Fécamp

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Fécamp
Fécamp coat of arms
Fécamp (France)
Fécamp
region Normandy
Department Seine-Maritime
Arrondissement Le Havre
Canton Fécamp (main town)
Community association Fécamp Caux Littoral Agglomération
Coordinates 49 ° 45 '  N , 0 ° 23'  E Coordinates: 49 ° 45 '  N , 0 ° 23'  E
height 0-125 m
surface 15.07 km 2
Residents 18,641 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 1,237 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 76400
INSEE code
Website www.ville-fecamp.fr

View of the port and city

Fécamp is a French city with 18,641 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the department of Seine-Maritime in the region Normandy . It is located at sea level on the English Channel between Dieppe and Le Havre . The city has a total of three ports: a trading port, a fishing port and a marina.

The cliff in the area is known as the Alabaster Coast. The best-known product from Fécamp is the Bénédictine liqueur distilled here .

history

The history of Fécamp (from Latin fisiacampus , field of the fig tree) goes back to the 60s of the 7th century. Waningus , who was a close advisor to King Chlothar III. founded a convent here. He had a church and a monastery built, where, according to legend, the sea washed up a fig tree trunk that put down roots again. A vessel was found in a crack in the tree that is said to contain some drops of blood from Jesus Christ. Allegedly Joseph of Arimathea caught the blood and hid the vessel in the fig tree during the persecution of Christians. After 674, Bishop Leodegar von Autun was imprisoned here. The monastic life was put to an end between 842 and 876 by repeated raids by Danish Vikings.

The foundation of Fécamps goes back to the Normans . Wilhelm Langschwert , son of the Viking Rollo , had a church and a monastery built. The buildings were completed in 990 and the altar was consecrated on June 15, 990. From the beginning of the 11th century, the abbey joined the church reform with the support of the Dukes of Normandy and developed into the leading, spiritual center of Normandy. This leading role is also evident in the choice of the burial place by the dukes Richard I and Richard II . After the Battle of Hastings , William the Conqueror transferred more and more English property to the abbey, including the town of Hastings . The abbey and church were expanded several times due to the large number of pilgrims. Fécamp was compared to Jerusalem because of the splendid decor of the pilgrimage sites. The later Pope Clement VI. (Peter von Fécamps) became abbot of Fécamps in 1326.

During the occupation of France by the German Wehrmacht in World War II , the port was an evacuation point for the British. The Germans surrounded the city unnoticed and wanted to destroy it completely. After failed negotiations for the surrender of the city without a fight, a civilian came to the Germans and asked not to shoot at the monastery and the city itself, as the English were in the port. The result was that the port was shelled. Two British destroyers escaped badly damaged.

Worth seeing

Bénédictine Palace .

Fécamp has been named City of Art and History by the French Ministry of Culture .

economy

Alexandre Le Grand, founder of the Palais Bénédictine

Significant sources of income arise from the activities of the port, the management of which has been entrusted to the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chambre de Commerce et d'industrie (CCI). It comprises five docks and nine quays with a length of 80 to 300 m. The entrance is via a 220 m long, 70 m wide harbor canal. The port is divided into a trading port (two basins, seven berths on the quay), a fishing port (three quays) and the marina Port de plaisance de Fécamp (three basins with a total of around 650 berths).

Town twinning

Sister cities of Fécamp are:

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the town:

People who worked in Fécamp:

literature

Web links

Commons : Fécamp  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Fécamp  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Gosset, Antoine Louis Charles Sébastien. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 504 f.