History of Orange

Arausio covered an area of some 170 acres (69 ha) and was well endowed with civic monuments – as well as the theatre and arch, it had a monumental temple complex and a forum.

It was the capital of a wide area of northern Provence, which was parcelled up into lots for the Roman colonists. "Orange of two thousand years ago was a miniature Rome, complete with many of the public buildings that would have been familiar to a citizen of the Roman Empire, except that the scale of the buildings had been reduced – a smaller theatre to accommodate a smaller population, for example."

The town prospered. It was sacked by the Visigoths in 412. It became a bishopric in the fourth century, and the hill fort of the Celtic Cavares was renamed for Saint Eutrope, the first bishop of Saintes. Christian Orange hosted two synods, in 441 and 529. The Second Council of Orange was of importance in condemning the Pelagian heresy. The Diocese of Orange persisted until the French Revolution, and was formally suppressed in 1801.

The sovereign Carolingian counts of Orange had their origin in the eighth century, and passed into the family of the lords of Baux. The Baux counts of Orange became fully independent with the breakup of the Kingdom of Arles after 1033. From the twelfth century, Orange was raised to a minor principality, the Principality of Orange, as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. During this period the town and the principality of Orange belonged to the administration and province of Dauphiné.

When William the Silent, count of Nassau, with estates in the Netherlands, inherited the title Prince of Orange in 1544, the Principality was incorporated into the holdings of what became the House of Orange-Nassau. This pitched it into the Protestant side in the Wars of Religion, during which the