Hautes-Pyrénées

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Hautes-Pyrénées

Coat of arms of the Hautes-Pyrénées department
Location

Administration
Department number:	65
Region:	Midi-Pyrénées
Prefecture:	Tarbes
Subprefectures:	Argelès-Gazost Bagnères-de-Bigorre
Arrondissements:	3
Cantons:	34
Communes:	474
President of the General Council:	François Fortassin
Statistics
Population	Ranked 84th
-1999	222,368
Population density:	50/km²
Land area¹:	4464 km²

¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

Hautes-Pyrénées (Occitan: Nauts Pirenèus / Hauts Pirenèus) is a department in southwestern France.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Lourdes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Historically the department was part of Bigorre, a county at times independent but later part of Gascony province. Large parts of the area were held by the English after the Treaty of Brétigny, 1360. In the 16th century, it was part of the Huguenot domain of the monarchs of Navarre, brought to France by Henri IV. For its early history, see Bigorre and Gascony.

[edit] Geography

The Hautes-Pyrénées is a mountainous agricultural landscape of villages, farms, fields, upland pastures and winding mountain roads. On the border between France and Spain, the department is centered on the peak of Mont Perdu.

[edit] Lourdes

Main article: Lourdes

One of the most famous towns in this department is Lourdes. Following the Apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette, The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes has developed into a major tourist destination as a Marian city. Today Lourdes has a population of some 17,000 inhabitants but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season. Lourdes has the second greatest number of hotels in France after Paris with some 270 establishments.^{[citation needed]}