Presentation |
Florensac is a city of the department of Hérault. Its inhabitants numbered about 4000 at last count.
It is both an old village with its old, very narrow streets and shaded gathering places like the celebrated
Place de Republic, also know as “The Promenade”, and a new village with new subdivisions of modern villas
surrounding the historic center. Florensac is located near the left bank of the Hérault River which has its source in Aigoual and flows 160 km empting into the Mediterranean near Agde. Florensac is in the heart of the Languedocien vineyards and only a few kilometers from the popular beaches of Agde and Marseillan. It is a calm and a pleasant village whose main crop is wine, but one also finds corn, melons, tomatoes, and sunflowers. Florensac is alive with its businesses, its nearly thirty associations, its sports clubs, its co-operative winery and its new town hall inaugurated in October 2000. |
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Legend |
Elée was a pagan citizen living in Agde, who had an only son named Thybérius, whose education he entrusted
to Modeste, a Christian, highly regarded for his wisdom. Thybérius became a good Christian like his master.
This greatly displeased his father, who became angry towards them both. In order to escape from the persecution
of Elée, they fled in a boat via the Hérault River and stopped in the Cordat Woods in the ancient forest of Cessaro.
There they built a hut and remained isolated. Today the Cordat Woods would be within the commune of Florensac. The virtues and, especially, the miracles of Modeste and Thybérius attracted a crowd to them. The crowd’s eagerness to live near these two saintly characters is believed to account for the first buildings that were the birth of Florensac. In the year 303 the seclusion of Thybérius and Modeste was discovered, and they were martyred. Their courage, heroism, and constancy inspired a girl named Florence to convert immediately to Christianity. The etymology of Florensac is not certain. Some say it derives from the name of the young Florence; others say of Florentus, consul of Gaules; and finally, some give a whimsical etymology derived from “Flora” or flower “in a sack” because the village is located in the low part of a plain which was long ago covered with meadows and flowers. |