Caen is located 200 km (120 mi) northwest of Paris, connected to the South of England by the Caen (Ouistreham) toPortsmouth ferry route through theEnglish Channel. Situated a few miles from the coast, the landing beaches, the bustling resorts ofDeauville andCabourg, as well asNorman Switzerland and thePays d'Auge, Caen is often considered the archetype of Normandy.
Caen is known for its historical buildings built during the reign ofWilliam the Conqueror, who was buried there, and for theBattle for Caen, heavy fighting that took place in and around Caen during theBattle of Normandy in 1944, destroying much of the city. The city has now preserved the memory by erecting a memorial and a museum dedicated to peace, theMémorial de Caen.
The first references to the name of Caen are found in different acts of the dukes ofNormandy:Cadon 1021/1025,[7]Cadumus 1025,[8]Cathim 1026/1027.[9] Year 1070 of the Parker manuscript[10] of theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to Caen asKadum,[11] and year 1086 of the Laud manuscript[12] gives the name asCaþum.[13] Despite a lack of sources as to the origin of the settlements, the name Caen would seem to be ofGaulish origin, from the wordscatu-, referring to military activities andmagos, field, hence meaning "manoeuvre field" or "battlefield".[14] InLayamon'sBrut, the poet asserts thatKing Arthur named the city in memory ofSir Kay,[15] although thehistoricity of King Arthur is widely doubted.
Caen was known in Roman times as 'Catumagos', from the Gaulish rootsmagos meaning 'field' andcatu meaning 'combat'. It remained a minor settlement throughout the Roman period and began to see major development commence in the 10th century, under the patronage of the Dukes of Normandy. Around 1060,William the Conqueror began construction of theChâteau de Caen, which became the centre of the ducal court. DuchessMatilda of Flanders also founded theBenedictineAbbey of Sainte-Trinité, Caen around the same time, eventually being buried in the abbey. Caen succeededBayeux as the capital ofLower Normandy, complementing the second ducal capital ofRouen.
Caen fell toPhilip II of France on 21 May 1204, and was incorporated along with the remainder of Normandy into the Kingdom of France.
In 1346, KingEdward III of England led his army against the city, hoping to loot it. It was expected that a siege of perhaps several weeks would be required, but the army took the city in less than a day, on 26 July 1346,storming and sacking it, killing 3,000 of its citizens, and burning much of the merchants' quarter on the Île St-Jean. Only the castle of Caen held out, despite attempts to besiege it. A few days later, the English left, marching to the east and on to their victory at theBattle of Crécy. It was latercaptured following a siege byHenry V in 1417 and treated harshly for being the first town to put up any resistance to his invasion. In 1450 towards the end of the war, French forcesrecaptured Caen.
DuringWorld War II, Caen was captured byGerman forces during theBattle of France in 1940 and placed undermilitary occupation. In 1944,Allied forces launchedOperation Overlord, invading German-occupied France and rapidly advancing throughNormandy. From 6 June to 6 August 1944, the BritishSecond Army fought thebattle of Caen to dislodge German forces from the city. During the battle, Allied bombing raids heavily damaged the city and caused numerous French civilian casualties. After the battle, little of prewar Caen remained, and reconstruction efforts in the city continued until 1962.[16][17]
Postwar work included the reconstruction of complete districts of the city and the university campus. It took 14 years (1948–1962) and led to the current urbanization of Caen. Having lost many of its historic quarters and its university campus in the war, Caen does not have the atmosphere of a traditional Norman town such asHonfleur,Rouen,Cabourg,Deauville orBayeux.[citation needed]
The Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit filmed the D-Day offensive and Orne breakout several weeks later. It returned several months later to document the city's recovery efforts. The resulting film,You Can't Kill a City, is preserved in theNational Archives of Canada.
Caen is in an area of high humidity. The riverOrne flows through the city, as well as small rivers known asles Odons, most of which have been buried under the city to improve urban hygiene. Caen has a large flood zone, named "La prairie", located around the hippodrome, not far from the river Orne, which is regularly submerged.[18][19]
Caen is 10 km (6.2 mi) from theChannel. A canal (Canal de Caen à la Mer) parallel to the Orne was built during the reign ofNapoleon III to link the city to the sea at all times. The canal reaches theEnglish Channel atOuistreham. A lock keeps the tide out of the canal and lets large ships navigate up the canal to Caen's freshwater harbours.
Caen has anoceanic climate that is somewhat ameliorated due to its slightly inland position. In spite of this, summers are still cool by French standards and the climate is typically maritime in terms of high precipitation, relatively modest sunshine hours and mild winters.
Climate data for Caen (CFR), elevation: 67 m (220 ft), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1945–present, humidity 1961–1990
The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Caen proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Caen absorbed the former commune ofVenoix in 1952.[25]
The castle, theChâteau de Caen, builtc. 1060 by William the Conqueror, who successfullyconquered England in 1066, is one of the largest medieval fortresses of Western Europe. It remained an essential feature ofNorman strategy and policy. At Christmas 1182, aroyal court celebration for Christmas in theaula of Caen Castle brought togetherHenry II and his sons,Richard the Lionheart andJohn Lackland, 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 theHundred Years' War (1346, 1417, 1450) and was in use as a barracks as late as the Second World War. Bullet holes are visible on the walls of the castle where members of theFrench Resistance were shot during the Second World War. Today, the castle serves as a museum that houses theMusée des Beaux-Arts de Caen (Museum ofFine Arts of Caen) andMusée de Normandie (Museum of Normandy) along with many periodical exhibitions about arts and history. (See"Timeline of Caen Castle". Archived fromthe original on 13 February 2006. Retrieved28 August 2004.)
