Bayeux

Bayeux
Bayeux Cathedral.JPG
Bayeux Cathedral
Coat of arms of Bayeux
Bayeux is located in France
Bayeux
Administration
Country France
Region Lower Normandy
Department Calvados
Arrondissement Bayeux
Canton Bayeux
Intercommunality Bayeux Intercom
Statistics
Elevation 32–67 m (105–220 ft)
Land area1 7.11 km2 (2.75 sq mi)
Population2 14,961  (1999)
 - Density 2,104 /km2 (5,450 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 14047/ 14400
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.

Bayeux (French pronunciation: [bajø]) is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in north-western France.

Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the oldest surviving complete tapestries in the world.[1]

Contents

Administration

Bayeux is a sub-prefecture of Calvados. It is the seat of the arrondissement of Bayeux and of the canton of Bayeux.

Location

Bayeux is located seven kilometres from the coast of La Manche (English Channel) and 30 km north-west of Caen. The city, with elevations varying from 32 to 67 meters above sea level – with an average of 46 meters above sea level – is bisected by the river Aure. Bayeux is located at the crossroads of RN 13 and the train route Paris-Caen-Cherbourg. The city is the capital of the Bessin, which extends north-west of Calvados.

Etymology

The city was known as Augustodurum in the Roman Empire. It means the durum (Celtic word duro- 'door', 'gate', Welsh dor, Breton dor 'door', 'gate') dedicated to Augustus, Roman Emperor. The Celtic word duron, Latinized in durum was probably used to translate the Latin word forum (Compare Fréjus Forum Julii, dedicated to Julius (Caesar)).[2]

In the Late Empire it took the name of the Celtic tribe who lived here : the Bodiocassi, Latinized in Bajocassi, Bajocasses, and this word explains the place-names Bayeux and Bessin. Bodiocassi has been compared with Old Irish Buidechass 'with blond locks'.[3]

History

Origins

Translated from the corresponding article on French Wikipedia:

Founded as a Gallo-Roman settlement in the first century BC under the name Augustodurum, Bayeux is the capital of the former territory of the Bodiocassi people of Gaul, whose name appears in the writings of Pliny the Elder. Evidence of earlier human occupation of the territory comes from fortified Celtic camps, but there is no evidence of any major pre-existing Celtic town before the organization of Gaul in Roman civitates. Any settlement was more likely confined to scattered Druid huts along the banks of the Aure and Drome rivers or on Mount Phaunus where they worshiped. Cemeteries have been found on the nearby Mount Phaunus indicating the area as a Druid center. Titus Sabinus, a lieutenant of Julius Caesar, subjected the Bessin region to Roman domination.

The town is mentioned by Ptolemy writing in the reign of Antoninus Pius under the name Noemagus Biducassium (for *Noviomagus Badiocassium 'New market of the Badiocassi') and remained so until the time of the Roman Empire. The main street was already the heart of the city. A pair of spas under the Church of St. Lawrence and the Dairy Street Postal office and a sculpted head of the goddess Minvera have been found attesting to the adoption of Roman culture. In 1990 a closer examination of huge blocks discovered in the Cathedral in the 19th century indicated the presence of an old Roman building. Bayeux was built on a crossroads between Lisieux and Valognes, developing first on the west bank of the river. By the end of the 3rd Century a walled enclosure surrounded the city until it was removed in the 18th Century. It's layout is still visible and can be followed today. The citadel of the city was located in the southwest corner and the Cathedral the southeast. An important city in Normandy, Bayeux was part of the coastal defense against of Roman Empire against the pirates of the region and a Roman Legion was stationed there.

Middle Ages

The Bayeux tapestry

The city was largely destroyed during the Viking Raids of the late 800s but was rebuilt in the early 10th Century under the reign of Bothon. The elevent saw the creation of five villages beyond the walls to the north east evidence of its growth during Ducal Normandy. William the Conqueror's half brother Odo of Conteville completed the cathedral in the city and it was dedicated in 1077. However the city began to lose prominence when William placed his capital at Caen. When King Henry I defeated his brother Robert Curthose for the rule of Normandy, the city was burned to set an example to the rest of the duchy. Under Richard the Lion Heart, Bayeux was wealthy enough to purchase a municipal charter. From the end of Richard's reign to the end of the Hundred Years' War, Bayeux was repeatedly pillaged until Henry V captured of the city in 1417. After the Battle of Formigny, Charles VII recaptured the city and granted a general amnesty to its populace in 1450. The capture of Bayeux heralded a return to prosperity as new families replaced those decimated by war and these built some 60 mansions scattered throughout the city, with stone supplanting wood.

Modern Day

The area around Bayeux is called the Bessin, which was a province of France until the French Revolution. The name of the city and the region come from the Celtic tribe inhabiting the Bajocasses region. During the Second World War, Bayeux was the first city in France to be liberated during the Battle of Normandy, and on 16 June 1944 General Charles de Gaulle made his first major speech in Bayeux in which he made clear that France sided with the Allies. The buildings in Bayeux were virtually untouched during the Battle of Normandy, the German forces being fully involved in defending Caen from the Allies.

The Bayeux War Cemetery with its memorial includes the largest British cemetery dating from the Second World War in France. There are 4648 graves, including 3935 British and 466 Germans. Most of those buried there were killed in the invasion of Normandy.

Heraldry

arms of Bayeux

the arms of Bayeux are blazoned :
Gules, a leopard Or, in dexter canton a B and in sinister canton an X of the second.

Natural features

The river Aure flows through Bayeux, offering panoramic views from a number of locations. The Aure has a relatively high level of turbidity and the speed of its brownish water is moderate because of the slight slope of the watercourse, although where it is narrow in places like the center of Bayeux, higher surface speeds are generated. In the center of Bayeux near the Bayeux Tapestry Museum, pH levels were measured at 8.35 and the electrical conductivity of water was tested at 37 microsiemens per centimeter. Turbidity was measured at 13 centimeters by the Secchi disk method. At this point of reference, flows are generally of the order of 50 cubic feet per second.[4]

Sights

Bayeux is a major tourist attraction, best known to British and French visitors for the Bayeux tapestry, made to commemorate events in the Norman Conquest of England in1066. The tapestry was made by Reine Mathilde, wife of William the Conqueror, and may have been woven in England.[5] It is displayed in a museum in the town centre. The large Norman-Romanesque Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux,[6] consecrated in 1077, was arguably the original home of the tapestry.

The Jardin botanique de Bayeux is a botanical garden dating from 1864.

People connected with Bayeux

Demographics

See also

Pictures

Near the Centre Guillaume le Conquérant

Streets of Bayeux

Main entrance to Bayeux War Cemetery

The Cross of Sacrifice in cemetery

References

  1. ↑ Bayeux Tapestry description
  2. ↑ fr:Pierre-Yves Lambert, La langue gauloise, éditions errance 1994.
  3. ↑ Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue Gauloise, éditions errance 2003.
  4. ↑ fr:Bayeux
  5. ↑ World Book Encyclopedia, p. 177, World Book Inc.
  6. ↑ Cathedral of Bayeux: France Tourism Summaries

External links