Caen

Caen
/kahn/; Fr. /kahonn/, n.
a city and the capital of Calvados, in NW France, SW of Le Havre: many Norman buildings destroyed 1944. 122,794.

* * *

City (pop., 1999: 113,987), northwestern France.

Situated on the Orne River, it was the capital of lower Normandy in the 11th century. The English took it in 1346 and 1417 and held it until 1450. It suffered in the Wars of Religion and fell to the Protestants in 1562. During the French Revolution it was a centre for the Girondin movement. The city was severely damaged in the Allied Normandy Campaign (1944), but it was rebuilt. Notable structures include the 11th-century abbey and the university. Caen is a transportation centre and manufactures automobiles and electrical equipment.

* * *

France
      city, capital of Calvados département, Basse-Normandie région, northwestern France, on the Orne River, 9 miles (14 km) from the English Channel, southwest of Le Havre. It first became important under the Norman dukes in the 10th and 11th centuries and was the capital of lower Normandy in the time of William the Conqueror (William I). Captured by the English twice—in 1346 and in 1417—it was held by them until 1450. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) broke the prosperity of the city, which had become Protestant. During the Revolution, it was a centre for the Girondist movement. Following the Allied Normandy invasion in 1944, the Germans used Caen as the hinge of their resistance to the British–Canadian advance, and the city was two-thirds destroyed. It was reconstructed, with planned industrial zones between the Orne and the port canal. A green plain, the Prairie Saint-Gilles, faces the city's southwest side, and public gardens were planted in the city centre. The university, founded in 1432 by Henry VI of England, was resited and reopened in 1957. The Caen Memorial (opened 1988) is a museum dedicated to both war and peace.

 The church of Saint-Étienne (the Abbaye-aux-Hommes; see photograph—>), and that of La Trinité (the Abbaye-aux-Dames), escaped war damage; both date from the 1060s and are fine specimens of Norman Romanesque. William the Conqueror's tomb is in front of Saint-Étienne's high altar, and the tomb of his wife, Matilda, stands in La Trinité's choir. William's remains were thrown out during the French Revolution. Saint-Étienne has an austere facade bare of ornament. Its two towers, rising to 295 feet (90 m), are topped by 13th-century spires. The abbey buildings, redone in the 17th century, now house municipal offices. La Trinité's Norman solidity is overburdened by later (especially 19th-century) restoration work. The nave serves as the parish church, the transept and choir as part of the city hospital (hôtel-dieu). Midway between these two churches is the highly decorated church of Saint-Pierre, its Gothic and French Renaissance beauties restored after wartime damage. On the Place Saint-Pierre stands the Hôtel Le Valois d'Escoville, a restored Renaissance mansion (1538). The house where the poet François de Malherbe was born (1555) is on the rue Saint-Pierre.

      Caen's importance as a port dates from the 19th-century construction of the ship canal (about 9 miles [14 km] long), which parallels the river and opens to the English Channel at Ouistreham. It serves largely to import coke and export steel. The city's steel industry is fed by the iron-ore mines of the Orne valley. The blast furnaces of Mondeville have been reconstructed, and the working population is housed in the new city of Hérouville. The industrial aspect of the city grew greatly with the location there of automobile, electrical appliance, and electronics plants. Situated in the centre of a fertile grain-growing region, within sight of the verdant bocage of Normandy, Caen is a major service centre for all of western Normandy. Pop. (1999) 113,987; (2005 est.) 109,200.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Caen — Caen …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Caen HB — Club fondé le 27 mai 1993 Noms précédents …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Caen — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Caen Escudo …   Wikipedia Español

  • Caen BC — Caen Basket Calvados Caen BC Club fondé en 1959 Couleurs Blanc et Bleu …   Wikipédia en Français

  • CAEN — CAEN, capital of the department of Calvados, France. The medieval Jewish community of Caen lived in the Rue des Juifs between Rue Desmoneux and the Rue de l Eglise Julien, in the vicinity of which a property called Jardin aux Juifs (perhaps the… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Caen —   [kã], Verwaltungssitz des Départements Calvados und Hauptstadt der Region Basse Normandie, Frankreich, 112 800 Einwohner; liegt 16 km von der Küste entfernt an der Mündung der Odon in die Orne, in der Campagne de Caen, einem fruchtbaren… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • CAEN — CAE Née de la coalescence de plusieurs villages dans la plaine marécageuse de l’Odon et de l’Orne, la ville de Caen (112 890 hab. en 1990) est la capitale de la région Basse Normandie. Si le château sur un promontoire est le signe de l’unité, les …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Caen — (spr. kāng), Hauptstadt des franz. Depart. Calvados, liegt 14 km vom Meer in einem reizenden Tal am Zusammenfluß des Odon und der Orne, die einen für Schiffe von 5 m Tiefgang fahrbaren, vom Außenhafen Ouistreham bis in die Stadt führenden Kanal… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Caen — (spr. Kang), 1) Arrondissement im franz. Departement Calvados; 201/6 QM., 143,000 Ew.; 2) Hauptstadt darin, an der Mündung des Odon in die Orne, die zur Fluthzeit Seeschiffe bis zur Stadt trägt. Gut gebaut, breite Straßen, schöne Gärten u.… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Caen — (spr. kāng), Hauptstadt des franz. Dep. Calvados, an dem durch Zusammenfluß von Odon und Orne entstandenen Hafenbassin, (1901) 44.524 E., Universität, Musikkonservatorium; Industrie …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Caen — (frz. Cang), Hauptstadt des Departements Calvados an der schiffbaren Orne, 45280 E., große Industrie in Spitzen aller Art. Strümpfen, Wollen u. Baumwollentuch, Leinen, Leder, Tapeten, Porzellan, Papier; lebhafter Land und Seehandel, Messe …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”