Largentière

Largentière is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Ardèche department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southern France.It is located in the narrow valley of the Ligne River, approximately ten kilometres southwest of Aubenas.It claims to be the smallest sub-prefecture in France.Its name, adopted in the thirteenth century in place of its more ancient name Segualeriae (Ségualières), refers to the silver mines in the area between the tenth and fifteenth centuries, when the silver-bearing lead ores in intrusive veins in the Largentières sandstone were exploited under the authority of the Counts of Toulouse and the Bishops of Viviers, whose title barons de Largentière was linked to the bishopric.Economy and transportationA busy industrial town in the nineteenth century, when it housed silk mills its principal industry is now tourism. Its only railroad station was rased in 1982, leaving the town accessible only by road.SightsBesides its twelfth- to fifteenth-century château, the town conserves its thirteenth-century church, Nôtre-Dame-des-Pommiers, its Renaissance hôtel de ville, its palais de justice, and the Tour Argentière that collected the mines' produce for guarded transport.