Haute-Vienne

Haute-Vienne
Department
Prefecture building of the Haute-Vienne department, in Limoges
Coat of arms
Location of Haute-Vienne in France
Coordinates: 45°50′N 1°16′E / 45.833°N 1.267°E / 45.833; 1.267Coordinates: 45°50′N 1°16′E / 45.833°N 1.267°E / 45.833; 1.267
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Prefecture	Limoges
Subprefectures	Bellac Rochechouart
Government
• President of the General Council	Marie-Françoise Pérol-Dumont (PS)
Area
• Total	5,520 km2 (2,130 sq mi)
Population (2013)
• Total	375,856
• Rank	63rd
• Density	68/km2 (180/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Department number	87
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	21
Communes	200
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Haute-Vienne (French pronunciation: ​[ot vjɛn]) is a French department named after the river Vienne. It is one of the 12 departments that together constitute the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The neighbouring departments are: Creuse, Corrèze, Dordogne, Charente, Vienne and Indre.

There are three arrondissements (administrative regions) in the department; the Arrondissement of Limoges, the capital of which is Limoges; the Arrondissement of Bellac, the capital of which is Bellac, some 45 km (28 mi) to the northwest of Limoges; and the Arrondissement of Rochechouart, with its capital, Rochechouart to the west of Limoges. The chief and largest city in the department is Limoges, the other towns in the department each having fewer than twenty thousand inhabitants.

Haute-Vienne is part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It is bordered by six departments; Creuse lies to the east, Corrèze to the south, Dordogne to the southwest, Charente to the west, Vienne to the northwest and Indre to the north. The department has two main rivers which cross it from east to west; the Vienne, on which the two main cities, Limoges and Saint-Junien, are situated, and the Gartempe, a tributary of the Creuse. To the southeast of the department lies the Massif Central, and the highest point in the department is Puy Lagarde, 795 m (2,608 ft). The source of the Charente is in the department, in the commune of Chéronnac, near Rochechouart.