Gardanne

French commune
nomcommune=Gardanne
View of Gardanne by Cézanne
région=Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
arrondissement=Aix-en-Provence
département=Bouches-du-Rhône
canton=Gardanne
insee=13041
cp=13120
maire=Roger Meï
mandat=2001-2008
intercomm="none"
longitude=5.476
latitude=43.45527
alt moy=205 m
alt mini=170 m
alt maxi=387 m
hectares=2,702
km²=27.02
sans=19,344
date-sans=1999
dens=716
date-dens=1999

Gardanne is a commune of the Bouches-du-Rhône "département" in southern France.

Geography

It is close to Aix-en-Provence and Marseille and lies on the rail link connecting the two cities.

History

Walls dating back to the first century AD have been found. [http://www.ville-gardanne.fr/Histoire :: Ville de Gardanne :: ] ]

In 1454 René d'Anjou bought the estate and would go there until 1480. In 1482 it was bought back by the Forbins and in 1676 the villagers themselves bought back their own land.

In the 1860s a railway was built and a little later mines were dug, thus attracting Italian, Armenian, Polish, Czech, Spanish and African workers to the village. The deep mine, one of the last surviving in France, was closed down in 2003.

Politics

The commune of Gardanne has been controlled by the Parti Communiste Français under Roger Meï since 1977. Voting is usually towards the left-wing, although rather uncharacteristically Nicolas Sarkozy gained 53,1% of the vote in the second round of the French presidential election, 2007.Fact|date=May 2007

Picture gallery

ee also

* Provence Power Station

References

External links

* [http://www.ville-gardanne.fr/ Official website] fr