Caen

Categories: Communes of Calvados | Cities in France

Caen
Région	Basse-Normandie
Département	Calvados
Arrondissement	24 cantons 287 communes 389,973 habitants
Cantons	chief town of 9 cantons (13 common, 162,707 habitants)
Inhabitants	Caennais
Population (1999)	117,157 habitants
Intercommunality (2004)	Agglomeration 217,805 habitants
Area	2,6 km²

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Location within France

Caen is a city and a commune of northwestern France. It is the préfecture (administrative capital) of the Calvados département, and the capital of the administrative Basse-Normandie (Lower Normandy) région. Population 115,000, total urban sprawl around 200,000.

Caen is known in particular for its historical buildings built under William the Conqueror, and for its martyrdom during the Normandy battle in 1944.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Monuments
4 Administration
5 Transports
6 Miscellaneous
7 External links

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History

Image:Escoville Angle.jpg

Hôtel d'Escoville, 16th century, Caen

During the Battle of Normandy in World War II, Caen saw intense and bitter combat between Allied and Axis forces. British and Canadian forces finally captured the city on July 9, 1944. In the preceding month-long battle, many of the town's inhabitants had sought refuge in the Abbaye aux Hommes, built on the orders of William the Conqueror some 800 years before. Post-WWII rebuilding took 14 years (1948-1962) and led to the current urbanization of Caen.

Image:Abbaye-aux-hommes.jpg

Abbaye aux hommes in 2004

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Geography

Caen is built in a very damp area. The Orne flows through Caen, as well as different small rivers known as "les Odons", most of them having been burried under the city to improve urban hygiene.

Caen sits 10 km away from the Channel. A canal was built under Napoleon III and runs parallel to the river Orne to link Caen to the sea at all times, notwithstanding tides.

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Monuments

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Castle

The castle (Château de Caen), built ca. 1060 by William the Conqueror, who successfully conquered England in 1066, is one of the largest medieval fortresses of Western Europe. It remained an essential feature of Norman strategy and policy. At Christmas 1182 a royal court celebration for Christmas in the aula of Caen Castle brought together Henry II and his sons, Richard Cœur de Lion and Jean sans Terre, receiving more than a thousand knights. Caen Castle, along with all of Normandy, was handed over to the French Crown in 1204. The castle saw several engagements during the Hundred Years War (1346, 1417, 1450) and was in use as a barracks as late as World War II. Today it serves as a museum enclosure. (See Timeline of Caen Castle)

Image:PlanCaenFortification.jpg

Anonymous pen-and-ink bird's-eye view of the fortifications of Caen (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)

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Abbeys

In repentance for marrying his cousin Mathilde de Flandres, William also ordered two abbeys to be built:

Abbaye aux Hommes (Men's Abbey), the current town hall of Caen. It was completed in 1063 and is dedicated to St Etienne (St. Stephen).
Abbaye aux Dames (Women's Abbey), current regional council (conseil régional) of Basse-Normandie. It was completed in 1060 and is dedicated to St Gilles.

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Others

Saint-Pierre church.
Memorial pour la Paix, a Museum for Peace established in 1988, charting the events leading up to and after D-Day. It is an emotional presentation inviting meditation on the thought of Elie Wiesel: "Peace is not a gift from God to man, but a gift from man to himself".
St. Etienne Cathedral

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Administration

Image:Caen Hôtel de Ville.JPG

Town Hall of Caen

Mayors of Caen include:

1970 - 2001: Jean-Marie Girault
since 2001: Brigitte Lebrethon

In 1952, the small commune of Venoix became part of Caen.

In 1990, the agglomeration of Caen was organized in an arrondissement, transformed in 2002 into a community of agglomeration (Grand Caen, re-elected Caen la Mer in 2004) which gathers 29 communes including Villons-les-Buissons which recently (in 2004) joined the agglomeration.

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Transports

Image:Tramway de Caen Station.jpg

Caen's 'tramway' is in fact a modern guided-bus system.

Caen has one of the first types of tramways on tyres - in actual fact a guided busway based on Bombardier Transportation's Guided Light Transit technology - and a very efficient network of city buses, operated under the name Twisto.

Caen-Carpiquet Airport is the biggest airport in lower Normandy passenger wise, and offers commuting possibilities to the whole of Europe via Lyon.

Caen is well linked to the rest of France by motorways to Paris (A 13), Brittany (A 84) and soon to Le Mans (A 28). The city is encircled by the N 814 Périphérique which was completed in the late 1990s. The N 13 connects Caen to Cherbourg.

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Miscellaneous

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Universities include

Université de Caen. The Université de Caen has around 25 000 students in three different campuses linked by a tramway. The University is divided into 11 UFR (Fundamental Units of Research), 6 institutes, 1 engineering school, 2 IUP and five local campus (Alençon, Cherbourg, Lisieux, St-Lô and Vire). The University is one of the oldest in France, since it was created in 1432 by Henry VI, King of England.

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