Capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France in the département of Hérault, not far from the Mediterranean coast. In 1289, Pope Nicholas IV founded a university here. (1227-1292) founded a university with the disciplines medicine, theology, law and philosophy. This developed into an intellectual centre of a high standard. Among others, the famous physician Arnaldus de Villanova (1240-1311) taught here. In 1872 the "École Nationale Supérieur Agronomique" was founded as a branch of the university. The reason for the foundation was the catastrophe in the French viticulture caused by the two mildew fungi and the phylloxera. Jules Émile Planchon (1823-1888), who in 1868 was finally able to identify phylloxera as the cause of the mysterious vine death, also worked here as a professor of botany. Today, the department of viticulture is one of the most important institutes worldwide.