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Auch
Prefecture and commune in Occitania, France From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Auch (French pronunciation: [ᴐʃ] ⓘ; Gascon: Aush [ˈawʃ]) is a commune in southwestern France. Located in the region of Occitanie, it is the capital of the Gers department.
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Geography
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Localization
The commune of Auch is located in the arrondissement of Auch and in the Gers valley, roughly in the centre of the Gers département. Auch is 69 kilometres (43 miles) west of Toulouse, the capital of the Occitanie region, and 74 kilometres (46 miles)from Montauban, 63 kilometres (39 miles) from Agen, 92 kilometres (57 miles) from Mont-de-Marsan, 86 kilometres (53 miles) from Pau and 62 kilometres (39 miles) from Tarbes, the capitals of the neighbouring départements. It is 162 km from Bordeaux, 390 kilometres (240 miles) from Marseille and 409 kilometres (254 miles) from Lyon, the capitals of the neighbouring regions, and 595 kilometres (370 miles)south-west of Paris.[3]
The commune covers an area of 7,248 hectares (17,910 acres).[4]
Surrounding communes
Auch borders thirteen other communes: Barran, Castillon-Massas, Castin, Duran, Lasséran, Leboulin, Montaut-les-Créneaux, Montégut, Ordan-Larroque, Pavie, Pessan, Preignan and Roquelaure.
Geology and relief
Auch has a minimum altitude of 115 metres (377 ft) and a maximum of 281 metres (922 ft). Its average altitude is 198 metres (650 ft), while that of its town hall is 134 metres (440 ft)[5] The town and its surroundings have a hillside landscape.[6]
The commune covers an area of 7,248 hectares (17,910 acres), making it the third largest in the département.[7]
Centred on the middle Baïse valley, Armagnac is distributed along an east-west axis between Eauze and Auch. It includes Fezensac and Vic.
The commune is located in seismicity zone 1 (very low seismicity).[8]
Hydrography
The Gers, a tributary of the Garonne, flows through the town and divides the city between the upper town, on the left bank, the site of the medieval city built on a hill where most of the ancient monuments are to be found, and the lower town, built on the plain on the right bank. The upper town is linked to the banks of the Gers by the medieval "pousterles", typical narrow streets with steep inclines, and by the monumental staircase inaugurated in 1863. The north of the town is also watered by the Arçon and Talouch rivers, tributaries of the Gers.
The lower town was devastated on several occasions (1897, 1952 for the most significant river overflow) before the course of the Gers was recalibrated following the 1977 floods in Gascony.[9]
Transportation
Auch is well connected to nearby cities and towns such as Agen, Toulouse and Tarbes by Routes Nationales and by train to Toulouse.[10]
Climate
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History and population
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Auch is a very ancient town, whose settlement was noted by the Romans during their conquest of the area in the 50s BC. At that time, it was settled by an Aquitanian tribe known to the Romans as the Ausci. Their name for the town was Climberrum[14] or Elimberris.[15] This has been tentatively etymologized from the Iberian iltir ("town, oppidum") and a cognate of the Basque berri ("new"), although another Iberian settlement in Granada recorded by the Romans as "Iliberi" probably had no contact with proto-Basque speaking peoples.[16] The Romans renamed the town Augusta Auscorum or Ausciorum ("Augusta of the Ausci"). Augusta Auscorum was one of the twelve civitates of the province of Novempopulana (Gascony) and became the provincial capital after the 409 destruction of Eauze by the Vandals.
The common term Augusta was eventually[when?] dropped and the name evolved into the modern Gascon Aush and French Auch.
In 732, during Abdul Rahman's advance towards Bordeaux in the Umayyad invasion of Gaul, the town was supposedly heavily shifted across the river to much of its present site to falter destruction.
The town became the seat of a Catholic archdiocese which lasted until the French Revolution. Its archbishops claimed the title of Primate of Aquitaine, Novempopulana, and Navarre.
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Sites of interest
- Renaissance Cathédrale Sainte-Marie with its magnificent organ, carved stalls and rose stained-glass windows
- La Tour d'Armagnac, a 14th-century prison, as well as a statue of d'Artagnan who was based on the real life person, Charles de Batz, Comte d'Artagnan born nearby in the château de Castelmore, and written about by Alexandre Dumas.
- Musée des Amériques (Auch), formerly known as the Musée des Jacobins
- Maison Henri IV (Auch)
- Escalier monumental Built in the 19th century
Notable people
Auch was the birthplace of:
- Jacques Fouroux (1947–2005), rugby union player
- Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse (1750–1812), admiral
- Dominic Serres (1719–1793), painter
- Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1877–1964), Dominican and prominent Neo-Thomist theologian
- Nicolas Portal (1979–2020), Professional cyclist for AG2R Prévoyance and Director Sportif of World Tour cycling team Ineos (ne Sky)
- Patrick Pilet (born 1981), racing driver
- André Daguin (1935–2019), chef
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See also
- Gascony Show – English language radio in Auch
- Communes of the Gers department
References
External links
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