CARPENTRAS, a town of south-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Vaucluse 16 m. N.E. of Avignon. Pop. (1931) 8,910. It lies in a hilly region bordering the wide valley of the lower Rhone.
Carpentras is identified with Carpentoracte, a town of Gallia Narbonensis mentioned by Pliny. Its mediaeval history is full of vicissitudes; it was captured and plundered by Vandal, Lombard and Saracen. In later times, as capital of the Comtat Venaissin, it was frequently the residence of the popes of Avignon, to whom that province belonged from 1228 till the Revolution. Carpentras was the seat of a bishopric from the 5th century till 1805. The highest part of the town is occupied by the church (and former cathedral) of St. Siffrein, a late Gothic building (1405-1519) which preserves remains of a previous Romanesque church. The richly sculptured Flamboyant south porch is noteworthy. The adjoining law-court, built in 1640 as the bishop's palace, contains in its courtyard a small but well-preserved triumphal arch of the Gallo-Roman period. The former palace of the papal legate dates from 164o. Of the 14th century fortifications the only survival is the Porte d'Orange, a gateway surmounted by a fine machicolated tower. Water is brought to the town by an aqueduct of forty eight arches, completed in 1734.
Carpentras is the seat of a sub-prefect and of a court of assizes, and has a tribunal of first instance. Confectionery, honey, wax, fruit, preserved fruits, tin-ware and nails are produced, and there are silk-works and tanneries. There is trade in silk, wool, fruit, oil, etc. The irrigation-canal named after the town flows to the east.
