Ales, France

Alès

Alès is a town and a commune in southern France, in the Languedoc-Roussillon région. It is one of the sous-préfectures of the Gard département. It was formerly known as Alais. Alès lies roughly 25 miles north west of Nîmes, on the left bank of the River Gardon, which half surrounds it. It is located at the foot of the Cévennes, near the Cévennes National Park.

In the 16th century Alès was an important Huguenot centre. In 1629 Louis XIII took the town, and by the Peace of Alais the Huguenots gave up their right to places de sûreté and other privileges. A bishopric was established there in 1694 but suppressed again in 1790. In 1906 the population of Alès was 18 987.

The Peace of Alais, sometimes called the Edict of Alès, was a treaty signed between the Huguenots and King Louis XIII of France on 28th of June 1629. It confirmed the basic principles of the Edict of Nantes, but differed in that it had extra clauses, stating that the Huguenots no longer had political rights and further demanding they relinquish all cities and fortresses immediately. It ended the religious wars, while giving the Huguenots amnesty and guaranteeing tolerance for the group. Unfortunately for the Huguenots, neither the Peace nor the Edict of Nantes lasted very long. Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and began a brutal persecution of the French Protestant clan.

Alès is the center of a mining district and hosts the École des mines d’Alès.
Taking a quote from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition 1911, which is describing Alès:
“The town is one of the most important markets for raw silk and cocoons in the south of France, and the Gardon supplies power to numerous silk-mills. It is also the centre of a mineral field, which yields large quantities of coal, iron, zinc and lead; its blast-furnaces, foundries, glass-works and engineering works afford employment to many workmen.”