Main sights

Castle

The castle, the Château de Caen, built by William the Conqueror, who successfully conquered England in 1066, is one of the largest medieval fortresses of Western Europe. It remained an essential feature of Norman strategy and policy. At Christmas 1182, a royal court celebration for Christmas in the aula of Caen Castle brought together Henry II and his sons, Richard the Lionheart and John 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 the Hundred 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 the French Resistance were shot during the Second World War. Today, the castle serves as a museum that houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen (Museum of Fine Arts of Caen) and Musée de Normandie (Museum of Normandy) along with many periodical exhibitions about arts and history. (See )

Abbeys

In repentance for marrying his cousin Mathilda of Flanders, William ordered two abbeys to be built on the Pope's encouragement:

  • Église St.-Étienne, formerly the Abbaye aux Hommes (Men's Abbey). It was completed in 1063 and is dedicated to St Stephen. The current Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) of Caen is built onto the South Transept of the building.
  • Église de la Ste.-Trinité, formerly the Abbaye aux Dames (Women's Abbey). It was completed in 1060 and is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The current seat of the regional council (conseil régional) of Basse-Normandie is nearby.

Others

  • Jardin botanique de Caen, a historic botanical garden
  • Church of Saint-Pierre
  • Church of Saint-Étienne-le-Vieux
  • Church of Saint-Jean de Caen
  • Mémorial pour la Paix ("Memorial for Peace") built in 1988, a museum charting the events leading up to and after D-Day. It is an emotional presentation inviting meditation on the thought of Elie 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 of Nobel Peace Prize winners and another one on Conflict Resolution in different cultures.
  • Parc Festyland, an amusement park to the west of Caen in the nearby town of Carpiquet. The park receives 110,000 visitors every year.
  • Mondeville 2 is a regional shopping centre in adjoining Mondeville.
  • Medieval wooden houses
  • Colline aux Oiseaux, a floral parc located on the former dump of the city of Caen

Administration

thumb|The coat of arms of Caen

Mayors of Caen have included:

  • 1945–1959: Yves Guillou, Rally of the French People
  • 1959–1970: Jean-Marie Louvel, MRP and Centre Démocrate
  • 1970–2001: Jean-Marie Girault, Republican Party and UDF
  • 2001–2008: Brigitte Le Brethon, RPR and UMP
  • 2008–2014: Philippe Duron, PS
  • 2014–2024: Joël Bruneau, The Republicans
  • 2024–present: Aristide Olivier, The Republicans

Joël Bruneau was re-elected mayor in the 2020 municipal elections.

Transport

Public transport

Urban transport network

thumb|[[Caen tramway|The current Caen tramway opened in 2019.]]

Twisto is the urban transport network of Caen, including about sixty bus lines and 3 tramway lines. The present tram network officially opened on 27 July 2019 replacing the Caen Guided Light Transit ( but known locally as the "tram"), a guided trolleybus network which operated from 2002 to 2017, which was closed due to reliability issues. The city previously had a tramway which operated from 1860 to 1937.

Rail

thumb|[[Caen station|Caen railway station]]

Caen also had several main and branch railway lines linking Caen railway station () to all parts of Normandy with lines to Paris, Vire, Flers, Cabourg, Houlgate, Deauville, Saint-Lô, Bayeux and Cherbourg.

Now the SNCF operates the Paris-Caen-Cherbourg, Caen-Rouen, Caen-Le Mans-Tours, Caen-Rennes services and some others small lines, 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.

Caen station is the second busiest in Normandy, after Rouen station.

Air transport

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 by HOP!, Volotea and the French national airline Air France operates flights to the French cities of Lyon, Nice, Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseille, Biarritz, Ajaccio, Figari, Bastia and Calvi.

Water transport

Caen is served by the large port of Ouistreham, lying at the mouth of the Caen Canal where it meets the English Channel. A cruise/ferry service operates between Portsmouth, 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 from Caen with a daytime shuttle bus service for foot passengers. There is also a cyclist road from Caen to Ouistreham.

Road transport

Caen is connected to the rest of France by motorways to Paris (A13), Brittany and Southern France (A84) and to Le Mans and central France (A88–A28). The A13 and A88 are toll roads while the A84 is a toll-free motorway. The city is encircled by the N814 ring-road (Boulevard Périphérique) that was completed in the late 1990s. The N13 connects Caen to Cherbourg and to Paris. A section of the former N13 (Caen-Paris) is now D613 (in Calvados) following road renumbering. The Boulevard Périphérique includes a viaduct called the Viaduc de Calix that goes over the canal and the river Orne. The canal links the city to the sea to permit cargo ships and ferries to dock in the port of Caen. Ferries which have docked include the Quiberon and the Duc de Normandie.

