Bayeux

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Bayeux
Bayeux coat of arms
Bayeux (France)
Bayeux
region Normandy
Department Calvados
Arrondissement Bayeux
Canton Bayeux
Community association Bayeux intercom
Coordinates 49 ° 17 ′  N , 0 ° 42 ′  W Coordinates: 49 ° 17 ′  N , 0 ° 42 ′  W
height 32-67 m
surface 7.10 km 2
Residents 13,121 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 1,848 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 14400
INSEE code 14047
Website www.mairie-bayeux.fr

town hall

Bayeux [ ba'jø: ] is a commune with 13,121 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the department of Calvados in the region of Normandy . It is the capital of the Bessin landscape , which extends northwest of the Calvados.

geography

The city is located on the River Aure seven kilometers from the coast of the English Channel and thirty kilometers northwest of Caen . It is located on the N 13 and has a train station on the Paris – Caen – Cherbourg line .

history

Odo (left) next to Wilhelm the Conqueror (center) and Wilhelm's half-brother Robert (right) in the Bayeux Tapestry

Originally a capital of the Celtic Baiokassen that gave it its name , Bayeux, as Augustodurum, was an important place in the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis . Towards the end of the third century, the city was fortified to protect against invading Saxons. Remnants of the plant are still preserved. Bayeux belonged to Neustria in the fifth century .

In 890 the city was destroyed by the invading Normans . After the conquerors established themselves by adopting Christianity, the city was rebuilt. The Notre-Dame Cathedral was inaugurated in 1077 by his Norman Bishop Odo von Bayeux , and construction began in 1047.

During the Hundred Years' War , the city suffered from the changing fortunes of the parties, but remained undestroyed.

During the Reformation had Huguenots without iconoclasm , during a time the upper hand Counter-Reformation was restored the old splendor.

On June 6, 1944, D-Day , the Allied landings began on the English Channel coast eight kilometers away. On June 7th, the British troops who landed on Gold Beach near Longues-sur-Mer as part of Operation Overlord were able to liberate the city. Since the Allies had spared the city from the previous air raids and the Germans had withdrawn to Caen, Bayeux was the only place in the Calvados not to suffer any destruction and was the first important city that the Allies were able to liberate.

After Charles de Gaulle had set foot on French soil again in Courseulles , he was enthusiastically received in Bayeux on June 14, 1944, where he gave his first speech on French soil in which he affirmed that the French were part of the Allies.

On the occasion of the second anniversary of the liberation, de Gaulle inaugurated a stele in the square that now bears his name, and in his speech, which became famous as the Discours de Bayeux , presented the foundations of the French political system , which he wrote in the constitution in 1958 the Fifth Republic should realize.

Population development

year 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2006 2016
Residents 9678 11,451 13,457 14,721 14,704 14,961 14,466 13,525
Sources: Cassini and INSEE

Memorial for journalists

Reporter's Mémorial

On October 7, 2006, a memorial was opened for the 2000 journalists, cameramen and photographers who have been killed worldwide since 1944 during or because of their work. The memorial is a landscaped path lined with white stones. The memorial was opened on the day the murder of two German journalists in Afghanistan and the murder of the journalist Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya became known. Bayeux was one of the first French cities to be liberated by the Allies after the Normandy landings in 1944. To commemorate this, Bayeux and the Calvados region jointly award the War and Conflict Reporting Award with Reporters Without Borders . The design for it comes from Samuel Craquelin, b. 1962, architect and landscape architect from Lillebonne (Seine Maritime).

Culture and tourism

In Bayeux, an almost completely preserved urban structure has been preserved around the Bayeux Cathedral ( Romanesque , Norman Gothic , Flamboyant Gothic). This includes city palaces from the 17th and 18th centuries, some of which are still privately owned, parish churches at the city exits and especially the tanners' quarter . The Museum of the Landings of the Allies in World War II shows in detail the events of 1944 in the region. The Medieval Bayeux Tapestry is exhibited in the Musée de la Tapisserie . It tells the story of the conquest of England by the Normans in the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066. There is also the Musée Baron Gérard with collections on regional history and important works of art and the De Gaulle memorial , which is the connection of the first President of the V. Depicts the Republic of Bayeux impressively and emphatically.

Bayeux Cathedral
Bayeux old town, Normandy

Politics and administration

Bayeux is the capital of the arrondissement of the same name (seat of the sub-prefecture on the Place de Gaulle). Place of jurisdiction ( Tribunal d'Instance - District Court).

Town twinning

Bayeux has had a partnership with Eindhoven in the Netherlands since 1945 . What connects the two cities is that they are among the first in their respective countries to be liberated from German occupation in World War II. Further twin cities are Dorchester in Great Britain (since 1959), Lübbecke in Germany (since 1968) and Sotome, Nagasaki .

Personalities and honorary citizens of the city

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Bayeux  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Relationship with Bayeux. (No longer available online.) Stichting 18 September, formerly in the original ; accessed on November 30, 2012 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stichting18september.nl