Coutances

Coutances
region	Normandy
Department	Some
Arrondissement	Coutances
Canton	Coutances (main town)
Community association	Coutances Mer et Bocage
Coordinates	49 ° 3 ′ N , 1 ° 27 ′ W Coordinates: 49 ° 3 ′ N , 1 ° 27 ′ W
height	12-150 m
surface	12.51 km 2
Residents	8,501 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	680 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	50200
INSEE code	50147
Website	www.ville-coutances.fr
	; town hall

Coutances is a French municipality with 8501 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the department of Manche in the region of Normandy . It is a sub-prefecture of the arrondissement of the same name and the capital of a canton .

geography

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View of the city center from the south

The small town is located on the Cotentin peninsula twelve kilometers from the west coast ( English Channel ). The name Cotentin is derived from "Coutances". After Saint-Lô inland there are 29 km away. The city center is located on a ledge on which the cathedral is enthroned.

history

As the capital of the Gallic tribe of the Veneller (Uneller), the city took the name Constantia in 298 after the then emperor Constantius Chlorus , who two years earlier had recaptured Britain for the Roman Empire . The region that was later called Pagus Constantinus is now the Cotentin Peninsula.

The place was destroyed by the Normans in 866 and it took until the 11th century Geoffroy de Montbray , a comrade of William the Conqueror and Bishop of Coutances , to rebuild the city around a new cathedral. In 1204 Normandy was conquered under Philip II August , then the cathedral was rebuilt in the French style under Bishop Hugues de Morville (1208–1238), to which the hospital ( Hôtel-dieu ) was founded.

During the Huguenot Wars , the cathedral was sacked by the Protestants in 1562 . They captured Bishop Arthur de Cossé and forced him to ride a donkey upside down, the tail of the beast in hand, through the city. By the year 1569 the Bishop of Coutances was incumbent on the judiciary over the Channel Islands in the English Channel .

M5A1 light tank on a street in Coutances.

On June 6, 1944, Allied troops landed in Normandy ( Operation Overlord ).

After the capture of Saint-Lô (→ Battle of Saint-Lô ), US troops began an attempt to break out of their bridgehead sector (→ Operation Cobra ) at the same time as the advances by the other Allies on July 25 . In the following days this led to the eruption from the Cotentin peninsula in the west - near Avranches . On the morning of July 27, three divisions of the 7th US Army Corps launched an offensive against the German front line. The next day the 4th Armored Division (4th Panzer Division) advanced 20 km and captured the badly damaged Coutances (300 people had died from bombs). Then the troops pushed south to Pontaubault , where the hedge-rich landscape ended.

The reconstruction of the city was under the direction of Louis Arretche , who also looked after Saint-Malo .

Attractions

The Notre-Dame de Coutances Cathedral .
The town hall in the Hôtel de Cussy with a model of a long ship on a scale of 1: 5.
The Jardin des Plantes .
The Quesnel-Morinière Museum .
The Saint-Nicolas church.
The Saint-Pierre church.
The Lycée Charles-François Lebrun , the first imperial high school.
The Parc L'Évêque , the former park of the bishop with a hunting area, an ice grotto and an iron spring.
The Gratot castle , castle ruins, about four kilometers northwest of Coutances.

Apse of Notre Dame Cathedral
Saint-Nicolas church
Saint-Pierre church
Parc L'Évêque
Cathédrale de Coutance - window
Château de Gratot

Events

The jazz sous les pommiers (jazz under the apple trees) jazz festival held annually at the end of May .

Personalities

Anne Hilarion de Costentin de Tourville (1642–1701), Admiral and Marshal of France
François de Franquetot (1670–1759), Marshal of France
Rémy de Gourmont (1858–1915), writer
Pierre Coupel (1899–1983), building researcher
Jean Quellien (* 1946), historian
Aude Amadou (* 1980), politician