Saugues

french commune
nomcommune=Saugues


caption = The town of Saugues.


x = 160
y = 177
lat_long = coord|44|57|39|N|3|32|53|E|type:city
région=Auvergne
département=Haute-Loire
arrondissement=Le Puy-en-Velay
canton=Saugues
insee=43234
cp=43170
maire=Paul Bastide
mandat=2001-2008
intercomm=Communauté de communes du Vercors
longitude=
latitude=
alt moy=960 m
alt mini=661 m
alt maxi=1 483 m
hectares=7 880
km²=78,8
sans=2 013
date-sans=1999
dens=25|

Saugues is a commune in the French "département" of Haute-Loire.

Geography

The town is 45km west of Le Puy-en-Velay.

History

A former stronghold of the Gévaudan, Saugues grew in the 12th century under the authority of the Bishops of Mende and the Lords of Mercœur. A fire in 1788 destroyed most of the town's historical centre.

It is in the mountains around and near Saugues that the famous beast of Gévaudan is said to have originated.

The Pilgrimage to Compostela

Saugues is situated on the Via Podiensis, a variant route of the Way of St. James pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Pilgrims arrive in the town from Monistrol-d'Allier, and continue to the next communes of Chanaleilles, La Dômerie du Sauvage and La Chapelle Saint-Roch.

Saugues was the traditional meeting point for pilgrims coming from Auvergne, as the path coming from Brioude made them able to avoid Le Puy-en-Velay and instead wind though the Allier River valley through Langeac, Chanteuges and Pourcheresse forest, connecting them to the secondary tracks that took pilgrims from Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme.

The Confraternity of Penitents

The "Confrérie des Pénitents", or the Confraternity of Penitents, was founded in Saugues on May 14, 1652, with the permission of the Monseigneur of Marcillac and under the leadership of five of the town's nobles; Lord of Courère Antoine de Langlade, Lord of Valletta Jacques de Langlade, both canons of the local collegiate church of Saint Médard, the Royal Notary Jacques de Langlade, the bourgeois Benoît Paparic, and the apothecary Antoine Pichot. The confraternity was officially recognised by a bull from the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone in Rome.

Monuments and Places of Interest

Famous for its woodturning of "esclops" (clogs), Saugues is rich in old houses and dominated by La Tour des Anglais, a square keep dating back to the 13th century. The tower takes its name from an episode of the Hundred Years War, when a troupe of English Routiers besieged the town.