Tricastin

The name Tricastini, which for a long time was interpreted as meaning "the land of the Three Castles" in reality derives its name from the Gallic tribe the 'Tricastini', which occupied the territory during the Roman period. Nowadays, the Tricastin region is known as the site of the Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant situated on the Donzère-Mondragon canal, a tributary of the Rhône, for its Rhône valley AOC wine grape Grignan-Les Adhemar, and for its natural and architectural endowment. The Tricastini were an ancient Gallic tribe that gave its name to the region. Pliny the Elder spoke of their capital named Augusta Tricastinorum in Natural History, Book 3, corresponding to modern Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux. Tricastin was considered as the "land of white stone" due to the fact that it is one of the only areas of the Rhône valley where the stone has such a light color. Numerous quarries were active up to the middle of the 20th century in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Saint-Restitut. The capital Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux was the seat of a bishopric until the French Revolution when it was dissolved, the same fate as those of Uzès and Vaison-la-Romaine. The southern Tricastin town of Bollène was a commercial center during the whole medieval era and its center still contains traces of its flourishing past.