Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux

Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux
Coat of arms
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux
Location within Rhône-Alpes region  Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux
Coordinates: 44°20′59″N 4°46′08″E / 44.3497°N 4.769°ECoordinates: 44°20′59″N 4°46′08″E / 44.3497°N 4.769°E
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Drôme
Arrondissement	Nyons
Canton	Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Jean-Michel Catelinois
Area^1	22.04 km^2 (8.51 sq mi)
Population (2008)^2	8,465
• Density	380/km^2 (990/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	26324 / 26130
Elevation	49–290 m (161–951 ft) (avg. 111 m or 364 ft)
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. ^2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (Occitan: Sant Pau Tres Castèus), sometimes known as St-Paul-en-Tricastin, is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France.

Name

The name of the city derives from the Latin Noviomagus Tricastinorum ("Noviomagus of the Tricastini"), from the name of a local Gallic tribe. At some point, locals misunderstood the name, thinking it to have come from tricastinorum ("of the three castles"), and mistranslated it into French.^[1]

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1793	2,040	—
1800	1,505	−26.2%
1806	1,962	+30.4%
1821	1,633	−16.8%
1831	1,982	+21.4%
1836	2,071	+4.5%
1841	2,183	+5.4%
1846	2,085	−4.5%
1851	2,192	+5.1%
1856	2,227	+1.6%
1861	2,516	+13.0%
1866	2,558	+1.7%
1872	2,315	−9.5%
1876	2,290	−1.1%
1881	2,250	−1.7%
1886	2,500	+11.1%
1891	2,427	−2.9%
1896	2,557	+5.4%
1901	2,185	−14.5%
1906	1,879	−14.0%
1911	1,973	+5.0%
1921	1,528	−22.6%
1926	1,558	+2.0%
1931	1,480	−5.0%
1936	1,485	+0.3%
1946	1,270	−14.5%
1954	1,679	+32.2%
1962	2,213	+31.8%
1968	4,350	+96.6%
1975	4,349	−0.0%
1982	6,412	+47.4%
1990	6,789	+5.9%
1999	7,277	+7.2%
2008	8,465	+16.3%

Sport

It was the start of stage 16 of the 2011 Tour de France, 162.5 km (101 mi) to Gap, as well as the start city for stage 13 of the 2012 Tour de France,^[1] 217 km (135 mi) to Cap d'Agde.

Twin towns — Sister cities

Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux is twinned with:

• Eltmann, Germany (1975)
• Trecate, Italy (2003)

See also

• Communes of the Drôme department
• Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux Cathedral
• Tricastin
• Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant

References

• INSEE

1. "Stage 13: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux". Start Towns. Le Tour de France. Retrieved 14 July 2012.

External links

• Picture of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux Cathedral