Bayeux

See also: Bayeux (homonymy)

Famous for the Tapestry of Bayeux, the town of Bayeux is a common French, located in the department of the Calvados and the area Basse-Normandie.

The inhabitants are called Bajocasses or Bayeusains . Bayeux is seat of évêché.

Geography

Bayeux is located at seven kilometers of the coasts of the English Channel and at 30 kilometers in the North-West of Caen. The city, located between 32 and 67 meters of altitude, with an average of 46 meters, is crossed by the Aure.

History

Origins

Founded with the Gallo-Roman time, with the Ier front century J. - C. before our era under the name of Augustodurum, Bayeux is the capital of the Bessin formerly territory of the Bajocasses, people of old Gaulle whose name appears with Pline Old the. But the evidence of the human occupation of the territory is former as testifies some the camp strengthened to the rider of Escures with Commes with its fortifications dominating the sea on a side, the valley of Aure of the other. Another strengthened camp existed with Castillon, of a surface of 35 hectares. The historians have do not have an evidence of the existence of a Celtic city lower than the Roman invasion. Bayeux was undoubtedly limited to huts disseminated on the edges of the Aure and the Drome, with the site of current the Saint-Wolf-Out and with the dwellings of the druids on the Phaunus mount where they celebrated their worship. But César invades Gaules and one of its lieutenants, Titus Sabinus, penetrated in the Bessin and subjected this country to the Roman domination.

Information which we have on the ancient Bayeux remains still brief. The city is quoted by Ptolémée, which lived ous Antonin the Piles, under the name of Noemagus Biducassium and preserved this name until the Roman domination, it is then indicated under the name of Bajocassum . Current main street constituted already the main axis of the city. Two thermal buildings, one under the current church the St. Lawrence, the other under the old post office, Dairy street, are attested. That testifies to the adoption of the habits and of the Roman beliefs because one found there a head carved of Minerve, preserved at the museum Baron Gerard. The setting at the day at the 19th century of enormous blocks carved under the cathedral, had made have a presentiment of the existence of an important Roman building. An excavation carried out in 1990 on the northern side confirmed this point of view. The city was built with the important crossroads between Noviomagus (Lisieux) and Aulauna (Valognes), it is this axis which the decumanus maximus follows, current Grand-rue. The city develops initially on western bank of the river, it becomes a shopping mall and artisanal important in Normandy. On the slopes of the Phaunus mount, divided today between Bayeux and Saint-Vigor-the-Large, of the archaeological excavations made it possible to update remainders of necropoles. The Phaunus mount has an particular importance in the construction of the religious identity of the city, it is an old center druidic.

The city is surrounded at the end of the 3rd century of an enclosure to protect itself from the invasions. This one will frame the city until the 18th century. Vast quadrilateral, one can follow still today the approximate layout of it. The cathedral occupied the south-eastern angle of it. The medieval castle, with the site of the De Gaulle place, rose in her south-western angle. At the bottom of the gardens of the streets Bourbesneur in the south and Saint-Malo in north, some sides of the fortification remain. Bayeux is then one of the most important cities of Normandy, it is charged to defend the litus saxonicum , the border saxonne. The historians locate the martyr of Floxel saint, under Maximin Tarce towards 235-238, on the mount Phaunus, holy Exupère would have impelled the first dash of the evangelization there; Saint Vigor, bishop of Bayeux embanked a dragon there then creates a monastery. At the end of the VI {{E}} century, the population is christianized and the city thrives and becomes a religious center, sits of an episcopate. To the V {{E}} century, with the fall of the Roman Empire of Occident, Bayeux is attached to the Neustrie, the bishops increase their capacity further and are sometimes resulting from the royal family like Hugues, the nephew of Charles Martel.

