| Aquitaine | |
 | |
Location  | |
Coat of arms and flag   | |
| State | France |
|---|---|
| Capital | Bordeaux |
| Surface | 41,308 km² |
| Inhabitants | 3.206.137 (2009) |
| Tourism site | |
| Institutional website | |
Aquitaine (Aquitaine, in Occitan Aquitaine) is a region of the France.
To know
The term Aquitaine has Latin origin and has several supposed etymes. It can mean "land of waters"; derive from the Roman city of Aquæ Tarbellicæ, today's Dax; or "country of the Auscii", a population very close to the Basques, with Auch as its capital.
Geographical notes
The territory of the region borders the regions Poitou-Charentes North, Limousin north-east e Midi-Pyrenees to the east, as well as with the Spain (Aragon, Navarre is Basque country) South. The western coasts are washed by the Atlantic Ocean (Gulf of Biscay). Aquitaine is crossed by three rivers: the Garonne, the Dordogne and fromAdour. It extends to the west on the Atlantic Ocean for a coast of 250 km, called the "Silver coast" interrupted only by the Arcachon basin.
Background
Aquitaine was a Roman province, later divided by Diocletian into three parts: Aquitaine first, Aquitaine second and Aquitaine third or Novempopulana.It became a kingdom at the time of the Visigoths and sporadically at the end of the early Middle Ages , and finally also a duchy.
With the marriage between Eleanor of Aquitaine and the English king Henry II, Aquitaine became an English fief in French land, with a very ambiguous situation from the point of view of the feudal pyramid. In the following century (XIV), above all for questions of succession on the throne of France, a war was started between the House of Plantagenets of England and the Valois (collateral branch of the Capetians), king of France, which lasted until the middle of the XV century and is known as the Hundred Years War, at the end of which all of Aquitaine returned to the French. Even today, the coat of arms and the flag of Aquitaine feature an English lion.
Territories and tourist destinations
It is made up of 5 departments:
- Dordogne (Dordogne) —
- Gironde (Gironde) —
- Landes —
- Lot and Garonne (Lot-et-Garonne) —
- Atlantic Pyrenees (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) —
Urban centers
Other destinations
- Saint-Émilion - Saint-Émilion together with its jurisdiction is included in the list of World Heritage Sites ofUNESCO and retains a monolithic and another Romanesque church.
How to get
How to get around
What see
- Abbaye de Fontdouce - Benedictine abbey from 1111.
