Montpellier

Montpellier is young by southern French standards. In the early Middle Ages the episcopal town of Maguelone was the main settlement, but pirate raids pushed people inland, and Montpellier is first mentioned in a document of 985. The Guilhem lords joined two hamlets, built a castle and walls, and the town grew into a Mediterranean trading centre with a rich Jewish cultural life. William VIII allowed anyone to teach medicine in 1180, and in 1220 a papal legate established the faculties of law and medicine.

In 1204 the city passed to the kings of Aragon through the marriage of Peter II and Marie of Montpellier, and under them it became the main centre of the spice trade in the kingdom of France, with some 40,000 inhabitants before the Black Death. James III of Majorca sold it to Philip VI of France in 1349. A bishop moved from Maguelone in 1536, and in the Reformation the city became a Protestant stronghold until Louis XIII besieged it in 1622 and built the citadel to hold it. Louis XIV made it capital of Lower Languedoc, and the Peyrou and the Esplanade date from that era.

Wine made the city rich in the 19th century until phylloxera ruined the vineyards in the 1890s, and in June 1907 a huge wine growers' demonstration in Montpellier marked the peak of the protests that shook the Midi. After Algerian independence in 1962 repatriates from North Africa swelled the population, and from the 1980s ambitious building programmes — Antigone, Port Marianne, Odysseum — pushed the city towards the sea.

The university shapes the city's character. Petrarch studied law here and Rabelais took his medical degrees, and the medical school gave its name to Montpellier vitalism. Today about 70,000 students make up nearly a quarter of the population, which keeps the Écusson's squares crowded late into the evening and supports theatres, bookshops and concert venues, from the Opéra Comédie and the Corum to the Zénith Sud concert hall.

Festivals fill the calendar: the Comédie du Livre book fair, the extreme-sports FISE on the Lez, the Radio France summer festival with its free concerts in historic courtyards, the contemporary dance festival Montpellier Danse, and in autumn Cinemed, the Mediterranean film festival held since 1979. Contemporary architecture is part of the city's identity too, from Bofill's Antigone to the new districts along the Lez.

Sport is followed closely. Montpellier HSC won the French football championship in 2012 and now plays in Ligue 2, Montpellier Hérault Rugby competes in the Top 14, and the handball club has been French champion fourteen times and won the European Cup twice. The city has long had a large Spanish community, and Moroccan, Algerian and Italian communities as well.

About 310,000 people lived in the city in 2023 and about 843,000 in the metropolitan area. Montpellier has grown faster than any other large French city in recent years, and its urban area has had the highest population growth in France since 2000 — growth that has brought new districts, five tram lines and rent controls, in force since July 2022.

The economy rests on the universities, hospitals, research and services rather than heavy industry, and the city is the prefecture of the Hérault. Many residents live outside the old centre — in the faubourgs such as Figuerolles, Boutonnet and Les Arceaux, in Antigone and Port Marianne, or in the Mosson district, including La Paillade, on the north-western edge. Public transport became free for residents at the end of 2023, and the tram is how much of the city gets around.

Days follow a southern rhythm: markets in the morning, a long lunch, terraces in the evening. The Mediterranean is close enough for an after-work swim in summer, and the Peyrou fills on fine evenings. Heat is a growing concern — the city's record of 43.5°C in June 2019 broke the previous one by almost 6°C.

Montpellier eats from the sea and the vineyard. Oysters and mussels come from the Étang de Thau near Sète, and the region's Picpoul de Pinet is the white drunk with them; local wines include those of the Pic Saint-Loup appellation, named after the peak north of the city. Languedoc as a whole is one of the largest wine-growing areas in the world.

The clapassade, made with lamb neck, is counted as a Montpellier speciality. The medieval spice trade gave Montpellier a long familiarity with spices, which fed a tradition of confectionery that flourished in the 19th century.

Everyday eating is cosmopolitan and student-priced: sandwich shops, kebab counters and North African, Asian and other kitchens are everywhere in the centre. The Halles Castellane on rue de la Loge, an iron market hall first opened in 1855, sells produce in the heart of the Écusson, and the squares of Saint-Roch, Jean-Jaurès and the Marché-aux-Fleurs are lined with restaurants and bars. Bistros around the Comédie serve the classic French café menu.