Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (; ), sometimes known as -en-Tricastin, is a commune, an administrative region, in the

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.

department in 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 ...

Name

The settlement is attested as ''Augusta Tricastinorum'' (1st c. AD), ''Trikastinoi ōn polis Noiomagos'' (2nd c.), ''Sancti Pauli vel Sancti Restituti Trigastinensi'' (993), ''in Tricastrinensi'' (1132), ''civitate Tricastrina'' (1136), ''San Paul'' (ca. 1180), ''Sanctum Paulum Tricastinensem'' (1338), and ''Sainct Pol Trois Chasteaux'' (1545). The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

derives from the name of the ancient Gallic tribe that dwelled in the region, the

Tricastini The Tricastini were a small Gauls, Gallic tribe dwelling in the modern Tricastin region, near present-day Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, during the La Tène culture, Iron Age and the Roman Empire, Roman period. The Tricastini were probably one of th ...

. The insertion of an epenthetic ''r'' that changed ''Tricastini'' to ''Tricastrini'', which is attested by the 12th century, caused a

semantic Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

reinterpretation of the name, leading eventually to the

modern French French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

''Trois-Châteaux'', meaning 'three-castles' (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''Tria-Castra'').

Population

Sport

It was the start of stage 16 of the 2011 Tour de France, to Gap, as well as the start city for stage 13 of the

2012 Tour de France The 2012 Tour de France was the 99th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It started in the Belgian city of Liège on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées stage in the Tour de France, Champs ...

, to Cap d'Agde.

Twin towns — sister cities

Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux is twinned with: * Eltmann, Germany (1975) * Trecate, Italy (2003)

References

External links