Coordinates: 45°02′39″N 3°53′09″E / 45.0442°N 3.8858°E / 45.0442; 3.8858

Le Puy-en-Velay (French pronunciation: [lə pɥiɑ̃vəlɛ]; Occitan: Lo Puèi de Velai [lu ˈpœj ðə vəˈlaj]) is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France near the Loire river.

Its inhabitants are called Ponots.

Le Puy-en-Velay was a major bishopric in medieval France, founded early, though its early history is legendary. According to a martyrology compiled by Ado of Vienne and published in many copies in 858, which was supplemented in the mid-10th century by Gauzbert of Limoges, a certain priest named George accompanied a certain Front, the first Bishop of Périgueux, when they were sent to proselytize in Gaul. Front was added to the list of the apostles to Gaul, traditionally sent out to reorganize Christians after the persecutions that are associated with Decius and Gratian, circa 250. As with others of the group, notably Saint Martial of Limoges, later mythology pushed Saint Front and the priest George back in time, and tells how George had been restored to life with a touch of Saint Peter's staff. The expanding legend of this St. George, which, according to the Church historian Duchesne is not earlier than the eleventh century, then makes that saint one of the Seventy Apostles of the Gospel of Luke, and tells how he founded the church of the [civitas] que dicitur Vetula in pago Vellavorum— as Ruessium began to be called during the fourth century: the city "called Vetula in the pays of the Vellavi" a document of 1004 termed it.Vetula means "the old woman": pagans were still making small images of her as late as the sixth century in Flanders, according to the vita of Saint Eligius. This was the first cathedral at Le Puy.