CARPENTRAS  , a

town of south-eastern France; capital of an arrondissement in the department of Vaucluse 16 m . N.E. of Avignon by rail . Pop . (1906) town, 7775; commune, 10,721 . The town stands on the left bank of the Auzon on an eminence, the summit of which is occupied by the church of St Siffrein, formerly a cathedral, and the adjoining law-court: 'St Siff rein, in its existing state, dates from the 15th and 16th centuries and is Gothic in style, but it preserves remains of a previous church of Romanesque architecture . The rich sculpture of the southern portal and the relics and works of art in the interior are of some interest . The law-court, built in 164o as the bishop's palace, contains in its courtyard a small but well-preserved triumphal arch of the Gallo-Roman period . Other important buildings are the hospital, an imposing structure of the 18th century, opposite which is a statue of its founder, Malachie d'Inguimbert, bishop of Carpentras; and the former palace of the papal legate, which dates from 1640 . Of the old fortifications the only survival is the Porte d'Orange, a gateway surmounted by a fine machicolated tower . Their site is now occupied by wide boulevards shaded by plane-trees . Water is brought to the town by an aqueduct of forty-eight arches, completed in 1734 . Carpentras is the seat of a sub-prefect and of a court of assizes, and has a tribunal of first instance, communal college for girls and boys, a large library and a museum .

Felt hats, confectionery, preserved fruits and nails are its industrial products, and there are silk-works, tanneries and dye-works . There is trade in silk, wool, fruit, oil, &c . The irrigation-canal named after the town flows to the east of it (see VAUCLUSE) . Carpentras is identified with Carpentoracte, a town of Gallia Narbonensis mentioned by Pliny, which appears to have been of some importance during the Roman period . Its medieval history is full of vicissitudes; it was captured and plundered by Vandal, Lombard and Saracen . In later times, as capital of the Comtat Venaissin, it was frequently the residence of the popes of Avignon, to whom that province belonged from 1228 till the Revolution . Carpentras was the seat of a bishopric from the 5th century till 1805 .