NARBONNE, nar-bon, France, the chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Aude, in a beautiful hill-girt plain, eight miles from the Mediterranean and 36 miles by rail east of Carcassonne, and commanding the entrance into Spain by the southwest. Boule vards occupy the site of the mediaeval ram parts removed since 1865. The town, traversed by the Robine Canal, has dark and winding streets lined with ill-built houses and is gen erally unattractive. It is, however, of historical interest as the Roman Narbo Martius, their earliest colony (118 a.c.) beyond the Alps. It flourished under Tiberius, its schools for a long time rivaling those of Rome. About 309 A.D. it became the capital of Gallia Narbonensis, and had its capitol, forum, theatre, aqueducts, triumphal arches, etc., of which there are few remains owing to the vandalism of Francis in using them as building materials. In 412 it was taken by the Visigoths, in 719 by the Saracens, from whom it was recovered by Pepin in 759, to fall a century later to the Northmen. During the 11th and 12th centuries
it was a prosperous manufacturing city, but subsequently deteriorated owing to the silting of its harbor. Its port, La Nouvelle, is 13 miles distant by canal. The principal edifices are the Romanesque church of Saint Paul Serge (1229); the quondam cathedral of Saint Just (1272-1332), only the fine Gothic choir of which, 131 feet high, has been completed; and the former archbishop's palace, now the city hall, in which are a good museum, a li brary and a picture gallery. A seminary and hydrographical school are among its educa tional institutions. The white heather honey of Narbonne maintains its ancient celebrity; the wine is chiefly used for blending purposes, its production being now carefully supervised by the oenological station founded in 1894. The manufacture of bricks• and tiles, sulphur re fining, cooperage and the distillation of brandy are among its Industries. Pop. 28,173.