Saugues

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. 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 Confrérie des Pénitents, or the Confraternity of Penitents, was founded in Saugues on 14 May 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.

Geography

The municipality lies in the Margeride mountains, with its highest point reached at the summit of Montchauvet at an altitude of 1,485 meters. The town lies west of Le Puy-en-Velay.

Most-observed species

• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  482
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  459
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  389
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  371
• Black Redstart

  Phoenicurus ochruros (S.G.Gmelin, 1774) · Aves
  366
• Eurasian Jay

  Garrulus glandarius (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  312
• Red Kite

  Milvus milvus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  302
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  299

Most recent

• M 4.8 — 2019-11-11
  5 km WNW of Rochemaure, France
• M 4.3 — 2011-08-03
  4 km ESE of Barjac, France
• M 2.7 — 2008-12-05
  4 km NNE of Laguiole, France
• M 2.5 — 2008-11-11
  9 km ESE of Sainte-Geneviève-sur-Argence, France
• M 3 — 2008-11-04
  2 km NE of Chaudes-Aigues, France
• M 2.6 — 2008-09-12
  5 km E of Mont-Dore, France