Aisne department

Aisne
region	Hauts-de-France
prefecture	Laon
Sub-prefecture (s)	Château-Thierry Saint-Quentin Soissons Vervins
Residents	534,490 (Jan. 1, 2017)
Population density	73 inhabitants per km²
surface	7,362.20 km²
Arrondissements	5
Community associations	20th
Cantons	21st
Communities	800
President of the Department Council	Nicolas Fricoteaux ( UDI )
ISO-3166-2 code	FR-02
Location of the department of Aisne in the region of Hauts-de-France

The Aisne [ ɛn ] is the French department with the atomic number 02. It is in the north of the country in the region Hauts-de-France and is named after the river Aisne named.

geography

Aisne department

The department is bordered by the North department to the north, Belgium to the northeast, the Ardennes and Marne departments to the east, the Seine-et-Marne department to the south and the Oise and Somme departments to the west .

Important rivers in the department are Aisne , Marne , Ourcq , Vesle , Somme , Oise , Serre .

coat of arms

Description: Divided into blue and gold by white wavy bars are three blue diagonal bars at the top and a white bar with a golden meander on both sides below .

history

The Aisne department is one of the 83 departments that were formed on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution . It was combined from areas of the Île-de-France ( Laonnois , Soissonnais , Noyonnais , Valois ), Picardy ( Thiérache , Vermandois ) and Champagne . All incorporations are grouped under municipal mergers in the Aisne department .

During the First World War (1914–1918) there were three major fighting on the Aisne River:

• 13./20. September 1914
• April 16 - May 9, 1917
• May 27 - June 6, 1918

On May 15, 1940, Wehrmacht troops invaded the Aisne department. They had started the campaign in the west five days earlier . They reached Montcornet on the evening of May 15th . From May 17th to June 10th, Wehrmacht units and units of the French army fought against each other in the 'Bataille de l'Aisne'; the Wehrmacht won the battle and a few days later occupied Paris without a fight. In Montcornet, Colonel Charles de Gaulle led one of the four counter offensives in the western campaign on May 17, 1940.

From 1960 to 2015, the department was part of the Picardy region , which in 2016 became part of the Hauts-de-France region.

population

The inhabitants of the Aisne department are called Axonais .

Demographics

The Aisne department contains several towns of medium importance, surrounded by numerous, but often very small, towns. The department lost part of its population in the second half of the 19th century due to rural exodus , which was partially compensated for by industrial development. Particularly affected in both world wars , the department then almost regained its population of 1900. For about 30 years, industrial decline has caused stagnation in the number of residents. Only the south still shows demographic growth due to its proximity to the agglomeration of Paris.

Cities

The most populous municipalities in the Aisne department are:

city	Population (2017)	Arrondissement
Saint-Quentin	53,816	Saint-Quentin
Soissons	28,530	Soissons
Laon	24,876	Laon
Château-Thierry	15,107	Château-Thierry
Tergnier	13,456	Laon
Chauny	11,878	Laon
Villers-Cotterêts	10,872	Soissons
Hirson	8,813	Vervins
Bohain-en-Vermandois	5,664	Saint-Quentin
Gauchy	5,276	Saint-Quentin

Administrative division

Communes and arrondissements in the Aisne department

The Aisne department is divided into 5 arrondissements , 21 cantons and 800 communes :

Arrondissement	Cantons	Communities	Residents January 1, 2017	Area km²	Density of population / km²	Code INSEE
Château-Thierry	4th	108	70,059	1,115.15	63	021
Laon	7th	240	156,706	2,176.05	72	022
Saint-Quentin	5	126	128.154	1,071.17	120	023
Soissons	5	166	107.930	1,342.05	80	024
Vervins	4th	160	71,641	1,657.78	43	025
Aisne department	21st	800	534.490	7,362.20	73	02

See also:

• List of communes in the Aisne department
• List of cantons in the Aisne department
• List of associations of municipalities in the Aisne department

Attractions

Like the entire former region of Picardy, the Aisne department is not very well developed for tourism. There are four areas worth noting when visiting the Aisne department:

As in all of eastern France, there are a large number of buildings from the early and high Gothic . The cathedrals in Laon , Soissons and Saint-Quentin should be mentioned in particular .

In addition, a number of well-known artists have close ties to the south of the department. The fable poet Jean de la Fontaine was born in Château-Thierry. The playwright Jean Racine in La Ferté-Milon . The novelist Alexandre Dumas the Elder comes from Villers-Cotterêts. The sculptor and painter Camille Claudel , wife of Auguste Rodin , comes from Fère-en-Tardenois .

In the north-eastern region of the Thiérache , many church buildings were converted into fortified churches , especially during the Eighty Years' War , which are characterized by reinforced walls, towers or intermediate floors as escape options. Examples are the churches in Englancourt or Archon .

Regarding recent history, the battlefields of the First World War are particularly worth seeing. In 2017, the département commemorated the battle of the Aisne 100 years ago , better known there as the Battle of the Chemin des Dames . The center of remembrance is the Drachenhöhle , a former quarry developed by the Reichswehr . In the cave, daily life in war and its hardships is depicted very vividly.

Web links

Commons : Département Aisne  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Aisne department (French)
• Prefecture of the Aisne department (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ aisne.com ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 27, 2015 
2. ↑ INSEE Première N ° 1510, Les dépenses des touristes en France (from July 24, 2014 in French, PDF, 1 MB)

Coordinates: 49 ° 34 '  N , 3 ° 37'  E