Gap (, ) is the prefecture of the department of Hautes-Alpes, in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, southern France. With a population of about 41,000, it is the most populated city in Hautes-Alpes. At a height of 750 metres above sea level, to the south of the Écrins Massif, it is also France's highest prefecture.
Together with other Alpine towns, Gap engages in the Alpine Town of the Year Association for the implementation of the Alpine Convention to achieve sustainable development in the Alpine Arc. Gap was awarded Alpine Town of the Year in 2002. In 2013 Gap was named the sportiest city in France by the national sports newspaper L'Équipe.
Toponymy
The first attestation of the name of the city is located in the ancient texts as Vappincum, later reduced to Vappum, the form of Gap is found in the 13th century.
The toponym Vappincum is analyzed on the basis of a radical Vapp- unknown meaning, and the suffix -incu of Ligurian origin found in Provence and the Massif central to the Alps (cf. Arlanc, Nonenque, Moirans and Morencum in the 10th century and Lemenc, a district of Chambéry, formerly Lemencum). The Gap form actually began as the short form Vappum, well attested, by the final drop.
The v- has been radically treated as a w- Germanic,A. Dauzat and Ch. Rostaing, Op. cit. where *Wap, then Gap (see for this type of evolution the wasp, Latin vespa, treats words as *wespa; mistletoe, Latin viscum, treated as *wiscum, etc.,However, these terms have not been of Germanic influence in the other Romance languages, including Provençal : Latin vespa > Provençal vespa, Latin viscum > Provençal vesc. depending on the phonetic path [w] > [gw] > [g]). This phonetic evolution would be more specifically made under the influence of the Gothic language.A. Farnaud, Étymologie du nom de Gap Bulletin de la Société d'études des Hautes-Alpes, année 1905, pages 431 à 434.
The name in Provençal (Alpine) is also Gap.
History
Prehistory The first settlement of Gap dates back to the Neolithic.Société d'études des Hautes-Alpes, Histoire de la ville de Gap, p. 4. The culture of these first inhabitants belonged to the southern Chasséen.Bernard Bligny, Histoire du Dauphiné, p. 28.
Very rare testimonies of the pre-Roman era are formed by the remains of an oppidum located at the summit of the hill of Saint-Mens with few visible traces of a dolmen uncovered in 1866Colette Jourdain-Annequin, Atlas culturel des Alpes occidentales. De la préhistoire à la fin du Moyen Âge, p. 78. and an ancient cemetery in the hamlet of Pré Camargue; but no remains were kept of these last two findings.Joseph Roman, L'Époque préhistorique et gauloise dans le département des Hautes-Alpes, pages 16 à 18. Gallic money was also found. Gap was the capital of the Celto-Ligurian Tricorii tribe.Histoire du passage des Alpes par Annibal, p. 212, Jean-André de Luc These peoples, probably belonging to the Caturiges tribe, spoke the Celtic language.Société d'études des Hautes-Alpes, Histoire de la ville de Gap, p. 5.
The Roman period
The was then part of the territory of the Tricorii, a Gallic people who were Romanised during the conquest of Gallia Narbonensis in 125-124 BC, and whose capitals were Luc-en-Diois and Vaison.
Around 20 BC, Cottius, a leader of tribes of the Valley of Suze, allied to Rome, and urged by Augustus, undertook the building of a route of communication in the Valley of the Durance. He had get the submission of the peoples of the area who were eager to maintain their independence. This route, built between 14 and 6 BC, and which received the name of Via Cottia per Alpem, linked Turin to Sisteron and consisted of six stations. Then known as Vapincum, the town of Gap was founded from one of these stations. In 22 AD, Gap became the start of a Roman road to Valence.Société d'études des Hautes-Alpes, Histoire de la ville de Gap, pages 7 à 9.
At this time, the location of the future city was a Roman camp. The camp was protected by a terraced wall surrounded by a ditch.Georges de Manteyer, Le nom et les deux premières enceintes de Gap, p. 146. It was the largest between Montgenèvre and Sisteron. The garrison that occupied it could be estimated at 360 men. They came from the surrounding peoples. They were assigned to protect users of the Roman roads against brigands. Later, an axis towards the was created. The Gap site took importance by becoming a hub of communications.
The economy was mainly pastoral and the first crops grew on the slopes of Puymaure. Some houses were built on stilts as shown by excavations.
During the first centuries, the population increased significantly. Towards the end of the 3rd century and 4th century, fortifications were built to protect the central core of the town.Georges de Manteyer, Le nom et les deux premières enceintes de Gap, schémas et plans en fin d'ouvrage. These completely surrounded the enclosure with walls and eleven towers.Société d'études des Hautes-Alpes, Histoire de la ville de Gap, p. 11. With an enclosed area of the center of the town formed a big village.
Middle Ages From 28 December 986, the Bishop of Gap had sovereign rights over the city due to concerns about future Muslim invasions. The bishops kept this power until Revolutionary reforms in 1801 despite Gap being annexed by the French crown in 1512.
