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Mende (Municipality, Lozère, France)

by Arnaud Leroy

Presentation of Mende
Flag of Mende
Coat of arms of Mende
Vertical flag of Mende

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Presentation of Mende

Mende (c. 13,000 inhabitants) is the préfecture of the department of Lozère and is one of the smallest, if not the smallest, of the French prefectures.

In the Roman times, Mende was a vicus (village) established on the right bank of the river Lot. In the IIIrd century, Saint Privat, the evangelist of Gévaudan, lived in a cave on the Mont Mimat. After his martyre by local pagans, his grave (now in the crypt of the cathedral) became an important place of pilgrimage, and the city of Mende spread on the left bank of the Lot.
In the XIIIth century, the bridge Notre-Dame was built to link the two parts of the city. The bridge has a single wide arch, which has been succesfully resisting the Lot floods since its building.
Pope Urban V (Guillaume de Grimoard, 1310-1370) was born in the castle of Grizac in Lozère. He was based in Avignon and attempted an aborted return to Rome (1367-1370). However, he did not forget his fatherland and built the cathedral of Mende. In 1579, during the Religion Wars, the Protestant warlord Matthieu Merle seized the city during Christmas Eve. He blew up the pillars of the cathedral and broke the Non Pareille (Without Equivalent) bell, which was at that time the biggest bell of the Christian world (20 tons). The bell clapper (2.15 m) was preserved and placed in