The former Catholic
diocese of Narbonne existed from early Christian times until the
French Revolution. It was an
archdiocese, with its see at
Narbonne, from the year 445, and its influence ran over much of south-western France and into
Catalonia. Diminished by the creation of other dioceses in 1317, its territory was merged under the
Concordat of 1801 into the
diocese of Carcassonne. The title
Archbishop of Narbonne, however, belongs to the
Archbishop of Toulouse. An attempt after the Restoration to re-establish the see was defeated in the French parliament, with the result that a new metropolitan see was created for the Languedoc region at Montpellier in 2002.