Wissant Witzand | |
|---|---|
 The centre of Wissant | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Wissant  | |
  Wissant  Wissant | |
| Coordinates:50°53′10″N1°39′49″E / 50.8861°N 1.6636°E /50.8861; 1.6636 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Hauts-de-France |
| Department | Pas-de-Calais |
| Arrondissement | Boulogne-sur-Mer |
| Canton | Desvres |
| Intercommunality | Terre des Deux Caps |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | Laurence Prouvot[1] |
Area 1 | 12.79 km2 (4.94 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 847 |
| • Density | 66/km2 (170/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 62899 /62179 |
| Elevation | 0–158 m (0–518 ft) (avg. 17 m or 56 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Wissant (French pronunciation:[ɥisɑ̃];[3] fromDutch:Witzand, "white sand")[4] is a seasidecommune in thePas-de-Calaisdepartment in the Hauts-de-Franceregion of France[5] approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) north ofBoulogne, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) west-southwest ofCalais on theEnglish Channel coast.
Located at the eastern end of alagoon formed by a storm-breach of the coastal dunes, probably in the mid-10th century,[6] Wissant has been a fishing village for a millennium: along withAudresselles it is the last fishing village in France to use a traditional method of fishing using a wooden boat called aflobart and was in the Middle Ages a major port for embarkation for England:[7] In a mid-11th centuryLife of St. Vulganius, Wissant was specified, probably anachronistically, as the natural disembarkation point for the early eighth-century Celtic saint in his evangelizing travels.[8] Wissant was the embarkation port ofRobert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester, for his ill-fated invasion of England in 1173, with an army of 3000 Flemings.[9]Henry III of England was stranded at Wissant for lack of cash.[10] According toMatthew Paris (mid-13th century) itsnaucleri habitually interfered with English fishing fleets.
From the 7th to the 14th century, the local language was the West Franconian dialect calledOld Dutch and the village was calledWitsant and reckoned part ofFlanders.
Shifting coastal sands silted up the harbour, at the same time thatCalais was rising in importance as a port towards the end of the 12th century. At the end of the 19th century, the coastal dunes of Wissant began to be covered with seaside villas. During the 20th century, anentrepreneur, M. Létendart fromCalais, extracted sand and gravel from the dunes to the west of Wissant, in the bed of the ancient lagoon. The huge excavations now form lakes and a nature reserve. At the time of the exploitation of these gravel pits, the bones of a completemammoth with its tusks were discovered by four workers.
In July 1909 Wissant stood at the centre of worldwide focus. Three contenders for the £1,000Northcliffe prize offered by theDaily Mail for the first heavier-than-air craft to cross theEnglish Channel were camped along the coast betweenCalais and Wissant. The Franco-RussianComte Charles de Lambert who had twoWrightFlyers (Nos. 2 and 18) and was camped at Wissant.[11]. While practising over the dunes he crashed heavily and cancelled his plans.Louis Blériot won the prize and worldwide fame, from his camp at Calais.[12]
Today, because of the frequent and usually favourable winds and the proximity of theTGV railway station and theEurostar trains toFréthun, Parisians call Wissant the "Mecca” ofsurfing.
The inhabitants are calledWissantais.
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 1,058 | — |
| 1975 | 1,140 | +1.07% |
| 1982 | 1,247 | +1.29% |
| 1990 | 1,303 | +0.55% |
| 1999 | 1,186 | −1.04% |
| 2007 | 1,046 | −1.56% |
| 2012 | 1,033 | −0.25% |
| 2017 | 939 | −1.89% |
| Source: INSEE[13] | ||
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