You are standing on Place des Casernes, in the heart of old Béziers. Around you, the buildings lining the square are the former wings of the Saint-Jacques barracks, built at the end of the seventeenth century on the orders of Louis XIV. At the time, Béziers was a strategic stronghold, and the aim was to gather soldiers here rather than lodge them with local residents. The military architect Charles d’Avilier then built a vast complex organised around two courtyards: the Marengo courtyard, reserved for the cavalry with its ground-floor stables, and the Iéna courtyard, on the side of today’s Musée du Biterrois, for the infantry. Several regiments were stationed here over the years, including the famous 17th Infantry Regiment, the very one that refused to fire on the revolting winegrowers in 1907. In the twentieth century, the army left the site: the city purchased the barracks and installed its technical services, the fire brigade, then the municipal archives and the Musée du Biterrois.