Clermont

Clermont stands on a hill above the Limagne plain, beneath the volcanic peaks of Auvergne. Its cathedral and bishop's city faced the neighbouring town of Montferrand, a separate community with its own institutions. In 1630 the Edict of Troyes ordered the two towns united under Louis XIII. Resistance to the arrangement endured, and a second royal edict in 1731 confirmed the union that gave Clermont-Ferrand its double name.