Auch (; ) is a commune in southwestern France. Located in the region of Occitanie, it is the capital of the Gers department.
Geography
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 west of
Toulouse, the capital of the Occitanie region, and from
Montauban, from
Agen, from
Mont-de-Marsan, from Pau and from
Tarbes, the capitals of the neighbouring départements. It is 162 km from
Bordeaux, from
Marseille and from
Lyon, the capitals of the neighbouring regions, and south-west of
Paris.
The commune covers an area of .
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 and a maximum of . Its average altitude is , while that of its town hall is
The town and its surroundings have a hillside landscape.
[.]
The commune covers an area of , making it the third largest in the département.[ Répertoire géographique des communes Geographical, published by IGN]
Centred on the middle Baïse valley, Armagnac is distributed along an east-west axis between Eauze and Auch. It includes Fezensac and Vic-Fezensac.
The commune is located in seismicity zone 1 (very low seismicity).[ Plan séisme]
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
Middle-ages 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.
Transportation
Auch is well connected to nearby cities and towns such as
Agen,
Toulouse and
Tarbes by Routes Nationales and by
SNCF to
Toulouse.
Climate
History and population
Auch is a very ancient town, whose settlement was noted by the
Roman Republic during their conquest of the area in the . At that time, it was settled by an
tribe known to the Romans as the
Ausci. Their name for the town was
Climberrum["] or
Elimberris.
This has been tentatively etymologized from the
Iberian language iltir ("town,
oppidum") and a cognate of the
Basque language berri ("new"), although another Iberian settlement in
Granada recorded by the Romans as "Iliberi" probably had no contact with proto-Basque speaking peoples.
[Leopold von Ranke: Französische Geschichte. Essen 1996. p.182. in] The Romans renamed the town
Augusta Auscorum or
Ausciorum ("Augusta of the Ausci"). Augusta Auscorum was one of the twelve
civitates of the
Roman province of
Novempopulana (
Gascony) and became the provincial capital after the 409 destruction of
Eauze by the
.
The common term Augusta was eventually dropped and the name evolved into the modern Gascon language 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.
Sites of interest
-
Renaissance Auch Cathedral 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.
-
, formerly known as the Musée des Jacobins
-
Escalier monumental Built in the 19th century
Notable people
Auch was the birthplace of:
See also
-
Gascony Show – English language radio in Auch
-
Communes of the Gers department
External links
