Douai

Douai
/dooh ay"/; Fr. /dwe/, n.
a city in N France, SE of Calais. 47,570.
Also, Douay.

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France
also spelled  Douay,  

      town, northern France, in the Nord département, Nord-Pas-de-Calais région. It is situated in flat country on the Scarpe River, 24 miles (39 km) south of Lille and 13 miles southwest of the Belgian border. Douai was once a coal-mining centre with related chemical and engineering works; now its industrial economy is dominated by the automobile and automobile-components industries. Other manufactures include railway equipment and food products. The Government Publications Office is located in Douai. The original university, founded in 1562, was transferred to Lille in 1887, but in 1993 the law faculty of the University of Artois was established in the town, joining existing graduate schools. The magnificent Gothic belfry, built in 1380, is 130 feet (40 m) high and has a carillon of 49 bells, installed in 1954 to replace the one destroyed by the Germans during World War I. The church of Notre-Dame was badly damaged in 1944, but its 13th-century nave has been restored. The museum of the Carthusian monastery La Chartreuse (16th–18th century) has a fine collection of 16th-century paintings.

      During the Middle Ages, Douai was ruled successively by the counts of Flanders and the dukes of Burgundy, Austria, and then Spain. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was the centre of exiled English Roman Catholics. In 1667 Louis XIV captured the town, and it was ceded to France the following year by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The town was almost completely destroyed during the sieges of 1710 and 1712, was partly burned in 1918, and suffered greatly during World War II. Pop. (1999) town, 42,796; (2004 est.) 43,300.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Douai — • The town of Douai, in the department of Nord, France, is on the River Scarpe, some twenty miles south of Lille Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Douai     Douai      …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Douai — Douai …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Douai — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Douai Dowaai Escudo …   Wikipedia Español

  • DOUAI — Peuplée de 42 212 habitants, dans une agglomération de 119 772 habitants (1990), Douai demeure, en dépit de sa position au centre d’un bassin houiller, fortement marquée par un brillant passé. Le site est classique pour le Nord: entre la craie du …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Douai —   [du ɛ], Industriestadt im Département Nord, Frankreich, am Südrand des französischen Kohlenreviers, an der kanalisierten Scarpe, 42 100 Einwohner; Hochschulen für Verfahrenstechnik und Bergbau, astronomische Forschungsstelle. Hauptverwaltung… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Douai — (spr. du ä), Arrondissementshauptstadt im franz. Depart. Nord, an der kanalisierten Scarpe, Knotenpunkt an der Nordbahn, ist von Festungsmauern aus dem 15. und 16. Jahrh. umgeben, die aber in den 1890er Jahren niedergelegt wurden, hat mehrere… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Douai — or Douay, name of town in northern France, used elliptically in reference to the English translation of the Bible begun there late 16c., sanctioned by Roman Catholic Church. [Also called Rheims Douai translation because it was published in Rheims …   Etymology dictionary

  • Douai — Douai, Stadt, so v.w. Douay …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Douai — (spr. dŭäh), Stadt und ehemal. Festung im franz. Dep. Nord, am Scarpekanal, (1901) 33.649 E.; Artillerieschule und magazin, Kanonengießerei …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Douai — (frz. Duă), feste Stadt im franz. Norddepart., an der Scarpe und dem Senséekanal, hat 21000 E., Universitätsakademie, großes Arsenal, Kanonengießerei, sehr lebhafte Fabrikation von Fayence, Camelot, Hüten, Seife, Tapeten etc. D. ist eine sehr… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • Douai — (French), Douay (former French), Dowaai (Dutch), Doway (former English), Duacum (Latin), Duagio (old Italian) …   Names of cities in different languages

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