1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Gaudens

ST GAUDENS, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Haute-Garonne, 1 m. from the left bank of the Garonne, 57 m. S.S.W. of Toulouse, on the railway to Tarbes. Pop. (1906), town, 4535; commune, 7120. The church, once collegiate, dates chiefly from the 11th and 12th centuries, but the main entrance is in the flamboyant Gothic style. The town has sawing-, oil- and flour-mills, manufactures woollen goods, and is a market for horses, sheep and agricultural produce. St Gaudens derives its name from a martyr of the 5th century, at whose tomb a college of canons was afterwards established. It was important as capital of the Nébouzan, as the residence of the bishops of Comminges and for its cloth industry.