History
Carpentras was a commercial site used by Greek merchants in ancient times, and known to Romans at first as Carpentoracte Meminorum, mentioned by Pliny, then renamed Forum Neronis ("Forum of Nero"); the city retains an impressive Roman triumphal arch, that has been enclosed by the bishops' palace, rebuilt in 1640, now a law court, and a machicolated city gate, the Porte d'Orange.
It was the seat of a bishop and its Church of St. Siffrein, Gothic with some Romanesque remains, was formerly a cathedral. Pope Julius II was made the Bishop of Carpentras when he was 17. Joseph-Dominique d'Inguimbert, Bishop of Carpentras from 1735 to 1754, established a great scholarly library which Jean-François Delmas, the current chief librarian, has called "the oldest of our municipal libraries"; known as the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine and now holding around 140,000 books, it is known to bibliophiles all over France and is scheduled to move into roomier quarters in the former Hôtel-Dieu in 2013.
Carpentras has been an important center of French Judaism, and is home to the oldest synagogue in France (1367), which still holds services.
In May 1990, there was a desecration of the Jewish cemetery (see French and European Nationalist Party).
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