Agen

The city of Agen lies in the southwestern department of Lot-et-Garonne in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The city centre lies on the east bank of the river Garonne, the Canal de Garonne flows through the city, approximately halfway between Bordeaux {{cvt|132|km}} and Toulouse {{cvt|107|km}}.

Agen features an oceanic climate (Cfb) in the Köppen climate classification and according to the latest temperature numbers borders a humid subtropical climate (Cfa). According to the Trewartha climate classification the climate is now humid subtropical (Cf). Winters are mild and feature cool to cold temperatures while summers are mild and warm. Rainfall is spread equally throughout the year; however, most sunshine hours are from March–September.

{{Weather box|width=auto

|location = Agen (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1941–present)

|metric first = Y

|single line = Y

|collapsed = Y

|Jan record high C = 20.1

|Feb record high C = 25.2

|Mar record high C = 26.5

|Apr record high C = 30.2

|May record high C = 34.0

|Jun record high C = 39.3

|Jul record high C = 40.6

|Aug record high C = 42.5

|Sep record high C = 36.7

|Oct record high C = 32.9

|Nov record high C = 25.4

|Dec record high C = 21.6

|year record high C = 42.5

|Jan high C = 9.6

|Feb high C = 11.6

|Mar high C = 15.6

|Apr high C = 18.2

|May high C = 22.0

|Jun high C = 25.6

|Jul high C = 28.0

|Aug high C = 28.3

|Sep high C = 24.8

|Oct high C = 20.0

|Nov high C = 13.6

|Dec high C = 10.0

|year high C = 18.9

|Jan mean C = 6.1

|Feb mean C = 6.9

|Mar mean C = 10.1

|Apr mean C = 12.6

|May mean C = 16.3

|Jun mean C = 19.8

|Jul mean C = 21.9

|Aug mean C = 22.0

|Sep mean C = 18.6

|Oct mean C = 14.9

|Nov mean C = 9.6

|Dec mean C = 6.6

| year mean C = 13.8

|Jan low C = 2.5

|Feb low C = 2.3

|Mar low C = 4.6

|Apr low C = 7.0

|May low C = 10.5

|Jun low C = 13.9

|Jul low C = 15.7

|Aug low C = 15.7

|Sep low C = 12.3

|Oct low C = 9.8

|Nov low C = 5.6

|Dec low C = 3.1

|year low C = 8.6

|Jan record low C = -17.4

|Feb record low C = -21.9

|Mar record low C = -10.5

|Apr record low C = -3.9

|May record low C = -1.6

|Jun record low C = 2.5

|Jul record low C = 5.9

|Aug record low C = 4.7

|Sep record low C = 1.0

|Oct record low C = -5.0

|Nov record low C = -8.8

|Dec record low C = -12.1

|year record low C = -21.9

|precipitation colour = green

|Jan precipitation mm = 59.6

|Feb precipitation mm = 44.2

|Mar precipitation mm = 49.0

|Apr precipitation mm = 70.0

|May precipitation mm = 73.3

|Jun precipitation mm = 62.2

|Jul precipitation mm = 49.4

|Aug precipitation mm = 50.4

|Sep precipitation mm = 60.6

|Oct precipitation mm = 58.7

|Nov precipitation mm = 70.1

|Dec precipitation mm = 60.7

|year precipitation mm = 708.2

|Jan precipitation days = 10.3

|Feb precipitation days = 8.3

|Mar precipitation days = 9.0

|Apr precipitation days = 10.3

|May precipitation days = 9.9

|Jun precipitation days = 7.9

|Jul precipitation days = 6.3

|Aug precipitation days = 6.9

|Sep precipitation days = 8.0

|Oct precipitation days = 8.9

|Nov precipitation days = 11.0

|Dec precipitation days = 10.2

|year precipitation days = 107.2

|Jan sun = 75.6

|Feb sun = 112.7

|Mar sun = 171.8

|Apr sun = 186.2

|May sun = 215.5

|Jun sun = 234.9

|Jul sun = 260.2

|Aug sun = 250.1

|Sep sun = 210.7

|Oct sun = 142.9

|Nov sun = 87.6

|Dec sun = 71.7

|year sun = 2019.7

|source 1 = Meteociel{{cite web

|url=https://www.meteociel.fr/obs/clim/normales_records.php?code=47091001&normes=2020&normes2=0

