Garrigue villages

The village of Argelliers includes some wide open spaces and its 5,000 hectares appear to have been settled since prehistoric times. The settlement known as Pampelune has been a dwelling place for many hundreds of years and, in 1965, a religious building was uncovered: a dependency of the Abbey of Aniane with a sarcophagus of the Aquitaine school.

Until the French Revolution in 1789, Argelliers had 300-400 inhabitants scattered amongst various settlements centred around the parish church of Saint-Etienne. Some of these mas might have had a small chapel and lived more or les independent lives. The Abbots of Aniane were the lords of these lands, responsible for maintaining the law and acting as representatives of both spiritual and temporal power.

But aside from such historical considerations, Argelliers is the birthplace of two of the most eminent personalities in our area: Abbé Capion and the poet Max Rouquette. Abbé Capion was born in the village on 16th August 1886 and ordained as a priest in 1889. He became successively a curate at Olonzac, Sainte-Ursule de Pézenas, Saint-Nazaire de Béziers, and then a parish priest at Vendémian and at Baillargues. He moved to Montpellier as chaplain at the Carré du Roi Clinic where he died on 28 January 1949. Among other works, he was the author of a history of his village, entitled, “Les Fleurettes” in which he tried paint a picture of everyday life.

Il s’établit à Montpellier comme aumônier de la clinique du Carré du Roi où il décède le 28 janvier 1949. On lui doit entre autres, un ouvrage sur l’histoire de son village, « les Fleurettes » dans lequel il tente de rassembler les renseignements ordinaires.

Max Rouquette, a poet, born in 1908 in Argelliers, was the most important writer of his generation in Occitan and a byword for local literature. He was a doctor of medicine and, very early in life, fought for the cultural rebirth of his homeland. He played an important part in the organisation of the Institut d’Etudes Occitanes (Institute for Occitan Studies) and the Pen Club for Occitan writers. He died in 2005, leaving behind him some of the most beautiful pages in our literary history. Every phrase was a picture, a wondrous representation of our unique landscapes and atmosphere. To read Max Rouquette and then close your eyes is to journey through our landscapes, from the vines to the heather, through the boxwood and green oaks of the garrigue.


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