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Bayeux

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Coordinates: 49°16′46″N 0°42′10″W / 49.279445, -0.702778

Commune of Bayeux


Bayeux Cathedral
Location
Bayeux (France)
Bayeux
Bayeux
Administration
Country France
Region Basse-Normandie
Department Calvados
Arrondissement Bayeux
Canton Bayeux
Intercommunality Bayeux Intercom
Statistics
Land area1 7.11 km2 (2.75 sq mi)
Population2
(1999)		 14,961
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 14047/ 14400
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.
France
Bayeux, near the Centre Guillaume le Conquerant
Streets of Bayeux (July 2001)

Bayeux (pronounced [bajø]) is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.

Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the oldest surviving complete tapestries in the world.[1]

Contents

[edit] Administration

Bayeux is a sub-préfecture of Calvados. It is the seat of the arrondissement of Bayeux and of the canton of Bayeux.

[edit] Location

Bayeux is located just a few kilometres from the coast of the English Channel, and between the city of Caen to the east and the base of the Cotentin Peninsula to the west. The River Aure runs through the town of Bayeux.

[edit] History

The area around Bayeux is called the Bessin which was a province of France until the French Revolution. The name of the town and of its region come from the Celtic tribe of Bajocasses who inhabited the area. During the Second World War Bayeux was one of the first French towns to be liberated during the Battle of Normandy, and on 16 June 1944 General Charles de Gaulle made his first important speech on liberated French soil in Bayeux. The buildings in Bayeux were virtually untouched during the Battle of Normandy as the German forces defending the town were pulled away to help defend Caen.

The Bayeux War Cemetery and Memorial is the largest British World War II cemetery in France. There are 4,648 graves, including 3,935 British and 466 Germans. Most were killed in the Invasion of Normandy. [2]

[edit] Natural features

The River Aure flows through Bayeux and affords scenic views from a number of locations. The Aure river has relatively high turbidity and its brownish water is moderate in velocity due to the slight gradient of the watercourse, although the narrow channel in locations like Bayeux centre engenders higher surface velocities; pH levels have been measured at 8.35 in the centre of Bayeux near the Bayeux Tapestry Museum[3] and electrical conductivity of the waters have tested at 37 micro-siemens per centimetre. Turbidity has been measured at 13 centimetres by the Secchi disc method. At this reference location of Bayeux centre, summer flows are typically in the range of 50 cubic feet per second.

[edit] Sights

Bayeux is a major tourist attraction, best known to British and French visitors for the Bayeux tapestry, made to commemorate the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The tapestry is believed to have been woven in England.[4] It is displayed in a museum in the town centre. The large Norman-Romanesque Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux,[5] consecrated in 1077, was the original home of the tapestry.

The Jardin botanique de Bayeux is a botanical garden dating from 1864.

[edit] Bishops

Bishops of Bayeux include:

[edit] Births

Bayeux was the birthplace of:

[edit] Demographics

  • The inhabitants of Bayeux are called Bayeusains /bajøˑsɛ̃/ or Bajocasses /bajokas/.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Bayeux Tapestry description
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Hogan, C. Michael, Water quality of freshwater bodies in France, Lumina Technologies Press, Aberdeen, Scotland (2006)
  4. ^ World Book Encyclopedia, p. 177, World book Inc.
  5. ^ Cathedral of Bayeux: France Tourism Summaries

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bayeux