|title=Normales et records pour Agen-la Garenne (47)

|publisher=Meteociel

|access-date=22 November 2024}}}}

From Occitan Agen (1197), itself from Latin Aginnum (3rd century Itinéraire d'Antonin), from a Celtic root agin- meaning "rock or height".Bénédicte Boyrie-Fénié, avec la collaboration d’André Bianchi, Pèire Boissière, Patrice Gentié et Maurice Romieu, Dictionnaire toponymique des communes du Lot-et-Garonne, Pau, Éditions Cairn, décembre 2012, 320 p. ({{ISBN|978-2-35068-231-0}}), p. 41.

File:Alphonse de Poitiers 01.jpg and Count of Toulouse, recognized the autonomy of the commune of Agen. In this illustration he takes an oath before the consuls with his right hand on the town ordinances, while sitting on a pedestal. The consul administering the oath is forced to go on his knees, symbolizing Alphonse's lordship and the town's loyalty.]]

{{Historical populations

| align = none

| cols = 2

| percentages = pagr

| source = EHESS{{Cassini-Ehess|148|Agen}} and INSEE (1968-2017)[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-47001#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968], INSEE

| graph-pos = bottom

|1793 |19639

|1800 |9876

|1806 |10850

|1821 |11659

|1831 |12631

|1836 |13399

|1841 |14987

|1846 |15517

|1851 |16027

|1856 |17667

|1861 |17263

|1866 |18222

|1872 |18887

|1876 |19503

|1881 |20485

|1886 |22055

|1891 |23234

|1896 |22730

|1901 |22482

|1906 |23141

|1911 |23294

|1921 |23391

|1926 |23530

|1931 |24939

|1936 |27152

|1946 |33397

|1954 |32593

|1962 |32800

|1968 |34949

|1975 |34039

|1982 |31593

|1990 |30553

|1999 |30170

|2007 |33863

|2012 |33730

|2017 |33576

}}

The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average. Major employers include the pharmaceutical factory UPSA.

file:(Agen) Musée des Beaux-Arts vu de la place du Dr Esquirol.jpg

The old centre of town contains a number of medieval buildings.

The twelfth century Agen Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Caprasius, is one of the few large churches in France with a double nave, a regional trait also found in the Church of the Jacobins in nearby Toulouse.

The Saint Hilaire church, dedicated to the theme of the Holy Trinity which the Saint in question did a lot to defend, is notable for its unusual statues in front of the Church – Moses on the right, and St Peter on the left.

The art museum, the {{ill|Musée des Beaux Arts (Agen)|lt=Musée des Beaux Arts|fr|Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen}}, contains artefacts, furniture and sculptures from prehistoric times onwards. The art gallery contains several hundred works, including several by Goya, and others by Bonnard and Seurat. The collection also contains a large number of works by artists who lived locally. The museum is made up of twenty or so rooms.{{cite web|url=http://www.ot-agen.org/_eng/visite/histoire1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030505184000/http://www.ot-agen.org/_eng/visite/histoire1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 May 2003 |title=Agen – Tourist Office – The History of Agen – Origins |publisher=ot-agen.org |access-date=8 October 2009 }}

The Canal des Deux Mers, which joins the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, crosses the river Garonne at Agen via the town's famous canal bridge.

File:Agen1870-1871.jpg

Image:Duhauron1877.jpg (multilayer dichromated pigmented gelatin process). George Eastman House]]

Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron (1837 – 1920), a pioneer of colour photography lived and worked in Agen. He developed practical processes for colour photography on the three-colour principle, using both additive and subtractive methods.{{cite news |title=Lumière Jubilee. |quote=The idea was patented as early as 1864 [sic—actually 1868] by a now forgotten Frenchman named Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron. |publisher=Time |date= 18 November 1935 }}{{cite journal|editor1-last=Solbert|editor1-first=Oscar N.|editor2-last=Beaumont|editor2-first=Newhall|editor3-last=Card|editor3-first=James G.|title=Forgotten Pioneers IV: Louis Ducos Du Hauron (1837–1920)|journal=Image, Journal of Photography of George Eastman House|date=April 1952|volume=1|issue=6|page=2|url=http://image.eastmanhouse.org/files/GEH_1952_01_06.pdf|access-date=21 June 2014|publisher=International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House Inc.|location=Rochester, N.Y.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084058/http://image.eastmanhouse.org/files/GEH_1952_01_06.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016}}{{cite book|author=Dr. Carl Finch|title=Photo-Era, The American Journal of Photography|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BM5LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA281|volume=45|year=1920|publisher=New England Photo Era Publishing Company|pages=281–282|chapter=Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron, In Memoriam}} In 1868 he patented his ideas (French Patent No. 83061) and in 1869 he published them in Les couleurs en photographie, solution du problème.

The most widely reproduced of his surviving colour photographs is the View of Agen, an 1877 landscape, printed by the subtractive assembly method which he pioneered. Several different photographs of the view from his attic window, one dated 1874, also survive.

The municipal theatre "Théâtre Ducourneau" presents theatre, and occasionally classical concerts. The smaller "Théâtre du jour" has a resident theatre company presenting a variety of recent or older plays (Shakespeare, Beckett, as well as lesser known playwrights).

There are two cinemas, one a commercial multiscreened affair, the other an arts cinema run by a voluntary organization. The latter organizes film festivals every year.

Rugby is extremely popular in the town, and the local team, SU Agen, is enthusiastically supported. The town also serves as the base for the Team Lot-et-Garonne cycling team.

The Gare d'Agen connects Agen with Toulouse and Bordeaux as well as Périgueux. It is around an hour from Toulouse and around an hour from Bordeaux. The TGV train to Paris takes three hours and thirteen minutes with a stop in Bordeaux.

Agen is connected, by the A62 autoroute, to both Toulouse and Bordeaux.

The Agen Airport is serviced by Airlinair service to Paris Orly 6 days a week. It is also used for business and leisure flying.

Agen stands on the voie verte cycle path between the Mediterranean and close to Bordeaux.

{{Main|Diocese of Agen}}

Agen is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese that comprises the Département of Lot and Garonne. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Bordeaux.

{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in France}}

Agen is twinned with:{{cite web |title=Jumelages et coopérations|url=https://www.agen.fr/nous-connaitre/lidentite-agenaise/jumelages-et-cooperations-156.html|website=agen.fr|publisher=Agen|language=fr|access-date=2021-04-19}}{{cite web |title=2018 Annual Impact Report |url=https://sistercities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2019-SCI-Impact-Annual-Report-Final.pdf |publisher=Sister Cities International |access-date=6 February 2023}}

• {{flagicon|USA}} Corpus Christi, United States
• {{flagicon|GER}} Dinslaken, Germany
• {{flagicon|USA}} Galena, Illinois, United States{{cite news |last1=Goldstein |first1=Bennet |title=Galena, French sister city team up for 'La Fete en Blanc' |url=https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/tri-state/article_8c1ceb93-60c7-51a5-bced-4320bb3baf0b.html |access-date=6 February 2023 |work=Telegraph Herald |date=1 July 2019}}
• {{flagicon|UK}} Llanelli, Wales, United Kingdom
• {{flagicon|ESP}} Toledo, Spain
• {{flagicon|RUS}} Tuapse, Russia

File:(Agen) Cathédrale Saint-Caprais - Statue de Saint Caprais 1844 - Louis Rochet PalissyPM47000501.jpg in Agen Cathedral ]]

File:Joseph Ducreux - Portrait de Bernard-Germain de Lacépède (1756-1825), naturaliste et homme politique - P2618 - Musée Carnavalet.jpg ]]

File:Cabrel2.jpg, 2007]]

