OpenStreetMapTopographic mapAuch and its surrounding communesAuch and its surrounding communes
The commune of Auch is located in thearrondissement of Auch and in theGers valley, roughly in the centre of theGers département. Auch is 69 kilometres (43 miles) west ofToulouse, the capital of theOccitanie region, and 74 kilometres (46 miles)fromMontauban, 63 kilometres (39 miles) fromAgen, 92 kilometres (57 miles) fromMont-de-Marsan, 86 kilometres (53 miles) fromPau and 62 kilometres (39 miles) fromTarbes, the capitals of the neighbouring départements. It is 162 km fromBordeaux, 390 kilometres (240 miles) fromMarseille and 409 kilometres (254 miles) fromLyon, the capitals of the neighbouring regions, and 595 kilometres (370 miles)south-west ofParis.[3]
The commune covers anarea of 7,248 hectares (17,910 acres).[4]
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 middleBaïse valley,Armagnac is distributed along an east-west axis betweenEauze and Auch. It includesFezensac andVic.
The commune is located in seismicity zone 1 (very low seismicity).[8]
Auch's drainage systems, road networks and street network.
TheGers, atributary of theGaronne, flows through the town and divides the city between the upper town, on the left bank, the site of themedieval 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 significantriver overflow) before the course of the Gers was recalibrated following the 1977 floods in Gascony.[9]
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Auch is a very ancient town, whose settlement was noted by theRomans during their conquest of the area in the50s BC. At that time, it was settled by anAquitanian tribe known to the Romans as theAusci. Their name for the town wasClimberrum[13] orElimberris.[14] This has been tentatively etymologized from theIberianiltir ("town,oppidum") and a cognate of theBasqueberri ("new"), although another Iberian settlement inGranada recorded by the Romans as "Iliberi" probably had no contact with proto-Basque speaking peoples.[15] The Romans renamed the townAugusta Auscorum orAusciorum ("Augusta of the Ausci"). Augusta Auscorum was one of the twelvecivitates of theprovince ofNovempopulana (Gascony) and became the provincial capital after the 409 destruction ofEauze by theVandals.
The common termAugusta was eventually[when?] dropped and the name evolved into the modernGasconAush and FrenchAuch.
La Tour d'Armagnac, a 14th-century prison, as well as a statue ofd'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 byAlexandre Dumas.
^"Auch (32)"(PDF).Fiche Climatologique: Statistiques 1981–2010 et records (in French). Meteo France. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 16 April 2018. Retrieved16 April 2018.
