Bayeux

 

(bäyū', Fr. bäyö') , town (1990 pop. 15,106), Calvados dept., N France, in Normandy, near the English Channel. It is a farm and communications center, noted for its lace industry. A Roman town and episcopal see from the 4th cent., it was burned (1105) by Henry I of England. Sections of its Romanesque church withstood the fire and form a part of the remarkable Gothic cathedral built for the most part in the 13th cent. The town is particularly famous for its museum containing the Bayeux tapestry. In World War II, Bayeux was the first French city liberated by the Allies (June 8, 1944).

Commune of Bayeux
Location
Administration
Country	France
Region	Basse-Normandie
Department	Calvados (sous-préfecture)
Arrondissement	Bayeux
Canton	Bayeux (chief town)
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes Bayeux Intercom
Statistics
Land area¹	7.11 km²
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: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

Bayeux (pronounced /bajø/) is a small town and commune in the Calvados département, in Normandy, northwestern France. Bayeux is noted for its housing of the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the oldest surviving complete tapestries in the world.^[1]

Administration

Bayeux is a sous-préfecture of Calvados. It is the chief-town of the arrondissement of Bayeux and of the canton of Bayeux.

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 L' Aure traverses through the town of Bayeux.

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 June 16, 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 town hosts the largest British war cemetery in Normandy.^[2]

Natural features

The river L' Aure flows through Bayeux and affords scenic views from a number of locations. The L' 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.

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.

Streets of Bayeux (July 2001)

Streets of Bayeux (July 2001)

Miscellaneous

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

The Communauté de communes Bayeux Intercom has a population (2004) of 28,366.

Bishops

Bishops of Bayeux include:

• Odo of Bayeux

Births

Bayeux was the birthplace of:

• Saint Marcouf
• Berengar of Rennes
• Alain Chartier (c. 1392-c. 1430), poet and political writer

Notes

External links

• Minosh Photography
• City council website
• Tourist office website
• Satellite photo, via Google Maps
• Panoramic photos and Quicktime movies of the British War Cemetery here
• Bayeux Tapestry Generator

Coordinates: 49°16′31″N, 0°42′07″W

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