Period Norman and War of Hundred-Years

The invasion of Norman involves the destruction of the city in 890, but it is rebuilt under the reign of Bothon, at the beginning of the X {{E}} century. The XI {{E}} century sees the creation of five boroughs outside the enclosure, primarily in north and the east, thus representing the development which the city during the ducal period knows. Under the impulse of the bishop Hugues II, then by his successor, Odon de Conteville, half-brother of William the Conqueror, the city grows rich by a new cathedral, dedicated in 1077. It is however at this period that the city loses of its influence. William the Conqueror indeed decides in 1050 to install the capital of his duchy with Caen. The annexation of Normandy to the royal field capétien in 1204, will do nothing but reinforce the political and economic importance of the latter. Bayeux then counts a score of parish churches or vaults

Between the beginning of the XII {{E}} century and the end of the Guerre One hundred Year old, Bayeux will suffer on several occasions from bags and plunderings, even if it remains intact until in 1417 contrary to other Normans cities like Avranches or Caen. Then English seizes the city and ransack it during long years by forcing it to submit itself to the king d' Angleterre Henri V. The king of France Charles VII carries out a broad offensive of reconquest of Normandy which shows the battle of Formigny on April 14th 1450 and the head office of Bayeux where English from May 4th to 16th took refuge. The count de Dunois takes again the city and Charles VII amnesties the inhabitants. 1450 mark the one boom beginning, of new families reach the capacity, the old ones being decimated by the war and the epidemics. New houses and manors with turns are built. There remains an about sixty about it, disseminated through all the city. From now on, the stone supplants wood gradually.

The Rebirth, as for it, left few traces. Among most beautiful creations of this time, one finds the Saint-Patrice church built between 1544 and 1548 and the interior architecture of the vault of the old episcopal palate.

Bayeux, religious city

The XVII {{E}} century is that of the development of the religious institutions under the impulse of Monseigneur de Nesmond. Bayeux is then a large building site with the construction of the seminar, of the Hôtel-Dieu, the convent of the bénédictines, the convent of the Ursulines, Notre-Dame charity and more than one ten private mansions. It should be said that Bayeux crystallizes the ideological confrontations between calvinists and catholics, the Protestant insurrectionists becomes Masters of the city in 1562 and destroys most of the religious heritage (statues, stained glasses…). Following the Council of Thirty, Bayeux is a center of against reform, between 1615 and 1650, one counts the installation of five religious institutions within the framework of the Counter-Reformation under the episcopate of François de Nesmond. The city counts one or a nun for ten inhabitants. This period leaves us many constructions characteristic of the XVIIe century as the hotel of Nesmond which shelters today the tapestry or the hospital. It is also the time of the installation of the first lace manufactures. The development of the work of the textile then reinforces the industrial character of the city.

It is necessary to await the beginning of the XVIII {{E}} century so that the city knows deep modifications with the massive destruction of the ramparts, the systematic filling of the ditches and the construction of elegant private mansions testifying to the luxury of the time. The years 1770 are finally remembered by two political events of importance: the installation in Bayeux of the Large council of Normandy, and the installation within the framework of the War of independence of the United States of the military parade ground, known as camp of Vaussieux, located at its doors. For some time, the city accommodates more the legal and military high ranking authorities kingdom.

Lace and porcelain

In 1793, Joachim Langlois opens a manufacture of Porcelaine to Valognes but this one must close in 1812 for financial reasons. It decides to transfer the activity to Bayeux in the old vacant convent of the bénédictines left after the Revolution. One counts three stages in the history of manufacture which coincide with the three families with the head of the company: the time Langlois (1812-1849), the time Kid (1849-1878) and the time Morlent (1878-1951). Manufacture supplies with Kaolin in the commune the Piles, this raw material is famous for its solidity and its resistance to the high temperatures and the thermal shocks. Under the Morlent time, the production specializes in the parts intended for the laboratories and acquires an international reputation.

The Dentelle of Bayeux is not less famous. François de Nesmond entrusts to the sisters of the hospital the responsibility to deal with the children assisted in 1676. The young girls launch out in the clothes industry lacemaker, but this one remains modest until the XVIII {{E}} century before a spectacular rise. In 1784, more than thousand people work in various manufactures of the city. Following the Revolution, the activity separates from the bez' Eglise, in 1824, twenty five companies are devoted to the manufacture of lace of which most famous are the houses Tardif and Carpentier-Delamare. The artisanal manufacture of lace to the spindle suffered much from mechanization. The last workshop, the Lefébure house closes in 1973. A lace Academy exists nowadays in Bayeux, there is specialized in the creation of luxury and worked for Hermes, Dior and Christian Lacroix.

Modern period

Bayeux at the 19th century, celebrates by its agricultural soil, its laces and its porcelain does not undergo deep modifications. It always preserves its medieval layout and grows rich by new middle-class residences. As of this time, one can discover there celebrates it tapestry of the queen Mathilde, who is consequently the emblem. A library-museum opens its doors in 1835.

