Saintes
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AI overview
Saintes is a town located in the Charente-Maritime region of western France. It is a commune, which is a basic administrative division in France similar to a municipality.
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Place details
- Locality
- Saintes
- Region
- Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Country
- France
- Population
- 29,512
Article
Saintes ( French: [sɛ̃t] ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: Sénte) is a commune and historic town in western France, in the Charente-Maritime department of which it is a sub-prefecture, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Saintes is the second-largest city in Charente-Maritime, with 25,518 inhabitants in 2021. The city's immediate surroundings form the second-most populous metropolitan area in the department, with 56,598 inhabitants. While a majority of the surrounding landscape consists of fertile, productive fields, a significant minority of the region remains forested, its natural state.
In Roman times, Saintes was known as Mediolanum Santonum. During much of its history, the name of the city was spelled Xaintes or Xainctes.