Saint-Gilles, Gard

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Coordinates: 43°40′43″N 4°25′54″E / 43.6786111111, 4.43166666667

Administration
Commune of Saint-Gilles Western portal of the abbey church of Saint-Gilles
Location

Country	France
Region	Languedoc-Roussillon
Department	Gard
Arrondissement	Nîmes
Canton	Saint-Gilles (chief town)
Intercommunality	Nîmes Métropole
Mayor	Roland Gronchi (2001-2008)
Statistics
Elevation	0 m–116 m (avg. 7 m)
Land area^¹	153.73 km²
Population^² (1999)	11,626
- Density	75.6/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	30258/ 30800
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

Saint-Gilles or Saint-Gilles-du-Gard is a commune of the Gard département, in southern France. It is the second most populous commune in the Nîmes metropolitan area.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Miscellaneous
4 External links
5 Further reading

[edit] 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.

[edit] History

The Benedictine monastery 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 Puenta-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 Provencal Romanesque. The church has three naves and a famed spiral staircase of cantilevered stone steps. During the French Wars of Religion the Protestants fortified themselves within the abbey, which was severely damaged.

[edit] Miscellaneous

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).

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

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.