[al-bee] 
| a city in and the capital of Tarn, in S France: center of the Albigenses. 49,456. |
[tarn] | a department in S France. 338,024; 2232 sq. mi. (5780 sq. km). Capital: Albi. |
| tarn (tärn) Pronunciation Key
A small mountain lake, especially one formed as a glacier melts, filling a cirque with water. |
Albi
city, capital of Tarn departement, Midi-Pyrenees region, in the Languedoc, southern France. It lies along the Tarn River where the latter leaves the Massif Central for the Garonne Plain, northeast of Toulouse. Albi, or Albiga, was the capital of the Gallo-Roman Albigenses and later of the viscounty of Albigeois, which was a fief of the counts of Toulouse. An active centre of Catharism, the town gave its name to the Albigensian heresy, which led to the Albigensian Crusade (1209) and later to the development of the Inquisition. The city was captured in 1215, and the bishops subsequently lost their estates to the crown. By a convention (1264), temporal power was granted to the bishops (archbishops after 1678) until the French Revolution.
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