Occitan language in the context of "Occitan cross"

Provençal (/ˌprɒvɒ̃ˈsɑːl/, also UK: /-sæl/, US: /ˌproʊ-, -vən-/, French: [pʁɔvɑ̃sal] ; Occitan: provençau or prouvençau [pʀuvenˈsaw]) is a variety of Occitan, spoken by people in Provence and parts of Drôme and Gard. The term Provençal used to refer to the entire Occitan language, but more recently it has referred only to the variety of Occitan spoken in Provence. However, it can still be found being used to refer to Occitan as a whole, e.g. Merriam-Webster states that it can be used to refer to general Occitan, though this is going out of use.

Provençal is also the customary name given to the older version of the Occitan language used by the troubadours of medieval literature, when Old French or the langue d'oïl was limited to the northern areas of France. Thus, the ISO 639-3 code for Old Occitan is [pro].

Bouches-du-Rhône (/ˌbuːʃ djuː ˈroʊn/ BOOSH dew ROHN; French: les Bouches-du-Rhône [le buʃ dy ʁon] , locally [le ˈbuʃə dy ˈʁɔnə]; Occitan: lei Bocas de Ròse [lej ˈbukɔz de ˈʀɔze]; "the Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and largest city is Marseille; other important cities include Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Martigues and Aubagne.

Marseille, France's second-largest city, has one of the largest container ports in the country. It prides itself on being France's oldest city, founded by Greek settlers from Phocaea around 600 BC. Bouches-du-Rhône is the most populous department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, with 2,043,110 inhabitants as of 2019. It has an area of 5,087 km (1,964 sq mi). Its INSEE and postal code is 13.

The Rhône (/roʊn/ ROHN, French: [ʁon] ; Occitan: Ròse; Arpitan: Rôno) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea (Gulf of Lion). At Arles, near its mouth, the river divides into the Great Rhône (French: le Grand Rhône; Occitan: Grand Ròse) and the Little Rhône (le Petit Rhône; Pichon Ròse). The resulting delta forms the Camargue region.

The river's source is the Rhône Glacier, at the eastern edge of the Swiss canton of Valais. The glacier is part of the Saint-Gotthard Massif, which gives rise to three other major rivers: the Reuss, Rhine and Ticino.

The Old Port of Marseille (French: Vieux-Port de Marseille, [vjøpɔʁ də maʁsɛj]; Occitan: Vieu Port de Marselha) is at the end of the Canebière, the major street of Marseille. It has been the natural harbour of the city since antiquity and is now the main popular place in Marseille. It became mainly pedestrian in 2013.

Notre-Dame de la Garde (French: [nɔtʁ(ə) dam d(ə) la ɡaʁd]; Occitan: Nòstra Dòna de la Gàrdia, lit. 'Our Lady of the Guard'), known to local citizens as la Bonne Mère (Occitan: la Bòna Maire, lit. 'the Good Mother'), is a Catholic basilica in Marseille, France, and the city's best-known symbol. The site of a popular Assumption Day pilgrimage, it is the most visited site in Marseille. It was built on the foundations of an ancient fort at the highest natural point in the city, a 149 m (489 ft) limestone outcropping on the south side of the Old Port of Marseille.

Construction of the basilica began in 1853 and lasted for over 40 years. It was originally an enlargement of a medieval chapel but was transformed into a new structure at the request of Father Bernard, the chaplain. The plans were made and developed by the architect Henri-Jacques Espérandieu. It was consecrated while still unfinished on 5 June 1864. The basilica consists of a lower church or crypt in the Romanesque style, carved from the rock, and an upper church of Neo-Byzantine style decorated with mosaics. A square 41 m (135 ft) bell tower topped by a 12.5 m (41 ft) belfry supports a monumental 11.2 m (37 ft) statue of the Madonna and Child, made of copper gilded with gold leaf.

