Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne

Saint-Gaudens (Gascon: Sent Gaudenç) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. It is the capital of the arrondissement of Saint-Gaudens and of the canton of Saint-Gaudens.

History
In antiquity, the present place of the city was near a Roman road between Toulouse and Dax, where there was a rural area called Mansus; Mansus was named later as Mas Saint-Pierre after the Christianization of the region.

In 475, a young Christian boy, Gaudens, was killed by the Visigoths and he was buried in this place. The town took its current name in the ninth century, because may people came here to worship the martyr; the relics of Gaudens were deposited in the church of Mas-Saint-Pierre.

As an important regional market place, Saint-Gaudens became the economic capital of the Comminges (a natural region and an old French region on the hills at the base of the Pyrenees).

Geography
The city of Saint-Gaudens is in the Comminges, at the foot of the Pyrenees. It is about  to the southwest of Toulouse and at about  from Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées).

It is found on the left side of the Garonne river.

The commune has an area of , and its average altitude is ; at the city hall, the altitude is .
+ Saint-Gaudens and its neighboring communes 350px|Map of the commune de Saint-Gaudens

Climate
The climate of Saint-Gaudens, in the Köppen climate classification, is Cfb - Oceanic climate with template summers.

Population
The inhabitants of Saint-Gaudens are known, in French, as Saint-Gaudinois (women: Saint-Gaudinoises).

Saint-Gaudens has a population, in 2014, of 11,255, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2.

Evolution of the population in Saint-Gaudens

 Administration 
Saint-Gaudens is a subprefecture of the Haute-Garonne department, the capital of the arrondissement of Saint-Gaudens and the administrative centre () of the canton of Saint-Gaudens.

It is part of the intercommunality Cœur et Coteaux de Comminges ().

 Sister cities 
Saint-Gaudens is twinned with:
  Avranches, France
  Barbastro, Spain
  Vielha e Mijaran, Spain

Sites of interest
Some important buildings are:
 The Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Gaudens church
 The Saint-Jacques chapelle
 The Cloister (part of the cloister that remains of the old Bonnefond abbey)

References

Related pages
 Arrondissement of Saint-Gaudens
 Communes of the Haute-Garonne department

Other websites

 City Council website 
 Office de Tourisme - Saint-Gaudens 
 Société des études du Comminges 

Category:Subprefectures in France
Category:Communes in Haute-Garonne