Bayeux

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Administration
Commune of Bayeux
Country	France
Region	Basse-Normandie
Department	Calvados (sous-préfecture)
Arrondissement	Bayeux
Canton	Bayeux (chief town)
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes Bayeux Intercom
Statistics
Land area¹	7.11 km²
Population² (1999)	14,961
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	14047/ 14400
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

Bayeux (pronounced /bajø/) is a small town and commune in the Calvados département, in Normandy, northwestern France.

1 Administration
2 Location
3 History
4 Sights
5 Miscellaneous
- 5.1 Bishops
- 5.2 Births
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Administration

Bayeux is a sous-préfecture of Calvados. It is the chief-town of the arrondissement of Bayeux and of the canton of Bayeux.

[edit] Location

Bayeux is located just a few kilometres from the coast of the English Channel, and between the city of Caen to the east and the base of the Cotentin Peninsula to the west.

[edit] History

The area around Bayeux is called the Bessin which was a province of France until the French Revolution. The name of the town and of its region come from the Celtic tribe of Bajocasses who inhabited the area.

During the Second World War Bayeux was one of the first French towns to be liberated during the Battle of Normandy, and on June 16, 1944 General Charles de Gaulle made his first important speech on liberated French soil in Bayeux. The buildings in Bayeux were virtually untouched during the Battle of Normandy as the German forces defending the town were pulled away to help defend Caen. The town hosts the largest British war cemetery in Normandy.^[1]

[edit] Sights

Bayeux Cathedral

Bayeux, near the Centre Guillaume le Conquerant

Bayeux is a major tourist attraction, best known to British and French visitors for the Bayeux tapestry, made to commemorate the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It is displayed in a museum in the town centre. The town also has a large Norman-Romanesque cathedral, consecrated in 1077, which was the original home of the tapestry.