Coordinates: 43°06′32″N 0°43′27″E / 43.1088888889°N 0.724166666667°E / 43.1088888889; 0.724166666667
Saint-Gaudens is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department in south-western France
[edit] Local history
Saint-Gaudens is an administrative centre (sous-préfecture) for the south of the Haute-Garonne département, at an altitude of 405m on a ledge overlooking the Valley of the Garonne. It faces the Pyrenees and is a natural crossroads for routes between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and between Toulouse and the Val d'Aran in Spain.
It has been inhabited since ancient times (traces of the Iron Age and of Roman occupation) and was originally called Mas-Saint-Pierre, before taking the name of the young shepherd, Gaudens, martyred by the Visigoths at the end of the 5th Century for refusing to renounce his faith: a dramatic tale!
The town later developed around the 11th Century Romanesque church. It was granted its city charter in 1202 and became the capital of the Nébouzan area, protected by solid ramparts. As an important regional marketplace, Saint-Gaudens became the economic capital of the Comminges.
The town was damaged by Protestant forces under Montgomery in 1569, and became the seat of the Nébouzan Assembly after coming under the control of the French crown in 1607. The name was changed briefly to "Mont-Unité" during the Revolution and the area later became part of the Haute-Garonne départment.
Saint-Gaudens is proud of the heritage of its rich past and has become a dynamic and attractive economic and cultural centre.
[edit] Collegiate Church of St. Peter and St. Gaudens
With its cloister and chapter house, this was one of the most important religious buildings in the Comminges. It was home to a college of canons ordinary, a community founded by Bishop Bertrand. The 11th-century romanesque church, built on the typical Pyrenean plan as a basilica with three naves, stands on the site of an earlier construction. It was extended in the 12th and 13th centuries with the construction of the cloister and chapter house. The lateral north door was added in the 16th century.
[edit] Architecture
There are two architectural styles to be found in the heart of the city: There are tall buildings, extending well back from the street, that are reminders of the city’s mediaeval period, with plain façades to which balconies were added at the end of the 19th Century.
Then there are more prosperous-looking buildings, including some very fine town houses, some of them dating back to the 18th Century and decorated with stone carvings. Some buildings, put up after certain streets were widened at the end of the 19th Century, have façades with pediments, friezes and cornices, mouldings and gabled dormer windows. On Boulevard Bepmale, the façades that face the Sun, with a view of the Pyrenees, have balconies and galleries up to their very top floors.
The architecture found in Saint-Gaudens shows that the city was prosperous throughout its history and that local craftsmen were highly skilled. There are many examples to be seen on the façades: metal or wooden pelmets to conceal the blinds, wrought-iron guardrails, window-frames decorated in wood or stone. Furthermore, the materials used, grey stone, marble and wood from the Pyrenees, pebbles from the Garonne, ochre-tinted stone from the hills and piedmont, all testify to Saint-Gaudens’s geographical position, a crossroads at the heart of the Pyrenees and on the border of Gascony.
St Gaudens has a Rugby League team playing in the French Championship, the Saint-Gaudens Bears.
[edit] Twin towns
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