;As place of birth

• Saint Caprasius of Agen, a Christian martyr and saint of the 4th. century
• Phoebadius of Agen (died ca. 392) a Catholic bishop of the fourth century.
• Bernard Palissy (ca.1510–1590), potter, he may have been born in Saintes.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Palissy, Bernard|volume = 20 |last= Burton |first= William |author-link= |pages= 634-635 |short=1}}
• Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), Calvinist religious leader and scholar.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Scaliger |volume = 24 |last1= Christie |first1= Richard Copley |author1-link= Richard Copley Christie |last2= Sandys |first2= John |author2-link= John Sandys (classicist)|pages=283-286; see page 284-286 |short=1}}
• Pierre Dupuy (1582–1651), writer and scholar.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Dupuy, Pierre |volume = 8 |pages= 690-691 |short=1}}
• Francés de Corteta (1586-1667), nobleman and poet
• Joseph Barsalou (1600–1660), apothecary and physician.
• Godefroi, Comte d'Estrades (1607–1686), diplomatist and Marshal of France.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Estrades, Godefroi |volume = 9 |page= 801 |short=1}}
• Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756–1825), naturalist and active freemason.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Lacépède, Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, Compte de |volume = 16 |page=48 |short=1}}
• Jean Hilaire Asté (1775–1840), professor of music and instrument-maker, inventied the ophicleide
• Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1780–1846), naturalist and politician.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Bory de Saint-Vincent, Jean Baptiste George Marie |volume = 4 |page=276 |short=1}}
• Jacques Jasmin (1798–1864), Provençal poet.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Jasmin, Jacques |volume = 15 |page= 277 |short=1}}
• Victor Rabu (1834–1907), architect, built many churches in Montevideo, Uruguay
• Joseph Chaumié (1849–1919), politician
• Les Lalanne, artists and sculptors François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008) and Claude Lalanne (1924–2019).
• Michel Serres (born 1930), philosopher and author
• Jacques Sadoul (born 1934), novelist, book editor and non-fiction author
• Jean Cruguet (born 1939), jockey who won the U.S. Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing
• Alain Aspect (born 1947), physicist and Nobel Prize in Physics winner in 2022
• Francis Cabrel (born 1953), singer-songwriter and guitarist
• Bernard Campan (born 1958), actor, film director and writer
• Emmanuel Flipo (born 1958), artist
• Bernard Andrieu (born 1959, philosopher and historian
• Béatrice Uria-Monzon (born 1963), mezzo-soprano.[http://www.uria-monzon.com/biographie.phtml Uria Monzon biography]
• Stéphane Rideau (born 1976), actor
• Fabien Barcella (born 1983), former rugby union player with 20 caps for France
• Aymeric Laporte (born 1994), footballer with 20 caps for Spain
• Brice Dulin, (born 1990), rugby union player with 36 caps for France.

;As residence

• Julius Caesar Scaliger In 1525 he became physician to Antonio della Rovera, bishop of Agen, and remained until his death in 1558.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Scaliger |volume = 24 |last1= Christie |first1= Richard Copley |author1-link= Richard Copley Christie |last2= Sandys |first2= John |author2-link= John Sandys (classicist)|pages=283-286; see page 283 |short=1}}
• Nostradamus lived in Agen from 1531 until at least 1534. He was married to a local woman with whom he had two children.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Nostradamus |volume = 19 |page= 822 |short=1}}

Agen is the "capital of the prune", a local product consumed as a sweet, either stuffed with prune purée or in pastries, or as a dessert, e.g., prunes soaked in Armagnac, a type of brandy. On the last weekend of August, a prune festival comprises rock concerts, circus performances and prune tastings.

The first Jews settled in the town in the twelfth century AD. They were expelled from the town in 1306. A number of Jews returned to the town in 1315, and a "Rue des Juifs" is documented ever since this period. In 1968, about 600 Jews lived in the town, though most of them had emigrated from North Africa.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} A Jewish synagogue still exists in the town.{{cite web |url=http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesAgen.htm |website=Kosher Delight |title=Synagogues in Agen, France}}

• SU Agen Lot-et-Garonne, a French rugby union club based in Agen
• Agenais, or Agenois, a former province of France
• Tulipa agenensis, a red tulip named after a wild colony growing near the town

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.ville-agen.fr/ Site de la ville]
• [http://www.ot-agen.org/ Office de tourisme]
• [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01209b.htm Diocese of Agen] – Catholic Encyclopædia article

{{Préfectures of départements of France}}

{{Lot-et-Garonne communes}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Communes of Lot-et-Garonne

Category:Prefectures in France

Category:Gallia Aquitania

Category:Agenais

Category:Lot-et-Garonne communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia