Caen
Caen is a
commune of northwestern
France. It is the pr?fecture of the Calvados d?partement and the capital of the
Basse-Normandie region. The city has a population of 115 000 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 200 000. Its inhabitants are called the
caennais . It is located 15 km inland from the
English Channel .
Caen is known for its historical buildings built during the reign of
William the Conqueror, who was buried here, and for the
Battle for Caen;the heavy fighting that took place in and around Caen during the
Battle of Normandy in 1944.
Encyclopedia
Caen is a
commune of northwestern
France. It is the préfecture of the Calvados département and the capital of the
Basse-Normandie region. The city has a population of 115 000 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 200 000. Its inhabitants are called the
caennais . It is located 15 km inland from the
English Channel .
Caen is known for its historical buildings built during the reign of
William the Conqueror, who was buried here, and for the
Battle for Caen;the heavy fighting that took place in and around Caen during the
Battle of Normandy in 1944.
History
Almost exactly 600 years before the town was ruined in 1944 during the
Second World War, it was similarly ravaged by war, when in 1346 King
Edward III of England led his army against the city, hoping to loot the town, which was the richest in Normandy at the time. On 26 July his English troops stormed the town and sacked it, killing 3,000 of its citizens and burning much of the merchant's quarter. Only the castle held out until the English left a few days later, marching to the east and to their victory at the
Battle of Crécy.
During the
Battle of Normandy in
World War II, Caen saw
intense and bitter combat between Allied and Axis forces. After the landing of the British I Corps at
Sword Beach on June 6, 1944, progress of the Allied Forces stalled outside Caen.
British and
Canadian troops finally broke through on July 9, after an intense bombing campaign during Operation Charnwood that destroyed much of the city but that allowed the Allies to seize the western quarters of Caen, a month later than
Montgomery's original plan. During the battle, many of the town's inhabitants sought refuge in the
Abbaye aux Hommes , built by
William the Conqueror some 800 years before. Post-WWII re-construction of the city that included the re-construction of complete districts of the city and the university campus took 14 years and led to the current urbanization of Caen. Unfortunately, Caen lost many of its historic quarters and its historic university campus because of the war and, as such, doesn't have, as some would call it, the 'feel' of a traditional Normandy town such as
Honfleur,
Rouen, Cabourg,
Deauville and
Bayeux.
The Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit filmed the D-Day offensive and Orne breakout several weeks later, then returned several months later to document the town's recovery efforts. The resulting film
You Can't Kill a City is preserved at the National Archives of Canada.
From 1912 to 1993, the
SMN produced steel at the SMN plant to the East of the city. The land is now an industrial estate used by the food industry.
Geography
Caen is in an area of high humidity. The
Orne flows through the city, as well as different small rivers known as
les Odons, most of them having been buried under the city to improve urban hygiene.
Caen sits 10 km away from the
Channel. A canal that is parallel to the Orne was built during the reign of
Napoleon III to be able to link the city to the sea at all times. The canal reaches the
English Channel at
Ouistreham. A lock enables the canal to withstand the effects of the tide and permits large ships to navigate up the canal to Caen's freshwater harbours.
Monuments
Castle
The castle,
Château de Caen, built circa 1060 by
William the Conqueror, who successfully
conquered England in 1066, is one of the largest medieval fortresses of Western Europe. It remained an essential feature of Norman strategy and policy. At Christmas 1182 a royal court celebration for Christmas in the aula of Caen Castle brought together
Henry II and his sons,
Richard the Lionheart and
John Lackland, receiving more than a thousand knights. Caen Castle, along with all of Normandy, was handed over to the French Crown in 1204. The castle saw several engagements during the
Hundred Years' War and was in use as a barracks as late as World War II. Today, the castle serves as a museum that houses the
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen and
Musée de Normandie along with many periodical exhibitions about arts and history .
Abbeys
In repentance for marrying his cousin Mathilda of Flanders, William ordered two
abbeys to be built on Pope's encouragement:
- Abbaye aux Hommes , the current Hôtel de Ville of Caen. It was completed in 1063 and is dedicated to St Stephen.
- Abbaye aux Dames , currently the seat of the regional council of Basse-Normandie. It was completed in 1060 and is dedicated to Saint Giles.
Other Landmarks
- Saint-Pierre Cathedral.
- Mémorial pour la Paix built in 1988, charting the events leading up to and after D-Day. It is an emotional presentation inviting meditation on the thought of Elie Wiesel: "Peace is not a gift from God to man, but a gift from man to himself". The Memorial for Peace also includes an exhibit of Nobel Peace Prize winners and another one on Conflict Resolution in different cultures.
- Saint Étienne abbey-church, where a slab marks the place of the tomb of William the Conqueror, though his bones were scattered by Huguenots in 1562, during the French Wars of Religion.
- Parc Festyland, an amusement park to the West of Caen in the nearby town of Carpiquet. The park receives 110 000 visitors every year.
Administration
Recent Mayors of Caen have included:
- 1959-1970: Jean-Marie Louvel, MRP Centre démocrate
- 1970-2001: Jean-Marie Girault Parti républicain UDF
- Since 2001: Brigitte Le Brethon RPR UMP
In 1952, the small commune of Venoix became part of Caen.
In 1990, the agglomeration of Caen was organized into a district, transformed in 2002 into a
Communauté d'agglomération , gathers 29 towns and villages, including Villons-les-Buissons which joined the Communauté d'agglomération in 2004.
Caen is part of 9 cantons, of which it is the chief town. These cantons contain a total of 13 towns and have a total population of 162 707 inhabitants. Caen gives its name to a 10th canton, of which it is not part.
Transport
Caen has an innovative and controversial
guided bus system - built by
Bombardier Transportation and modelled on its
Guided Light Transit technology - and a very efficient network of city buses, operated under the name Twisto. Faced with the residents' anger against the project, the municipality had to pursue the project with only 23% of the population in favour of the new form of transport. The road layout of the city center was deeply transformed and the formerly traffic-jam-free center's problems are still unresolved. The city is also connected to the rest of the Calvados département by the
Bus Verts du Calvados bus network.
Caen-Carpiquet Airport is the biggest airport in Lower-Normandy considering the number of passengers that it serves every year, and offers commuting possibilities to the whole of Europe. Most flights are operated by
Brit Air and Chal Air Aviation and the French national airline
Air France operates three daily flights to the French city of
Lyon, while in the summer there are many charter flights to
Spain, the
United Kingdom,
Germany,
Tunisia,
Morocco and
Algeria.
Caen is connected to the rest of France by motorways to
Paris ,
Brittany and soon to
Le Mans . The A13 is a toll-road while the A84 is a toll-free motorway. The city is encircled by the N814 ring-road that was completed in the late
1990s. The N13 connects Caen to
Cherbourg and to
Paris. The
A13/N814 ring-road includes an impressive
viaduct called the Viaduc de Calix that goes over the
River Orne and the canal linking the city to the sea to permit cargo ships and ferries to dock in the port of Caen. Ferries which have docked include the
Quiberon and the
Duc de Normandie.
Although a fraction of what it used to be remains, Caen once boasted an extensive rail and tram network. From 1895 until 1936 the
Compagnie des Tramways Electriques de Caen operated all around the city. Caen also had several main and branch railway lines linking
Caen railway station to all parts of Normandy with lines to
Paris, Vire, Flers, Cabourg,
Houlgate,
Deauville, Saint-Lô,
Bayeux and
Cherbourg. Now only the electrified line of Paris-Cherbourg, Caen-
Le Mans and Caen-
Rennes subsist with minimal services.
Education
- The University of Caen, Université de Caen, has around 25 000 students in three different campuses, all linked by a tramway. The University is divided into 11 colleges, called UFR , 6 institutes, 1 Engineering School , 2 IUP and five local campus . The University is one of the oldest in France, having been founded by Henry VI, King of England in 1432.
- Caen also has a Fine Arts school .
Miscellaneous
Famous Caennais
Caen was the birthplace of:
- Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester , illegitimate son of Henry I of England
- Jean Bertaut , poet
- François Le Métel de Boisrobert , poet
- François de Malherbe , poet, critic and translator
- Tanneguy Lefebvre , classical scholar
- Jean-Renaud de Segrais , poet and novelist
- Pierre Daniel Huet , churchman and scholar
- René Auguste Constantin de Renneville , writer
- Pierre Varignon
...
,
mathematician- François Henri Turpin , man of literature
- Jean de Crèvecoeur , French-American writer
- Jean-Jacques Boisard , writer who specialized in fables
- Gervais Delarue , historian
- Louis Gustave le Doulcet, Comte de Pontécoulant , politician
- Daniel Auber , composer
- Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps , French naturalist and palaeontologist
- Étienne Mélingue , actor and sculptor
- André Danjon , astronomer
- Marie-Pierre Koenig , general who commanded a Free French Brigade at the Battle of Bir Hakeim in 1942
- Jordy singer
Twinnings
Caen is twined with:
Nashville,
USA Alexandria, Virginia,
USA Coventry,
United Kingdom Portsmouth,
United Kingdom Würzburg,
Germany Thiès,
SenegalSee also
External links
