Langres

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Langres
Langres coat of arms
Langres (France)
Langres
region Grand Est
Department Haute-Marne
Arrondissement Langres ( sub-prefecture )
Canton Langres ( main town )
Community association Community de communes du Grand Langres
Coordinates 47 ° 52 '  N , 5 ° 20'  E Coordinates: 47 ° 52 '  N , 5 ° 20'  E
height 327-475 m
surface 22.33 km 2
Residents 7,731 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 346 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 52200
INSEE code 52269
Website http://www.langres.fr/

Langres

Langres is a French city ​​in the Haute-Marne department of the Grand Est region . The city has 7731 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) on 22.33 km² - about as many as at the end of the 18th century.

geography

The city rises on a promontory of the plateau of the same name. Some of the most important rivers in France have their source on the Langres plateau . B. the Marne , the Seine and the Aube . Langres itself is located on the upper reaches of the Marne, which is part of the Canal de la Marne à la Saône (German "Marne-Saône Canal"). In this way - using other rivers and canals - a navigable connection from the Paris area to the Mediterranean is made possible.

history

View through the Rue de Longe-Porte to the city gate Porte de l'Hôtel de ville

The origin of the name Andemantunnum is unclear, a Celtic origin cannot be ruled out. The oppidum was considered a base for the Lingons from an early age . They allied with Caesar during the Gallic War . Already in Augustan times the place was called Civitas Lingonum or Lingonae , from which its current name developed. The Romans surrounded the city with fortifications. In connection with the four emperors year , Tacitus reports of unrest and subsequent punitive actions, since the city did not join the uprising against Nero . In this context, there is an uprising of Sabinus in AD 70, a tribal prince of the Lingons, but his rebellion failed. For nine years he hid in a grotto near the Marne spring, until he and his wife were brought to Rome and executed there. The Victory Gate from the 1st century and numerous objects exhibited in the museums are reminiscent of the Gallo-Roman city, which was an important traffic junction in the Roman road network . It was at the crossing point where the long-distance route from Lyon to Cologne was cut from the military road from Lousonna ( Lausanne ) in Raetia to Bononia ( Boulogne-sur-Mer ), where the headquarters of the Roman canal fleet was located. In the 3rd century the area around Andemantunnum was Christianized and Langres was already a bishopric in the 4th century . The third bishop of the city was St. Didier .

Langres was destroyed by the vandals in 407/411 . The city was then rebuilt, but much smaller than before. The bishops moved their seat to Dijon in the 5th century . In 731 the city was destroyed by the Saracens .

In the Middle Ages , Langres flourished again thanks to the growing political influence of its bishops . The bishop of Langres had been royal missus since around 825, and Charles the Bald gave him the right to mint coins. At the end of the ninth century, the bishopric was moved back to Langres. The secular influence of the bishops of Langres increased in the period that followed. Since the beginning of the 13th century they were counted among the pairs , from 1385 they also carried the title of Duke of Langres . The bishops of Langres encouraged the establishment of reform monasteries, such as the Molesme Abbey , Morimond Monastery and Clairvaux Monastery in the diocese .

In 1284 Langres became part of the French kingdom together with the whole of Champagne . Due to its border location with Burgundy , Lorraine and Franche-Comté , the city developed into a powerful fortress in the 14th and 15th centuries. She was also placed under the protection of the king.

Statue of Diderot with the cathedral in the background

The Renaissance was probably the period of greatest prosperity for Langres. The civil, religious and military buildings that can still be found today go back to this time. In the 19th century, the fortifications were expanded to include a citadel in the Vauban style.

During the Franco-Prussian War , the fortress was besieged unsuccessfully in 1870 by a reinforced brigade under Major General Kuno von der Goltz . The existing field guns were only sufficient to enclose the crew of around 3,000 men. Before the Prussians could attack the citadel, the troops were withdrawn to fight against the Eastern Army under General Bourbaki . The siege did not come again because the armistice had meanwhile been concluded.

On June 15, 1940, the city was captured by troops of the 1st Panzer Division of the German Wehrmacht, who were advancing as part of the western campaign . It was liberated on September 13, 1944 by American and French troops advancing from southern France as part of Operation Dragoon .

Attractions

  • City wall: four kilometers long with 12 towers and 7 gates
  • St-Mammès Cathedral : built in two phases from east to west between around 1160 and 1220. It successfully combines the Burgundian-Romanesque treasure trove of forms with the hesitant applications of Gothic. The former includes, in particular, the pilaster decorations reminiscent of Cluny III and the cathedral of Autun, the latter includes the cross-rib vaulting of the central nave and the system of buttresses. Classicist facade from the 18th century.
  • Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot : the museum dedicated to the life of Denis Diderot and the French Enlightenment is located in the center of Langres at 1, place Pierre Burelle in the converted Hôtel du Breuil de Saint-Germain .

traffic

Historic rack-and-pinion railcar on the Jules Hervé promenade

The Langres-Marne train station is about 130 meters below the old town at the Paris-Mulhouse railway . The branch line going from there to Poinson-lès-Grancey with the Langres-Bonnelle station was closed in 1972.

From 1887 to 1971 a cog railway operated between the old town and Langres-Marne station . Two of the younger vehicles have been preserved, one of which is on a short section of track on the Jules Hervé promenade.

Personalities

Town twinning

These two cities also maintain a city ​​partnership with one another .

  • View of the citadel

  • Sainte-Madeleine and the associated former monastery of Saint-Didier, now the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Langres

  • Classicist facade of the cathedral

  • Interior of the cathedral

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Immo Eberl : Langres is the mother town of Ellwangen - without Hariolf there would be no monastery. Ipf and Jagst newspaper , July 27, 2013.
  2. ^ Heinz Guderian : Panzer Leader. Da Capo Press, New York 1996, ISBN 0-306-81101-4 , p. 128 .
  3. ^ Wilhelm Schlink : Between Cluny and Clairvaux. Langres Cathedral and the Burgundian architecture of the 12th century. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin 1970.
  4. ^ Eglise Saint-Didier (ancient). Dossier PA00079095. In: inventaire-patrimoine.cr-champagne-ardenne.fr. Grand Est region , accessed December 24, 2017 (French).