Saint Barthélemy

Saint-Barthélemy (French: Saint-Barthélemy, French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃baʁtelemi]), officially the Territorial collectivity of Saint-Barthélemy (French: Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy), is an overseas collectivity of France. Often abbreviated to Saint-Barth in French, or St. Barts or St. Barths in English, the indigenous people called the island Ouanalao. St. Barthélemy lies about 35 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of St. Martin and north of St. Kitts. Puerto Rico is 240 kilometres (150 mi) to the west in the Greater Antilles.

Saint Barthélemy was for many years a French commune forming part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas region and department of France. In 2003, the island voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form a separate overseas collectivity (COM) of France. The collectivity is one of four territories among the Leeward Islands in the northeastern Caribbean that comprise the French West Indies, along with Saint Martin, Guadeloupe (200 kilometres (120 mi) southeast), and Martinique.

Saint-Barthélemy (disambiguation)

Saint Barthélemy is an island in the French West Indies.

Saint-Barthélemy may also refer to:

In France:

Saint-Barthélemy, Switzerland

Saint-Barthélemy is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

History

Saint-Barthélemy is first mentioned in 1265 as capellam sancti Bartholomei.

Geography

Saint-Barthélemy is just 10 minutes northeast of Lausanne, the capital of the canton, and 3 km (1.9 mi) west of Échallens, the capital of the district. It is situated in the bread-basket agricultural district known as the Gros-de-Vaud. It is traversed by the river Talent.

The landscape is a hilly high plateau between the watersheds of Lake Geneva to the south and Lake Neuchâtel to the north.

Saint-Barthélemy has an area, as of 2009, of 4.12 square kilometres (1.59 sq mi). Of this area, 3.34 km² (1.29 sq mi) or 81.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.49 km² (0.19 sq mi) or 11.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.3 km² (0.12 sq mi) or 7.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acres) or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.4%. Out of the forested land, 10.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 66.5% is used for growing crops and 14.1% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.