GAP. – City and diocese in southern France, capital of the department of Hautes Alpes, on the Luye River, suffragan of Aix. The diocese has an area of 5,670 sq. km. and a population of 85,000, of whom 80,000 are Catholics. It possesses 202 parishes with 250 churches, served by only 152 diocesan priests and 8 regulars. Patron of the diocese is St. Arnolfo.
The Hieronymian Martyrology records, on 3 February, as bishops of Gap, Teridio and Remedio, who are not mentioned in any document of the fifth century. In the same Martyrology, however, on 12 April there is mention of a Constantius or Constantinus, present at the Council of Epsona in 517 and later at the provincial synods of 527 and 529. There follow: Vellesio, c. 549–54; Sagittario, deposed in 579; Aredio, in epistolary relations with Gregorio Magno (Jaffé-Wattenbach 1748, 1832); Vol Antonio, who attended the Council of Paris in 644; Potentissimo (c. 650); Sinforiano (c. 739); Donadio (c. 789); Birico (c. 879). It formed part of Provence for a long time; in 1632 the territory passed to the Dauphiné, while the city nevertheless remained under the authority of the bishop; in 1512 it was united to the crown of France, but the bishops continued to bear the title of counts of Gap until the Revolution.