Gard (département)
| Gard | |||
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| Department | |||
Prefecture building of the Gard department, in Nîmes
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 Location of Gard in France |
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| Coordinates: 44°7′41″N 4°4′54″E / 44.12806°N 4.08167°ECoordinates: 44°7′41″N 4°4′54″E / 44.12806°N 4.08167°E | |||
| Country | France | ||
| Region | Occitanie | ||
| Prefecture | Nîmes | ||
| Subprefectures |
Alès Le Vigan |
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| Government | |||
| • President of the General Council | Jean Denat (PS) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 5,853 km2 (2,260 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2013) | |||
| • Total | 733,201 | ||
| • Rank | 32nd | ||
| • Density | 130/km2 (320/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Department number | 30 | ||
| Arrondissements | 3 | ||
| Cantons | 23 | ||
| Communes | 353 | ||
| ^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2 | |||
Gard (French pronunciation: [ɡaʁ]; Occitan: Gard) is a department in southern France in the Occitanie region.
The department is named after the River Gardon, and the Occitan name of the river has been replacing the French name of the department in recent decades, even among French speakers.
See also: History of Gard
The Gard area was settled by the Romans in classical times. It was crossed by the Via Domitia, which was constructed in 118 BC.
Gard is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the ancient province of Languedoc.
It was originally intended to include the canton of Ganges in the department which would have been geographically logical, but Ganges was transferred to the neighbouring department of Hérault at the outset. In return, Gard received from Hérault the fishing port of Aigues Mortes which gave the department its own outlet to the Gulf of Lion.
During the middle of the nineteenth century the prefecture, traditionally a centre of commerce with a manufacturing sector focused on textiles, was an early beneficiary of railway development, becoming an important railway junction. Several luxurious hotels were built, and the improved market access provided by the railways also encouraged, initially, a rapid growth in wine growing: however, many of the department's viticulturalists were ruined by the arrival in 1872 of phylloxera.
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