In repentance for marrying his cousinMathilda of Flanders, William ordered twoabbeys to be built on thePope's encouragement:
Église St.-Étienne, formerly theAbbaye aux Hommes (Men's Abbey). It was completed in 1063 and is dedicated toSt Stephen. The currentHôtel de Ville (City Hall) of Caen is built onto the SouthTransept of the building.[27]
Mémorial pour la Paix ("Memorial for Peace") built in 1988, a museum charting the events leading up to and afterD-Day. It is an emotional presentation inviting meditation on the thought ofElie Wiesel: "Peace is not a gift from God to man, but a gift from man to himself". The Memorial for Peace also includes an exhibit ofNobel Peace Prize winners and another one onConflict Resolution in different cultures.
In 1952, the small commune ofVenoix became part of Caen.[25]
In 1990, the agglomeration of Caen was organized into a district, transformed in 2002 into aCommunauté d'agglomération (Grand Caen (Greater Caen), renamedCaen la Mer in 2004), gathers 29 towns and villages, includingVillons-les-Buissons,Lion-sur-Mer,Hermanville-sur-Mer, which joined the Communauté d'agglomération in 2004. The population of the "communauté d'agglomération" is around 220,000 inhabitants.
In the former administrative organisation, Caen was a part of 9cantons, of which it was the chief town. These cantons contained a total of 13 towns. Caen gave its name to a 10th canton, of which it was not part. Since the 2015 canton reorganization, Caen is part of the cantons ofCaen-1,2,3,4 and5.[31]
Twisto is the urban transport network of Caen, including about sixty bus lines and 3 tramway lines.[32] Thepresent tram network officially opened on 27 July 2019 replacing theCaen Guided Light Transit (French:TVR de Caen but known locally as the "tram"), a guidedtrolleybus network which operated from 2002 to 2017, which was closed due to reliability issues. The city previously hada tramway which operated from 1860 to 1937.
Now the SNCF operates the Paris-Caen-Cherbourg, Caen-Rouen, Caen-Le Mans-Tours, Caen-Rennes services and some others small lines,[33] while Railcoop will soon open new lines such as Lille-Amiens-Rouen-Caen-Rennes-Nantes and Paris-Caen-Brest making Caen railway station its north-western hub.[34]
Caen station is the second busiest in Normandy, after Rouen station.
Caen - Carpiquet Airport is the biggest airport in Normandy considering the number of passengers and flights that it serves every year. Most flights are operated byHOP!, Volotea and the Frenchnational airlineAir France operates flights to the French cities ofLyon, Nice, Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseille, Biarritz, Ajaccio, Figari, Bastia and Calvi.[35]
Caen is served by the large port ofOuistreham, lying at the mouth of theCaen Canal where it meets theEnglish Channel. A cruise/ferry service operates betweenPortsmouth, England, and Caen/Ouistreham running both standard roll-on-roll-off car ferries and supercat fast ferries, with the latter making crossing from March to November. The ferry terminal is 15 km (9.3 mi) from Caen with a daytime shuttle bus service for foot passengers. There is also a cyclist road from Caen to Ouistreham.[36]
Caen is connected to the rest of France bymotorways to Paris (A13),Brittany and Southern France (A84) and toLe Mans and central France (A88–A28). The A13 and A88 aretoll roads while the A84 is a toll-free motorway. The city is encircled by theN814 ring-road (Boulevard Périphérique) that was completed in the late 1990s. TheN13 connects Caen toCherbourg and to Paris. A section of the former N13 (Caen-Paris) is now D613 (in Calvados) following road renumbering. The Boulevard Périphérique includes aviaduct called theViaduc de Calix that goes over the canal andRiver Orne. The canal links the city to the sea to permitcargo ships and ferries to dock in theport of Caen. Ferries which have docked include theQuiberon and theDuc de Normandie.
TheUniversity of Caen has around 34,000 students in five different campuses and Caen is ranked 18th biggest student city of France. The University has a good reputation as it is ranked 16th in France.[37]
The University is divided into 11 colleges, calledUFR (Unité fondamentale de Recherche), six institutes, one Engineering School, two IUP and five local campuses. The University is one of the oldest in France, having been founded byJohn of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, andHenry VI of England, in 1432.
Today, Caen has no motto, but it used to have one, which did not survive theFrench Revolution. As a result, its spelling is archaic and has not been updated:[63]
^ab"Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 6 June 2023.Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved11 December 2020.
^Marie Fauroux,Recueil des actes des ducs de Normandie (911–1066), Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de Normandie XXXVI, Caen, 1961, p. 122, n° 32.
^He swealt on Normandige on þone nextan dæg æfter natiuitas sancte Marie. 7-man bebyrgede hine on Caþum æt sancte Stephanes mynstre: He [King William] died in Normandy on the day after the Nativity of St Mary and was buried in Caen, in St Stephen's Abbey
^René Lepelley,Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de communes de Normandie, P.U.C., Corlet, Caen,Condé-sur-Noireau, 1996
^"CAEN–CARPIQUET (14)"(PDF).Fiche Climatologique: Statistiques 1991–2020 et records (in French). Météo France.Archived(PDF) from the original on 6 August 2019. Retrieved8 September 2023.
Joseph Decaëns and Adrien Dubois (ed.),Caen Castle. A ten Centuries Old Fortress within the Town, Publications du CRAHM, 2010,ISBN978-2-902685-75-2,Publications du CRAHM
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