Valence, Drôme

Valence is a commune in southeastern France and the prefecture of the Drôme department, within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It stands on the left bank of the Rhône about 100 kilometres south of Lyon, on the railway line that runs from Paris to Marseille. The town proper has about 64,000 inhabitants and is the centre of an urban area of about 132,000. Its article dates the founding of the commune to 121 BC, after the Roman conquest of Gallia Narbonensis, and the Romans made it a colony known as Valentia Julia. It was a bishopric seat perhaps as early as the 4th century, later belonged to the Dauphiné, and gained a celebrated university in the middle of the 15th century. Surviving monuments include the Maison des Têtes, built between 1528 and 1532, and the Saint-Apollinaire Cathedral, built between 1063 and 1099. Local business centres on agriculture, metallurgy, engineering and electronics, and the saying that at Valence the Midi begins explains its nickname as the door to the South of France.