In 1940, Bayeux is occupied by the German troops, its proximity of the coasts in fact a strategic zone of protection of the coasts. The resistance networks are touched hard, some figures are detached, like Guillaume Mercader, racing cyclist who made use of his drives on the roads of the Bessin to transport messages. Bayeux left as miraculée the conflicts of the last war. It was released as of on June 7th, 1944, the shortly after the Débarquement of Normandy by the British troops unloaded on the beach Gold. Its safeguarding, during the combat of June 1944, make the single intact city today of it preserved for all the Département of the Apple-brandy. It became a refuge for the casualties victims of the Bombardement S of the Bataille of Normandy. Bayeux was capital France during a few days, the government installs its provisional seat there (in the current sub-prefecture). Hardly unloaded on the French soil, to Courseulles-on-Sea, the de Gaulle General goes to Bayeux. He crosses the city to feet, surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd and makes a speech in which he affirms the membership of France to the Alliés countries. Many monuments commemorate this period, of which the British military cemetery which is the largest British cemetery of the Second world war in France. It accommodates 4.648 tombs of soldiers of the two camps, including 3.935 British, 17 Australian, 8 New Zealanders, 1 South-African, 25 Poles, 3 French, 2 Czechs, 2 Italians, 7 Russians, 466 Germans and 1 not-identified. On a memorial the names of 2.808 missing soldiers are registered: 1.537 British, 270 Canadians and 1 South-African.

Charles de Gaulle returns in this city that it affectionate the June 16th 1946 to inaugurate a stele on the place which bears its name today. With this occasion, he pronounces celebrates it Discours of Bayeux in which he presents the bases of what will become the Constitution of 1958.

Heraldic

Of Mouths to the gold leopards, surmounted in dexte of a B and with sinistral of X of same.

Administration

Demography

Monuments and museums

  • Center William the Conqueror, where is exposed the Tapisserie of the queen Mathilde.
  • the Cathédrale Notre-Dame, whose stained glasses commemorate the saga William the Conqueror, is remarkable for her large Orgue. There is also the list of the knights who took part in the Bataille of Hastings.
  • the museum Baron Gerard which gathers a rich person collection of objets d'art and recalls the history of the city is located in the old episcopal palate, places Freedom.
  • the museum of the de Gaulle General located in a private mansion of XIVe century.
  • the lace academy is installed in the hotel of the Senior (ex-évêché).
  • Plus of seventy private mansions is disseminated in all the historical heart, of which some date from XIVe century.

Events

Bayeux was the seat of a évêché and a Viscount.

Culture

  • the medieval Festival and the Living room of the medieval book bring together artists of street and writers each first weekend of July around the cathedral.
  • the price Bayeux-Apple-brandy of the war correspondents rewards the best reports on the conflicts for the world.
  • a festival of circus takes place every two years.

Natives of Bayeux

Economy

The principal branches of industry are:

  • Agro-alimentary

    • Frial, (frozen dishes) with Saint-Martin-of-Entries, 400 employees
    • Lactalis, 280 employees
    • Prodis Drinks (wholesale of drinks), 180 employees
    • Cider-house Viard
  • Health (Hospital): 1.000 employees
  • Bank (LCL Crédit Lyonnais, 480 employees)
  • Industry
    • Etamic, 125 employees
    • SNEC, 115 employees
  • Piercan, 90 employees
  • Tourism

The factory Moulinex closed in October 2001, it employed 441 people.

Unemployment rate (2006): 9,6%

Gallery

.
  • the Botanical garden of a surface of 2,6 hectares. The ground was given to the city by CharlemagneJean-Delamare (1772-1858) but it was arranged by Eugene Bühler (1822-1907), with which one also owes the installation of the park of the Gold Head of Lyon. The botanical garden changed little since this time. The most famous tree is the whining Hêtre, classified natural monument in 1932 and whose branches cover a surface of 1.250 square meters.
  • the Charles de Gaulle place in the middle of the city is planted of one hundred fifty Tilleul S, classified natural monuments in 1932, surrounding a vast lawn where many cultural events proceed.
  • the Plane tree of Freedom, places Freedom was planted on March 29th, 1797, by revolutionists (X germinal year V). It is him also classified natural monument.

Twinning and friendly cities

See too

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