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
 of Saint-Gaudens]]
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 .

### 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**

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 bar:1968 from:0 till: 11682
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 12148
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 11644
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 11266
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 10845
 bar:2008 from:0 till: 11660
 bar:2014 from:0 till: 11255

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 bar:1975 at: 12148 fontsize:S text: 12,148 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:1982 at: 11644 fontsize:S text: 11,644 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:1990 at: 11266 fontsize:S text: 11,266 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:1999 at: 10845 fontsize:S text: 10,845 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:2008 at: 11660 fontsize:S text: 11,660 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:2014 at: 11255 fontsize:S text: 11,255 shift:(-15,5)

## 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