TARASCON, a town of south-eastern France, in the depart ment of Bouches-du-Rhone, 62 m. N.W. of Marseilles by rail. Pop. (1931) 4,666. Tarascon stands on the left bank of the RhOne opposite Beaucaire, with which it is connected by a rail way bridge and a suspension bridge. The church of St. Martha, built in 1187-97 on the ruins of a Roman temple and rebuilt in has a Gothic spire and interesting tombs in the crypt. Of the original building there remain a porch and a side portal flanked by marble columns with capitals like those of St. Tro phimus at Arles. The former leads to the crypt, where are the tombs of St. Martha (1658), Jean de Gossa, governor of Provence under King Rene, and Louis II., king of Provence. The castle, built on a rock, was begun by Count Louis II. in the 14th century and finished by King Rene in the 15th. It contains a turret stair and a chapel entrance, both 15th-century, and fine wooden ceil ings. The building is now used as a prison. The hotel-de-ville dates from the 17th century. The civil court of the arrondisse ment of Arles is situated at Tarascon, which also possesses a com mercial court, and fine cavalry barracks. The so-called Arles sausages are made here, and there is trade in fruit and early vegetables. In Tartarin de Tarascon Alphonse Daudet has satir ized the provincial life of Tarascon, which has a tribunal of com merce and the fair of Beaucaire. It formerly had the two
fetes of La Tarasque, the latter in celebration of St. Martha's de liverance of the town from a legendary monster of that name. King Rene presided in 1469, and grand exhibitions of costume and strange ceremonies take place during the two days of the festival. Tarascon was originally a settlement of the Massaliots, built on an island of the RhOne. The mediaeval castle, where Pope Urban IL lived in 1096, was built on the ruins of a Roman camp. Tarascon preserved the municipal institutions granted it by the Romans, and of the absolute power claimed by the counts of Provence only recognized the rights of sovereignty.
a Swiss railway station in the lower Engadine, giving its name to a group of villages of which Schuls, the capital of the lower Engadine, situated about 160 ft. above the Inn river, is the chief. Tarasp is famed for its springs, which have been known since the middle ages, but it lies low in the valley and many visitors live at Vulpera, above the south bank of the Inn river. Above the village of Tarasp is the early mediaeval castle of that name, heavily restored as in i 7th century style in recent years. The neighbourhood is famed for its beauty.