Saint-Gilles, Gard

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Saint-Gilles
West portal of the abbey church
Saint-Gilles
Coordinates: 43°40′43″N 4°25′54″E / 43.6786°N 4.4317°E / 43.6786; 4.4317Coordinates: 43°40′43″N 4°25′54″E / 43.6786°N 4.4317°E / 43.6786; 4.4317
Country France
Region Languedoc-Roussillon
Department Gard
Arrondissement Nîmes
Canton Saint-Gilles
Intercommunality Nîmes Métropole
Government
 • Mayor (2010–2014) Alain Gaido
Area
 • Land1 153.73 km2 (59.36 sq mi)
Population (2008)
 • Population2 13,507
 • Population2 Density 88/km2 (230/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 30258 / 30800
Elevation 0–116 m (0–381 ft)
(avg. 7 m or 23 ft)

1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Saint-Gilles or Saint-Gilles-du-Gard is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.

It is the second most populous commune in the Nîmes metropolitan area.

Geography

Saint-Gilles is located at the northern edge of the Petite Camargue, between Arles (15 km) and Nîmes (16 km). With a land area of 153.73 km² (59.355 sq mi), it is rather large by continental French standards, although many of the communes in this part of France are among the largest in area in Metropolitan France.

Population

Historical population of Saint-Gilles, Gard
Year1793180018061821183118361841184618511856
Population5000504752125600556157975635583259856132
Year1861186618721876188118861891189619011906
Population6365680462116302526855035947611063816300
Year1911192119261931193619461954196219681975
Population6258592456135833532553355789672187428679
Year1982199019992008
Population988711,30411,62613,507

Main sights

The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Gilles was founded during the 7th century traditionally by the hermit Saint Giles (Latin Ægidius), whose relics the abbey possessed. The commune formed around the nucleus of the abbey, which was the first stopping point for pilgrims bound for Santiago de Compostela in Spain, who were following the via Tolosana that led from Arles to Toulouse and crossed the Pyrenees to join other routes at Puente La Reina, thence to Santiago along the Via Compostelana. The former abbey church was listed in 1998 among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. The abbey church's west portal is among the most beautiful of the great Romanesque portals and a definitive example of the Provençal Romanesque. The church has three naves and a famed spiral staircase of cantilevered stone steps (in the now destroyed part of the church). During the French Wars of Religion the Protestants fortified themselves within the abbey, which was severely damaged.

The shrine of Saint Gilles, located in the crypt of the church, is the subject of pilgrimage in particular by women wishing to become pregnant or dealing with infertility.

Personalities

Saint-Gilles was the birthplace of Guy Foulques, Pope Clement IV (died 1268), whose natal house is now a museum of the archaeology, ethnology and ornithology of the Camargue.

Saint-Gilles is more recently the birthplace of the author Georges-Jean Arnaud (born 1928).

Transportation

The Nîmes-Alès-Camargue-Cévennes Airport, sometimes called Garons Airport, is located on the territory of the commune.

See also

References

    External links

    Further reading

    • Whitney S. Stoddard, 1973. The Façade of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard: Its Influence on French Sculpture (Wesleyan University Press,)
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