Cassis: Information from Answers.com

For other uses, see Cassis (disambiguation).

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Coordinates: 43°13′0″N 5°32′20″E / 43.216667°N 5.53889°E / 43.216667; 5.53889

Commune of Cassis

Port-Miou calanque in Cassis

Location

Time zone

CET (GMT +1)

Coordinates

43°13′0″N 5°32′20″E / 43.216667°N 5.53889°E

Administration

Country

France

Region

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Marseille Provence Métropole

Mayor

Jean-Pierre Teisseire (UMP)
(2001–2008)

Statistics

Elevation

0–416 m (0–1,400 ft)

Land area¹

26.86 km² (10.37 sq mi)

Population²

8,001 (1999)

- Density

298 /km² (770 /sq mi)

Miscellaneous

INSEE/Postal code

13022/ 13260

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

² Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Cassis (French pronunciation: [kasi, kasis]; Occitan: Cassís) is a commune situated east of Marseille in the administrative department of the Bouches-du-Rhône in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France. It is a popular tourist destination,^[1] famous for its cliffs (falaises) and the sheltered inlets called calanques. The wines of Cassis are white and rosé, and not to be confused with crème de cassis, a specialty of Burgundy which takes its name from blackcurrants (cassis), not the commune.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Notes and references
4 External links

Geography

The town is situated on the Mediterranean coast, about 20 km (12.4 mi) east of Marseille. Cap Canaille (394 metres, 1203 feet), between Cassis and La Ciotat ("the civitas") is one of the highest maritime bluffs in Europe, a sailor's landmark for millennia.

History

The site where Cassis now sits was first occupied between 500 and 600 BC by the Ligures, who constructed a fortified habitation at the top of the Baou Redon. These people lived by fishing, hunting, and by farming.

The link with Massilia (Marseille)^{[citation needed]}, a city founded by the Phoceans,(Greek: Φώκαια) , means that the current site of Cassis could have been inhabited by the Greeks, though no proof has yet been found.

During the Roman times, Cassis was part of the maritime route made by the Emperor Antoninus Pius. At this time, the port advanced right up to Baragnon. It was a small village, established mainly around the Arena and Corton beaches. The principal livelihood was fishing and maritime trade with North Africa and the Middle East. Several archaeological discoveries attest to this^{[citation needed]}.

From the fifth to the tenth century, invasions by the barbarians^{[weasel words]} led the population to seek refuge in the castrum, a fortified city that, in 1223, became the property of the Seigneurie des Les Baux-de-Provence.

In the fifteenth century, Cassis was ceded to the Counts of Provence, then René of Anjou gave the town to the Bishops of Marseille, who ruled the town until the Revolution of 1789.

In the eighteenth century, Cassis started to develop outside the ramparts of the fortified city and around the port. After the Bourbon Restoration, new industries developed here, including the drying of cod, the manufacture of olive oil and clothing, coral work, wine-making and the exploitation of local stone (cement, limestone). Indeed, the Stone of Cassis, which was quarried here since antiquity made the town famous. The masonry for the quays of the large Mediterranean ports (Alexandria, Algiers, Piraeus, Marseille, Port Said) originated from Cassis^{[citation needed]}, as well as the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York City. Today, the stone is used for more domestic purposes: pile (the Provençal word for a sink)^{[clarification needed]}, swimming pool etc.^{[weasel words]}

In the twentieth century, as these industries began to disappear, the workforce turned to tourism and wine making. Cassis was one of the first three vineyards to profit from the appellation d'origine contrôlée (label of controlled origin) introduced in 1936.