Montpellier

Places researched in this city

A selection of the 38 places we've researched in this city. The full set is in the Parroo app.

• Gothic cathedral
• Royal promenades
• Contemporary architecture
• Art museums
• Roman-inspired aqueduct
• Medieval heritage

• Comédie Square

  Montpellier's great oval square earned the nickname 'l'Œuf' (the Egg) for its shape, and the theater at its heart has burned down and been rebuilt three times since 1755. Today it anchors the city's social life around the marble Fontaine des Trois Grâces and the current Opéra Comédie, completed in 1888.

• Saint-Clément Aqueduct

  Engineer Henri Pitot looked to the ancient Pont du Gard for inspiration and completed this 14-kilometre aqueduct in 1765, threading 53 large arches and 183 smaller ones across the city to end at a neoclassical water tower on the Peyrou. The 'Arceaux' section still frames a lively twice-weekly market beneath its arches.

• Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier

  Founded in 1220, this is the oldest medical school in the Western world still in operation, shaped from the start by a rare blend of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish scholarship. Its Gothic and classical buildings house a historic anatomy museum and a library that has outlasted plague, revolution, and eight centuries of medical progress.

• Peyrou Promenade

  Created in 1689 to honour Louis XIV, this elevated esplanade was designed by François d'Orbay, the same architect behind parts of Versailles, and offers panoramic views toward the Cévennes. The equestrian statue of the Sun King was destroyed during the Revolution and replaced only in 1828, meaning the version visitors see today is a copy of a copy.

• Saint Peter's Cathedral of Montpellier

  Pope Urban V, who had himself studied and taught in Montpellier before becoming pope, founded this fortress-like cathedral in 1364. Its Southern Gothic nave stretches 102.5 metres and its two massive cylindrical porch pillars are unlike anything else in France, a design that helped the building survive the Wars of Religion largely intact.

• The White Tree

  Every one of the 193 cantilevered balconies on this 56-metre tower juts up to 7.5 metres out over the street, inspired by a fusion of Mediterranean outdoor living and Japanese architectural sensibility. Completed in 2019 as part of Montpellier's tradition of architectural 'follies,' it was designed by Sou Fujimoto alongside local partners after winning the city's 'Folie Richter' competition in 2013.

• Medieval Mikveh of Montpellier

  Built in the early 13th century and sitting five metres below street level, this circular ritual bath fed by a natural water table is among the oldest and best-preserved Jewish mikvehs in Europe. It fell out of use after Jews were expelled from Montpellier in 1394 and lay forgotten until archaeologists rediscovered and restored it in the 1980s.