Viviers

Viviers or Viviers-sur-Rhône (Vivièrs in Occitan) is a commune, located in the Ardèche department on the Rhône river (Massif central, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France).

Viviers is the former capital of the province of Vivarais, Vivariensis Pagus to which it gave its name and which belonged to the royal province of Languedoc until 1789.

The city is still the seat of its own bishopric, also called the diocese of Vivarais, made up of twenty-four parishes since October 1, 2003. Historically, the bishops were the most powerful temporal lords of the region during a large part of the medieval era before pledging allegiance to the king of France in 1307.

Viviers became the capital of the Gaulish Helvii tribe following the decline of nearby Alba-la-Romaine.

Tourism and main attractions

Medieval monuments

Ramparts;
Carolingian dungeon;
Saint-Ostian chapel;
house of Lestrade (12th – 13th centuries), in the lower town, heavily remodeled in the 16th and 18th centuries. It was the town hall of Viviers from 1767 to 1947.

Renaissance monuments

Maison Noël-Albert (known as the House of Knights or House of the Heads).

Monuments of the 18th century

Former “Grand-séminaire”, now “Charles de Foucauld diocesan house”. Rich library.
Former Episcopal Palace: current town hall
Hôtel de Roqueplane: current bishopric of the diocese of Viviers
Tourville Hotel
Hôtel de Mercoyrol de Beaulieu.

Religious architecture

From its past as a bishopric, Viviers has preserved a set of remarkable private mansions and very interesting religious buildings.
Saint-Vincent de Viviers Cathedral, Chemin de Ronde, is the only one in France to have preserved its canonical quarter intact.

Notre-Dame-du-Rhône Church of Viviers, also called Chapel of the Dominicans of Viviers, place Notre-Dame-du-Rhône.
Saint-Laurent Church, Faubourg la Ciré.
Church of the former Lafarge workers’ town, also called Cité Blanche.
Saint-Julien de Viviers Church.