Aiguemortais.
The
town was once on the coast, but the delta of the River
Rhône constantly changes the landscape here and
it is now several miles in-land, though not far from salt
water.
The name Aigues-Mortes means "dead-waters" a reference to the semi-stagnant salt water marshes (marais and étangs) referred to as Eaux Mortes (Latin Aquae Mortuae, Occitan Ayga Mortas) which surround the town. (There are towns on fast flowing rivers in the Languedoc called Aigues-Vives - "Live Waters").
The
foundation of a settlement on this site is attributed to
the Roman
Marius Caius, around 102 BC. The first document mentioning
a place called "Ayga Mortas" (dead waters) dates
from the 10th century. At that time, and for many centuries
afterwards the area was Occitan
speaking. 
In medieval times this area belonged to the The Counts of Toulouse. These lands were annexed by France after the Wars against the people of the Languedoc known as the Albigensian Crusade, providing France with direct access to the Mediterranean Sea.
En
1240, the King of france Louis
IX took an interest in developing the village as a Mediterranean
port. He obtained it by exchanging lands with the monks
of the local abbey (l'Abbaye de Psalmodie), so gaining rights
to gabelle - a tax on local salt production. Aigues was
rebuilt on the orders of Louis as France's first Mediterranean
port. He built a road to the village and constructed
the Carbonnière tower to serve as a lookout tower.
He
also built the Constance tower to house a garrison. This
was the embarkation point of the Seventh Crusade (1248)
and for the Eighth Crusade (1270). As Louis
IX (now Saint Louis) left for his abortive Crusade to
Egypt in 1270, Sea-water
jousting (Joutes Nautiques) took place here. In 1272,
Louis' son and successor as King of France, Philippe le
Hardi, had the ramparts and rectangular enceinte (curtain
wall) built around the town, an undertaking that took 30
years to complete As the photograph (upper left) and town
plan (upper right) show, the thirteenth century city is
contained within city walls which are approximately rectangular
in plan. The town is now several miles inland, with a modern
town outside the city walls.
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Today
the town is a major tourist attraction, smaller than but
comparable to the walled city of Carcassonne.
Distinctive Camargue bulls and Camargue
horses are bred in the surrounding countryside. The
local economy also depends on the production of sea salt,
wine, and asparagus.
As
the crow flies, Aigues-Mortes is 32.5 km (20.19 mi) from
Nîmes
and 26 km (16.16 mi) from Montpellier.
By road, it is about 35 km (21.75 mi) from Nîmes,
and 30 km (18.65 mi) from Montpellier.
A rail branch line from Nîmes
passes through Aigues-Mortes to its terminus on the coast
at Grau-du-Roi.
Aigues-Mortes lies on the Canal Rhône-Sète, an extension to the Canal du Midi, built by Pierre-Paul Riquet a notable Languedoc resident. The Canal is popular for boating holidays and through France's extensive canal network provides a way to get to the Languedoc from the Atlantic Ocean, Northern France and Mediterranean Sea. The town lies next to a number of canals:
- The the Canal Rhône-Sète (mentioned above) rom the River Rhône to Sète flowing from the north-east towards the west
- The Canal de Bourgidou to the south-east, joining the Petit Rhône through other canals on the border between the departments of the Gard and the Bouches-du-Rhône
- The Grau du Roi, dating from the middle ages, joining
the Mediterranean
Sea at a port also called the Grau-du-Roi.
Coordinates 43°34'03 N, 04°11'36 E
INSEE - 30003
Postal code - 30220
Population 6,000
| A nineteenth century painting by Frédéric
Bazille. Porte d'Aigues-Mortes, dite Porte de la Reine. 1867 Oil on Canvas 31.7 x 39.4 in. (80.5 x 100 cm).  Note the surrounding marshland including the distinctive Camargue horse |
A recent photograph of the same gate The Queen's Gate  |
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