Last modified: 2002-10-26 by ivan sache
Keywords: pas-de-calais | calais | cross: scandinavian (white) |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[Calais]](../images/f/fr-62-ca.gif)
by Ivan Sache
See also:
Calais is a city of ca. 80,000 inhabitants (more than 100,000 when
including suburbs), located on the Pas-de-Calais (the narrow stripe
of sea between France and Britain, a bottleneck between the Channel
and the North Sea, 31 km in width x 185 km in length).
Calais is the first seaport of France in numbers of passengers and
close to the entrance of the tunnel under Channel.
Calais was siezed during the Hundred Years' War by Edward III in 1347 after a long siege. Five bourgeois of the city personally surrendered to the King and asked for the preservation of the city. The event has been popularized by a famous bronze statue by Auguste Rodin. Calais was definitively rattached to France in 1558. The old city heart was totally destroyed during the Second World War.
The flag is a white Scandinavian cross on a dark blue field and already appeared on very ancient flag charts.
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2000
|