Villelongue (; oc, Vilalonca) is a commune in the

Hautes-Pyrénées Hautes-Pyrénées (; Gascon/Occitan: ''Nauts Pirenèus / Hauts Pirenèus'' awts piɾeˈnɛʊs es, Altos Pirineos; ca, Alts Pirineus alts piɾiˈneʊs English: Upper Pyrenees) is a department in the region of Occitania, southwestern France. ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in south-western

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

.INSEE commune file
/ref> Villelongue is situated on the flank of the

Hautacam Hautacam is a ski resort in the Pyrenees. It is situated in the Hautes-Pyrénées department, in the Midi-Pyrénées region. In road bicycle racing, the ascent to Hautacam is known as a tough climb, which is used occasionally in the Tour de Fra ...

mountain, around a stream called the Ruisseau d'Isaby, and descends to the

Gave de Gavarnie GAVE may refer to: * Gave (Melgaço), a parish in Portugal * Gave (placename element), a French word meaning ''torrential river'' in the west Pyrenees * Gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE), a medical condition * Gabinete de Avaliação Educaci ...

torrent. It consists of a main village with a smaller hamlet above called Ortiac. Ortiac has a medieval chapel. The woods above Ortiac conceal the Abbey of Saint-Orens, now in ruins. Villelongue has considerably expanded in recent years, as new tracts are open to development and as the road infrastructure have developed to allow inhabitants to commute to Lourdes and

Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. It is the capital of Bigorre and of the Hautes-Pyrénées. It has been a commune since 1790. It was known as ''Turba'' ...

. Villelongue is unusual among local towns in having a latinate name, rather than a name deriving from Bigourdan (the local dialect of the

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Ital ...

). The name is said to derive from a Latin villa (i.e. a large farm) dating from late antiquity, situated in the lower part of the modern village, in an area known as "Las Longas".

References

Communes of Hautes-Pyrénées Hautes-Pyrénées communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia {{HautesPyrénées-geo-stub

See also

References