Gap and its area became part of the County of Provence which was established at the end of the 10th century. The County of Forcalquier was separated in the 12th century. Although the bishops of Gap were the temporal lords of the city their control was long disputed by officers of the Counts of Forcalquier notably during the episcopacy of Arnoux who later became the bishop of the city. On the death of the last Count of Forcalquier in 1209, the Embrun and Gap areas were passed to the Dauphiné while those of Forcalquier and Sisteron returned to the County of Provence. It is for this reason that the current coat of arms of the Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur bears also the coat of arms of the Dauphiné. In 1349 the Dauphin of Viennois Humbert II passed on his Principality to the eldest son of Philippe VI of France, the future King of France Charles V. From 1349 to 1457 Dauphiné remained a Principality separated from France, whose prince was the eldest son of the King of France. In 1457, Charles VII put an end to this status and joined the province to the Kingdom of France.
The Knights Templar owned a house at Gap, a secondary establishment which depended on a . The creation of the , which ruled the city, dated back to before 1209.
In the 14th century, the city took advantage of the benefits of the installation of the Popes in Avignon, which brought a more frequent passage of travellers to develop a craft of wool and skins, which made it thrive. Avignon linkages were strengthened by the presence of many clerics of the entourage of the Pope, within the chapter of the canons of Gap.
Renaissance and early modern era
The 16th and 17th centuries were particularly dark times for the city. The Wars of Religion were lethal in the region. Gap was a Catholic stronghold, while the switched to Protestantism. After various skirmishes, François de Bonne, leader of the Protestants, decided to attack Gap, nevertheless protected by 20 towers. On the night of 3 January 1577, François Philibert, known as Cadet de Charance, opened the Saint-Arey gate, and allowed him to attack the city by surprise. To cries of "Kill! Kill!" his men proceeded in veritable butchery. De Bonne burned the cathedral, plundered the monasteries, appropriated the property of the inhabitants, and built a proud citadel on the Colline de Puymaure [Puymaure Hill] where it dominated over Gap.id., p. 54 Returned to Catholicism in 1622, he abandoned all claims to the city.
In 1692, the troops of the ruler Victor Amadeus II, committed with the League of Augsburg, against France of Louis XIV, captured the city, abandoned by its inhabitants, on 29 August. Gap was looted and burned, of the 953 houses in the commune, 798 were destroyed. This was part of the .
In 1790, during the French Revolution, the province of Dauphiné was divided into three departments: Drôme, Isère and Hautes-Alpes which Gap became the prefecture. Hautes-Alpes then became the highest Department of France and Gap, the highest prefecture of the country. It remains prefecture of Haute-Alpes to this day.
19th century In 1802, the baron was appointed . Under his administration, the city of Gap and the Department of the Hautes-Alpes experienced some growth. It built roads linking Gap to Italy and the Drôme Valley and created a departmental nursery. His statue, carved by the Gap sculptor Jean Marcellin, was erected in 1866 at the square which bears his name.
Napoleon I left Elba in February 1815 and stopped at Gap on 5 March 1815 with 40 horsemen and 10 grenadiers, where he had thousands of copies of his Proclamations printed. The whole population of the city accompanied Napoleon when he left Gap. Acknowledging the reception of the population of these regions, he left the Haut-Alpins with the following message:
Gap experienced a new era from 1875 with the arrival of the railway.
The commune of Chaudun was joined with Gap, by the prefectoral Decree of 22 October 1895.Jean-Pierre Bardet et Claude Motte, Paroisses et communes de France; Hautes-Alpes, p. 144.
20th century
Second World War During World War II, the city was part of the free zone. But after November 1942 and the Case Anton, it was integrated into the occupied area. After Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944, the Germans placed some 1,000 men to hold the cuvette de Gap [Gap Basin], a key point of the Cannes-Lyon axis. , 37 years old, an original Gaullist resistant and accomplished soldier (he had trained more than 4000 resistance fighters in combat and about a hundred in sabotage) was sent by the GPRF of General de Gaulle to liberate the city on behalf of the Resistance. Aided by local guerrillas and resistance, he has however no way to take the city by force. He then started with his men in a campaign of sabotage and bombings that lasted more than a month. After having isolated the city by destroying the infrastructure surrounding it (overpasses, railway lines, bridges, etc.), the FFI had managed to rally the population and give the occupiers an impression of encirclement.
A mid-August 1944, Drouot-L'Hermine, who lost his right-hand man, , a few days earlier, sent two emissaries to negotiate the surrender of the Germans. The Germans were convinced of facing a large-scale uprising, and agreed to lay down their weapons provided that it was to regular troops (they refused, therefore, to surrender to the Resistance). While the Americans were more than away, time was pressing for Drouot-L'Hermine. Indeed, he received an order from De Gaulle to liberate the city before the arrival of the Allies, to support the position of France as a victorious nation, liberated through the active participation of the Resistance. Drouot-L'Ermine then developed a new ploy. He managed to convince the Allies to advance one of their tanks into enemy terrain, and shoot a few rounds close to Gap. Shots echoed in the valley, and the Germans immediately identified the characteristic sound of a tank, a weapon that the guerrillas did not hold. Thinking they were then dealing with the Allies, the troops of the Reich surrendered to the Resistance. Therefore, a few hundred resistance fighters were able to capture 1,200 German soldiers, including 40 officers. The city was liberated on the evening of 19 August 1944."Histoires Interdites: La Face cachée de la Libération" - documentaire raconté par Pierre Lescure, avec la collaboration de l'historien Olivier Wieviorka
Fifth Republic The commune of Romette was associated with that of Gap, by decree dated 25 November 1974.Jean-Pierre Bardet et Claude Motte, Paroisses et communes de France; Hautes-Alpes, p. 145.