The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languages are a group of Romance languages that developed on the Iberian Peninsula, an area consisting primarily of Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Andorra and French Catalonia. They are today more commonly separated into West Iberian, East Iberian (Catalan/Valencian) and Southern Iberian (Andalusi Romance, also known as Mozarabic/Haketia) language groups. East Iberian's classification is a subject of ongoing scholarly debate, as some argue that the Occitano-Romance languages, composed of Occitan along with Catalan/Valencian, are better classified as Gallo-Romance languages.

Evolved from the Vulgar Latin of Iberia, the most widely spoken Iberian Romance languages are Spanish and Portuguese, followed by Catalan-Valencian-Balear and Galician. These languages also have their own regional and local varieties. Based on mutual intelligibility, Dalby counts seven "outer" languages, or language groups: Galician-Portuguese, Spanish, Asturleonese, "Wider"-Aragonese, "Wider"-Catalan, Provençal+Lengadocian, and "Wider"-Gascon.

The Avignon Papacy (Occitan: Papat d'Avinhon; French: Papauté d'Avignon) was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (at the time within the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now part of France) rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by agents of Philip IV of France. Following the subsequent death of Pope Benedict XI, Philip pressured a deadlocked conclave to elect the Archbishop of Bordeaux as pope Clement V in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome, and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity" of the Papacy (cf. Italian cattività avignonese, i.e. "Avignonese captivity").

A total of seven popes reigned at Avignon, all French, and all under the influence of the French Crown. In 1376, Gregory XI abandoned Avignon and moved his court to Rome, arriving in January 1377. After Gregory's death in 1378, deteriorating relations between his successor Urban VI and a faction of cardinals gave rise to the Western Schism. This started a second line of Avignon popes, subsequently regarded as illegitimate. The last Avignon antipope, Benedict XIII, lost most of his support in 1398, including that of France. After five years besieged by the French, he fled to Perpignan in 1403. The schism ended in 1417 at the Council of Constance.

Ramon Llull TOSF (/lʌl/; Catalan: [rəˈmoɲ ˈʎuʎ]; c. 1232 – 1316), sometimes anglicized as Raymond Lully, was a Mallorcan Catholic philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, apologist and former knight. He invented a philosophical system known as the Art, conceived as a type of universal logic to prove the truth of Christian doctrine to interlocutors of all faiths and nationalities. The Art consists of a set of general principles and combinatorial operations. It is illustrated with diagrams.

A prolific writer, he is also known for his literary works written in Catalan, which he composed to make his Art accessible to a wider audience. In addition to Catalan and Latin, he also probably wrote in Arabic (although no texts in Arabic survive). His books were translated into Occitan, French, and Castilian during his lifetime.

Milanese (endonym in traditional orthography Milanes, Meneghin) is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to the importance of Milan, the largest city in Lombardy, is often considered one of the most prestigious Lombard variants and the most prestigious one in the Western Lombard area.

In Italian-language contexts, Milanese (like most indigenous Romance varieties spoken in Italy other than standard Italian) is often called a dialetto "dialect". This can be misunderstood to mean a variety of the Tuscan-derived national language, which it is not. Lombard in general, including Milanese, is a sister language of Tuscan, thus also of Italian, rather than a derivative. Typologically, Lombard is a Western Romance language, and more closely resembles other Gallo-Italic languages in Northern Italy (e.g. Piedmontese, Ligurian, Emilian, Romagnol) as well as others further afield, including Occitan and Romansh.

Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situated on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces or eight vegueries (regions), which are in turn divided into 43 comarques. The capital and largest city, Barcelona, is the second-most populous municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.

Modern-day Catalonia comprises most of the medieval and early modern Principality of Catalonia, with the remainder of the northern area now part of France's Pyrénées-Orientales. It is bordered by France (Occitanie) and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, and the Spanish autonomous communities of Aragon to the west and Valencia to the south. In addition to its approximately 580 km of coastline, Catalonia also has major high landforms such as the Pyrenees and the Pre-Pyrenees, the Transversal Range (Serralada Transversal) or the Central Depression. The official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan.