Urbanisation of Bize over the Centuries

The surrounds of our community are one of the highest areas for prehistoric man. From the human remains ( “The Man of Bize “) found in caves about 2km away, and also an actual Village found nearby a small warm spring; the Twelve, that have proved ,for the first time, the existence of Man, when reindeer roamed, date back about 40 milénaries.

In 1827, a huge jump in the history of Humanity, it was recorded and confirmed by those who discovered the “Man of Tautavel” or of Lucy.

The Roman invasion preferred to install their agricultural Domains on lower levels which were more fertile, closer to water, on the site of an actual Village. In the 5thC, the Wisigoths ruled the area, in agreement of Rome, were present in Bize, and some ruins and evidence still exist in nearby locations.

In the heart of the Village, the oldest visible parts of some buildings are Medieval. Built in a circle around their Church, fortified by a “Castrum” in the 12thC, the village hardly extended out from its ramparts, during the “Siècle des Lumières “ and had to wait till the end of the 19th C to finally have a bridge to resist the rising of the river Cesse. This bridge aloud the expansion of the Village to the onto the Left Bank (actually The Faubourg ) It became a veritable commercial crossroads between the Black Mountains and the Narbonne plains. Bize was, up to WW2 , a major trading area, which justified, in the 20th C, a railway line out of Narbonne.

Special thanks to our translator, Michael Bowditch .

Last Updated (Monday, 07 June 2010 07:21)