IV century
BC Three kilometers to the north of the actual emplacement of the city can be found the vestiges of Entremont, the ancient capital of the Salyens Celto-Ligurian confederation.
123
BC The Roman proconsul Caius Sextius dismantles Entremont and installs himself on a nearby site abundantly blessed with water: AQUAE SEXTIAE SALLUVIORUM. It is the birth of Aix.
15 BC
This date marks the beginning of the urban and thermal development of Aix.
Around
400 AD Installation of the archbishopric who's power reaches from Fréjus to Gap.
574
AD The Roman colony is abandoned. Faced with Saracens raids the city enters a lugubrious period. All Roman constructions end up being destroyed before the end of the Middle Ages.
VIIIth
to Xth centuries The Saracen attacks cease, this allows for a renaissance of the city.
1182
AD Aix becomes a place of residence for the sovereign counts of Provence. Outside its ramparts artisans and merchants set up quarters.
1409
AD Aix becomes a jurido-political capital. Louis II creates a university in view of doting the city with competent administrators.
1460
AD King René sojourns in Aix several times. During his reign numerous works are undertaken and executed, several districts are created.
1481
AD Charles III of Maine, last sovereign count of Provence legates the Provence to the king of France. During the next century and a half foreign and religious wars succeed each other.
1501
AD The Parliament of Aix is established.
1660
AD After the city of Aix's opposition to Richelieu and Mazarin, the visit of King Louis XIV puts and end to the long rebellious tradition of the city. Aix subsequently becomes a "Courtesan" city.
1790
- 1800 The French revolution and the loss of privileges engender a deep economical recession.
1800
- 1950 The end of the revolutionary upheavals bring to the city of Aix the
restoration and further development of its politico-judicial and academic
vocations. In the XIXth century are created the faculty of Law (1806),
Literature (1846), the Ecole Normale and the national Ecole des Arts et
Metiers (industrial arts and crafts). In 1831 the edification of the palace
of the Court of Justice is completed. The city restores its patrimony (tombs
of the counts of Provence in the church of St. Jean-de-Malte) and edify
new monuments (fountain of the "Bon Roi René" upon the
cours Mirabeau - 1823).
That period is characterized by a lack of industrial development, partly
because of the local bourgeoisie. The predominance of Marseille is more
and more pressing . We can note as an example that the railroad tracks
Avignon-Nice by-pass Aix and instead go by Marseille. It is not until the
20's and the advent of the automobile that Aix regains its major crossroads
function that she had lost due to the railroad tracing.
The Zola Canal (built by the author's father from 1838 to 1854) and the
canal du Verdon (built between 1837 and 1875) brought a solution to the
recurring problem of the city's drinkable water supply. It is how in 1913
Aix became a Hydromineral Spa and how in 1922 she was granted a gaming
casino.
1950
to our present day In 1954 some 54.000 people live in Aix; 59% of this active population
belong to the tertiary sector. In 1961 with the arrival of the repatriate
French Algerians the demographic growth augments and it is during that
period that Aix acquires it's status as a residential city.
The city then undertakes several major urbanization programs (cite Beisson-1961,
ZUP d'Encagnane - 1965-1971, le Petit Nice -1965, ZAC du Jas de Bouffan
- begun in 1973), equipment (sports and tourisme...) and of industrialization
(creation of an 140Ha industrial park in Les Milles, all this in view of
reducing the disproportionate disparity of the economy between the secondary
and tertiary sectors of the Aix en Provence economy).
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