Yvetot

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Coordinates: 49°37′04″N 0°45′15″E / 49.61778, 0.75417

Administration
Commune of Yvetot
Location

Country	France
Region	Haute-Normandie
Department	Seine-Maritime
Arrondissement	Rouen
Canton	Yvetot
Statistics
Elevation	83 m–157 m (avg. 146 m)
Land area^¹	7,47 km²
Population^² (1999)	10770
- Density	1 441/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	76758/ 76190
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.

Yvetot is a commune in the Seine-Maritime département in the Haute-Normandie region of France.

1 History
2 Population
3 The Round Church and its stained-glass window
4 Anecdotes
5 Twin town
6 External links
7 See also

[edit] History

The name is of Scandinavian origin (Ivetofta). The town is most likely of Scandinavian origin too. Yvetot comes from the Frankish man’s name "Ivo", root of the modern French names Yves and Yvon, which are very common in Normandy, being adopted by the Scandinavian converts to Christianity, and "topt" (modern toft), 'farm' in Danish, found in many place-names throughout Normandy . This 'Ivo' may have received this territory as a jarl of Rollo or his successors. These lords were often given the title king and benefited from all of the privileges of sovereignty up until 1551. One of the most popular songs of the 19th century, 'Le Roi d'Yvetot', written by the famous Béranger, helped propagate the legend of an independent state within the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of France. However, it is established that, with no other allegiances since 1203, Yvetot remained a principality up until 1789, a time at which the title was held by the (now-extinct) d'Albon family.

The town’s prosperity was linked to strong commerce, developed as early as the 17th century, thanks to its fiscal statutes and to cotton spinning, which saw massive expansion after 1794. In the 19th century, the town developed fabric production. Until 1926, Yvetot had been chef-lieu of the old arrondissement of Yvetot, and a sub_prefecture. During this period of reorganisation, it lost its status of sub-prefecture. In World War II, Yvetot was practically razed in 1940 by the Germans. Later, the 75th Division of the U.S. Army, 575th Signal Co., maintained its command post in the town from December 14-20, 1944, as it counterattacked against the German army. After the war, Yvetot was rebuilt in a classical style and regained its importance in the middle of the 20th century.

[edit] Population

Population movement
1882	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999
8444	7932	9510	10433	10605	10807	10776
Census count starting in1962 : Population without double counting

[edit] The Round Church and its stained-glass window

The stained-glass window, considered the largest in Europe with 1046 m²), was constructed in the 1950s by Max Ingrand and is a jigsaw that explodes in crimson, gold and blue. Meticulous assembly of a thousand pieces of glass that portray saints, with a wide section consecrated to the Normans of the diocese of Rouen. Either side of Christ are St. Peter (patron saint of Yvetot for a thousand years) and the apostles, including St. Valery (apostle of Calluses and Vimeux in the 7th century), St. Saëns (an Irish monk and founder of an abbey in the valley of the Varenne), St. Ouen (who introduced monasteries to Rouen) and St Wandrille. There are also bishops of Rouen. Among them: St. Roman (in the process of strangling the gargoyle that devastated Rouen), St Rémy and St Hugues. Others represented in the stained-glass include the Virgin Mary and Joan of Arc shining in her armour.

[edit] Anecdotes

Yvetot’s entry in the Dictionnaire des idées reçues by Gustave Flaubert, reads: "YVETOT: Voir Yvetot et mourir ! (See Yvetot and die) (cf. Naples and Seville)". It is in Yvetot that novelist Guy de Maupassant received his primary education; the town itself and its surrounding area, le Pays de Caux feature extensively in his oeuvre.