Hautes-Alpes (; ; ) is a department in the

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (commonly shortened to PACA), also known as Région Sud, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France, located at the far southeastern point of the Metropolitan France, mainland. The main P ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

of Southeastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is located in the heart of the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such a ...

, after which it is named. Hautes-Alpes had a population of 141,220 as of 2019,Populations légales 2019: 05 Hautes-Alpes
INSEE which makes it the third least populated French department. Its

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

is Gap; its sole

subprefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Counties of Albania, Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several Districts of Albania, district ...

Briançon Briançon (, ) is the sole Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hautes-Alpes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is the highest city in France at an a ...

. Its INSEE and postal code is 05.

History

Hautes-Alpes is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It consists of the southeast of the former province of

Dauphiné The Dauphiné ( , , ; or ; or ), formerly known in English as Dauphiny, is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was ...

and the north of

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

. At the time when the department was created, the two mountain communes of La Grave and Villar-d'Arêne successfully campaigned to be included in Hautes-Alpes and not in the neighbouring department of

Isère Isère ( , ; ; , ) is a landlocked Departments of France, department in the southeastern French Regions of France, region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère (river), Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.

to which they had originally been assigned. This was because they hoped to benefit from the relative autonomy and certain fiscal privileges enjoyed by the region since the 14th century under the terms of the Statute of the Briançon Escartons.

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

passed through Gap when he returned to reclaim France after his exile on

Elba Elba (, ; ) is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, a ...

using what is now known as Route Napoléon. After Napoleon's defeat at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...

, the department was occupied by Austrian and Piedmontese troops from 1815 to 1818. During World War II, Italy occupied Hautes-Alpes from November 1942 to September 1943.

Geography

The department is surrounded by the following French departments:

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (sometimes abbreviated as AHP; ; ; ), formerly until 1970 known as Basses-Alpes (, ), is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the sou ...

Drôme Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.

and

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...

. Italy borders it on the east with the

Metropolitan City of Turin The Metropolitan City of Turin (; Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ''sità metropolitan-a 'd Turin'') is a Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin. It replaced the prov ...

and the

province of Cuneo The province of Cuneo (; ) is a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west, it borders the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ( departments of Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Hautes-Alpes), to the north the ...

, region of

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. Hautes-Alpes is located in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

mountain range. The average elevation is over 1000 m; the highest elevation is over 4000 m. The only three sizable cities are Gap,

and Embrun, which was a subprefecture until 1926. The third-highest settlement in all of Europe is the Hautes-Alpes village of Saint-Véran. Gap and

are the highest

and

in France, respectively. The following rivers flow through the department: Durance, Guisane,

Buëch The Buëch (; ) is a river in southeastern France, a right tributary of the Durance. It is long. Its drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth ...

, Drac and Clarée. The Durance has been dammed to create one of the largest artificial lakes in Western Europe: the Lac de Serre-Ponçon. The Queyras valley is located in the eastern part of the department and is noted by many as being an area of outstanding beauty.

Principal communes

The most populous commune is the prefecture Gap. As of 2019, there are 2 communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants, and 6 communes with more than 3,000 inhabitants:

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called ''Haut-Alpins'' (masculine) and ''Haut-Alpines'' (feminine) in French. The extremely mountainous terrain explains the sparse population, which was about 120,000 in 1791. It changed little during the 19th century, but fell to about 85,000 after World War I. Thanks in large part to tourism, the population has risen from 87,436 in 1962 to 141,107 in 2016, principally in the town of Gap. Population development since 1791:

Politics

Departmental Council of Hautes-Alpes

The President of the Departmental Council of Hautes-Alpes has been Jean-Marie Bernard of The Republicans since the 2015 departmental elections.

Members of the National Assembly

Hautes-Alpes elected the following members of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

in the 2017 legislative election:

Tourism

The tourist industry is largely dependent on skiing in winter. In summer the Alpine scenery and many outdoor activities attract visitors from across Europe (sailing, hiking,

climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders) to small boulders. Climbing is done for locom ...

and aerial sports such as

gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sports, air sport in which pilots fly glider aircraft, unpowered aircraft known as Glider (sailplane), gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmospher ...

). The

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

passes through the department regularly. This draws many cycling fanatics to cycle the cols and watch the race. File:La Collégiale à Briançon.jpg,

File:SNCF B81500 Gap - Veynes-Devoluy.jpg,

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

regional service near Gap File:Embrun - Couvent des Cordeliers -829.jpg, Embrun File:Vue en montant à Vallonpierre.jpg, Massif des Écrins File:La Grave 2.jpg, La Grave File:Emparis- massif de la Meije depuis le lac Noir.jpg, La Meije File:Echaugette de Mont Dauphin - panoramio.jpg, The Alps and the Guil valley seen from Fort Mont-Dauphin

References

External links

*
Prefecture website
*
Departmental Council website
*
Tourist office Website
* {{Authority control 1790 establishments in France Departments of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur States and territories established in 1790 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia