Orange (Provence)

Provence (France)

Orange is a town in Provence, southern France, about 21 km north of Avignon. In 105 BCE two Roman armies fought the Cimbri and Teutones here, and around 35 BCE veterans of the Second Legion founded the colony of Arausio, whose theatre and triumphal arch are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Church synods met here in 441 and 529; the second, presided over by Caesarius of Arles, sided with Augustine on grace against what was later called Semipelagianism. Later a small principality of the Holy Roman Empire, Orange passed in 1544 to William the Silent and the House of Orange-Nassau, and France gained it in 1713. The Jewish philosopher Gersonides lived here as well as in Avignon.

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