Lessay

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Coordinates: 49°13′05″N 1°31′46″W / 49.218, -1.5294

Administration
Commune of Lessay Lessay town square
Location

Country	France
Region	Basse-Normandie
Department	Manche
Arrondissement	Coutances
Canton	Lessay
Statistics
Elevation	5 m–42 m (avg. 10 m)
Land area^¹	22.23 km²
Population^² (1999)	1,763
- Density	79/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	50267/ 50430
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

Lessay is a commune of the Manche département, in France.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Points of interest
4 References

[edit] Geography

Lessay is a small town in the centre of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy.

[edit] History

It was originally founded as a monastery but a town grew up around it over the years. The 10th century monastery is one of the greatest examples of Romanesque architecture in Normandy. It was partially destroyed by fighting in the town during July-August 1944.

[edit] Points of interest

LORAN-C transmitter Lessay
La Foire: the Sainte Croix fair of Lessay is a trade fair established in the 11th century in order to develop commercial activity in the village. For three days in the second week of September, 42 acres of Lessay is transformed into a marketplace, attracting over 400,000 visitors. The fair offers demonstrations of old and new trades, thousands of stalls selling a range of products from household equipment to animals, food, cars and garden and agricultural tools.^[1]