CARPENTRAS, capital of an arrondissement of the same name, department of Vaucluse, France, on the Auzon, 15 miles N.E. of Avignon. It is well built, but the streets are mostly narrow and filthy. It is surrounded by old walls. Public buildings, the cathedral, rebuilt in 1405; a palace of justice, formerly the episcopal palace; an aqueduct of 48 arches, finished in 1734; a hospital; and the remains of a Roman triumphal arch. It has a theatre, public library, and museum; also distilleries, dye-works, tanneries, chemical works, and a considerable trade in silk, madder, honey, wax, olive oil, &c. It was anciently an important Roman city. Pop. (1851) of city 10,473, of arrondissement 57,034.