Arras

Arras
region	Hauts-de-France
Department	Pas-de-Calais ( prefecture )
Arrondissement	Arras
Canton	Arras-1 (main town) ; Arras-2 (main town) ; Arras-3 (main town)
Community association	Arras
Coordinates	50 ° 17 ' N , 2 ° 47' E Coordinates: 50 ° 17 ' N , 2 ° 47' E
height	52-99 m
surface	11.63 km 2
Residents	41,019 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	3,527 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	62000
INSEE code	62041
Website	http://www.arras.fr/
	; Downtown Arras with the Place des Héros with the Town Hall (left) and Grande Place

Arras [ aʁɑːs ] ( Dutch and German, outdated Atrecht ) is a French city in the region Hauts-de-France . It is the administrative seat of the Pas-de-Calais department . The first documentary mention can be dated to the year 407.

geography

The city with 41,019 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) is located in the historic province of Artois near the confluence of the Scarpe and the Crinchon , about 50 kilometers southwest of Lille .

history

Tapestry of the School of Arras around 1410

Arras was originally a Celtic settlement ( Atrebatae ) inhabited by the Viromandu tribe. Later it was expanded by the Romans to the garrison town of Atrebatum .

When the Franconian Empire was partitioned , Arras fell to Lothar I. In the West Franconian imperial annals , the Annales Bertiniani , it says in relation to the Treaty of Verdun : "Outside these borders he (Lothar) only received Arras through the kindness of his brother Karl".

Arras was on the border between France and the Holy Roman Empire for many centuries . The rulership of the city changed frequently. Finally, fortifications were built by the architect Vauban , which helped to keep the city permanently under French rule.

With the help of mediators as representatives of Pope Eugene IV and the Council of Basel , the Peace of Arras between France and Burgundy, which had been allied with England until then , came about in 1435 (→ Hundred Years War ). But other contracts were also negotiated and concluded in this city. From 1459 to 1461, citizens of the city committed denunciations, heretic and witch hunts that became known under the name “Vauderies d'Arras”, which the Polish writer Andrzej Szczypiorski processed in his novel “A Mass for the City of Arras”.

Economically, the city lived for a long time from trade with Flanders and later became an important center for the cultivation and processing of sugar beet . The city gained great importance as one of the main centers of tapestry production in the South of the Netherlands . These products from the factories are still known by name as Arrazzi .

Arras, Grande Place, 1919

During the First World War Arras was near the front. From September 6, 1914, the city was briefly occupied by German troops, but they were pushed back to the outskirts during the month. From autumn 1914 to 1918 several major battles took place in the northern suburbs, for example the Loretto Battle in May / June 1915 and the Battle of Arras in April / May 1917. The Allies were able to defend Arras against all attacks by the Germans - not least thanks to one thing gigantic tunnel system created below the city, in which up to 24,000 soldiers could be accommodated. The city was almost completely destroyed during the war: the town hall burned down on October 7, 1914 and the belfry collapsed on October 21, 1914. The cathedral was destroyed on July 6, 1915. After the war, Arras was rebuilt in historical form.

During the Second World War , the city was occupied by German troops from June 1940 ( western campaign ) to the end of August 1944, who stationed the Arras defense post here from 1943 to 1944 . 240 French were executed by the occupiers as members of the Resistance in the citadel of Arras . On September 1, 1944, two rapidly advancing divisions of the British XXX Corps reached Arras, namely the 11th Armored Division and the Guards Division.

In 1950 there was a much-noticed scandal about the MP Antoine de Récy , who among other things had embezzled a large sum of money.

coat of arms

The coat of arms has been on seals since 1355 . The small blue shield with the golden lilies and the red tournament collar , located in the red heraldic shield above the soaring blue-armored golden lion , is the family symbol of the first gentleman Robert d'Artois.

Attractions

The city's landmarks are two large squares in the center, the Grande Place and the Place des Héros . They are surrounded by an ensemble of restored buildings.

The most important buildings in the city are the late baroque - classicist cathedral (1778–1833) and the Gothic town hall (1462–1572) with a belfry , which has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Belfries in France” since 2005 .

The citadel built by Vauban has also been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site " Fortifications of Vauban " since 2008 .

The Boves are a well-preserved underground network of tunnels 10 meters below the city. They were built in the 10th century and can be visited. The idea was to build a huge underground network to connect the cellars of all residents through tunnels. The excavated material (chalk) was used to build houses. During the world wars, the boves were used as an underground bunker to protect residents and valuable items from falling bombs.

Place des Héros
Place des Héros on a market day
Town hall with belfry
Town hall with belfry at night
Arras Cathedral
Street scenery
Grand Place
Typical late baroque architecture on the east side of the Grand-Place
Magnificent pseudo-gable

Personalities

Jean Bodel (≈ 1165–1209), old French minstrel (Ménestrel) and medieval poet
Adam de la Halle (around 1237 - 1286/87 or 1306?), Trouvère (Troubadour)
Matthias von Arras (1290–1352), architect and builder who worked in Bohemia
John IV of Brabant (1403–1427), Duke of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg and Count of Hainaut, Holland and Zealand
Jean Crespin (≈1520–1572), lawyer, Reformed author and printer in Geneva
Charles de l'Écluse (1526–1609), doctor and botanist
Jean Sarazin (1539–1598), Prince Archbishop of Cambrai and Abbot of Saint-Vaast in Arras
Charles Bonaventure de Longueval, Comte de Bucquoy (1571–1621), Field Marshal in the Thirty Years War
Ambroise Marie François Joseph Palisot de Beauvois (1752–1820), natural scientist
Jean Charles Joseph de Laumond (1753–1825), politician and director general of the French mines
Maximilien de Robespierre (1758–1794), politician and one of the most influential men during the French Revolution
Louis-Charles Caigniez (1762–1842), theater writer
Augustin Robespierre (1763–1794), politician and brother of Maximilien de Robespierre
Joseph Le Bon (1765–1795), revolutionary
Eugène François Vidocq (1775–1857), criminal and later crime fighter
Jean-Paul Adam Schramm (1789–1884), Infantry General and Minister of War
Alexandre Georges (1850–1938), organist, music teacher and composer
Léon Molon (1881–1952), racing car driver and aircraft pioneer
Lucien Molon (1883–1957), racing car driver
Lucien Gaudin (1886–1934), fencer, world champion and Olympic champion (1924 and 1928)
Pierre Jean Jouve (1887–1976), writer and supporter of Sigmund Freud
Gabriel Hanot (1889–1968), soccer player, journalist and editor of the sports newspaper L'Équipe
Louise Weiss (1893–1983), European politician, writer, journalist and feminist
André Dufau (1905–1990), sprinter
Violette Leduc (1907–1972), writer
Jean Douchet (1929–2019), cineast, historian, film critic, director, actor and writer
Christophe Gardié (* 1964), soccer goalkeeper and soccer coach
Sébastien Laudenbach (* 1973), animator
Frédéric Makowiecki (* 1980), racing driver
Benoît Assou-Ekotto (* 1984), Cameroonian-French football player
Lucas Tousart (born 1997), football player

Town twinning

Germany Chemnitz in Saxony , since 1967
Germany Herten in North Rhine-Westphalia , since 1984
Belgium Oudenaarde in Flanders since 1990
England Ipswich in the English county of Suffolk , in 1992
Romania Deva in Romanian Transylvania

A school partnership between the Lycée Robespierre and the Lycée Gambetta and the König-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Höxter has existed since 1956/57 .