Education

  • The University 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.
  • The University is divided into 11 colleges, called UFR (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 by John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, and Henry VI of England, in 1432.
  • Caen also has a school of fine arts L'ésam Caen/Cherbourg and grandes écoles such as the École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs de Caen and the École supérieure d'ingénieurs des travaux de la construction de Caen.
  • A campus of the business school, the École de management de Normandie, is also located in the city.

thumb|centre|800px|The Caen skyline facing the [[Church of Saint-Pierre, Caen|Saint-Pierre Church. Photo taken from the Château de Caen – April 2007.]]

Economy

The agricultural and food-processing Agrial cooperative has its head office in Caen. Agrial group processes vegetables, cider apples, milk, poultry and meat with the help of its 12,000 employees and all its partners.

Music and theatre

The Théâtre de Caen (1963) is the home of the Baroque musical ensemble Les Arts Florissants. The organization was founded by conductor William Christie in 1979 and derives its name from the 1685 opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

Notable people

thumb|140px|[[Louis Gustave le Doulcet, comte de Pontécoulant]]

thumb|140px|[[Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, 1827]]

Caen was the birthplace or origin of:

Public service

  • Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (ca.1090–1147), illegitimate son of Henry I of England.
  • Robert Constantin (ca.1530 – 1605), physician, bibliographer, lexicographer and humanist.
  • Samuel Bochart (1599–1667 in Caen), Protestant biblical scholar, taught Pierre Daniel Huet.
  • St. John Eudes (1601–1680), Catholic priest, forerunner of the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
  • Tanneguy Le Fèvre (1615–1672), classical scholar.
  • Pierre Daniel Huet (1630–1721), churchman and scholar.
  • Gervais de La Rue (1751–1835), historian, re. Norman language and Anglo-Norman literature
  • Louis Gustave le Doulcet, comte de Pontécoulant (1764–1853), politician.
  • Charlotte Corday (1768–1793), guillotined for the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat
  • Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen (1769–1832), a French general.
  • Eugène Poubelle (1831–1907), lawyer and diplomat, introduced waste containers to Paris
  • Charles-Hippolyte Pouthas (1886–1974), historian of political and religious history
  • Marie-Pierre Kœnig (1898–1970), Maréchal de France, commanded the Free French at the Battle of Bir Hakeim
  • Claude Hettier de Boislambert (1906-1986), Resistance leader, governor, politician, diplomat
  • Ovida Delect (1926–1996), poet, Communist, politician, member of the French resistance in WWII and a trans woman.
  • Sonia de La Provôté (born 1968), member of the French Senate
  • Fabrice Le Vigoureux (born 1969), member of the National Assembly

The arts

thumb|140px|bust of [[Jules Danbé]]

thumb|140px|[[Laure Adler, 2012]]

  • Jean Bertaut (1552–1611), poet of light verse to celebrate the incidents of court life.
  • François de Malherbe (1555 at Le Locheur – 1628), poet, critic and translator.
  • François le Métel de Boisrobert (1592–1662), poet, playwright and courtier.
  • Jean François Sarrazin (ca.1611 at Hermanville – 1654), a French writer.
  • René Auguste Constantin de Renneville (1650–1723), writer.
  • Jean-Baptiste Belin (1653–1715), painter who specialized in flowers.
  • François Henri Turpin (1709–1799), man of literature.
  • J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1735–1813), French-American writer
  • Jean-Jacques Boisard (1744–1833), writer who specialized in fables
  • Jean-François Boisard (1762–1820), painter and poet.
  • Daniel Auber (1782–1871), composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire.
  • Étienne Mélingue (1807–1875), actor, sculptor and painter.
  • Jules Danbé (1840–1905), a violinist, composer and conductor, mainly of opera.
  • Gabriel Dupont (1878–1914), composer of operas and chamber music.
  • Roger Grenier (1919–2017), writer, journalist and radio animator.
  • Alain Duhamel (born 1940), journalist and political commentator.
  • Jean-Loup Rivière (1948–2018), playwright and drama critic.
  • Laure Adler (born 1950), journalist, writer, publisher and radio/TV producer.
  • Christophe Desjardins (born 1962), a viola player and specialist in contemporary music.
  • Olivier Baroux (born 1964), actor, comedian, writer and director
  • Gilles Peterson (born 1964), DJ, record collector, record label owner; lives in London
  • Léa Drucker (born 1972), French actress
  • Laurent Lefrançois (born 1974), French contemporary composer
  • Orelsan (born 1982), rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor and film director
  • Seb Toussaint (born 1988), street artist and painter

Science and business

thumb|140px|[[Guillaume-François Rouelle]]

  • Pierre Varignon (1654–1722), mathematician; he invented the U-tube manometer.
  • Estienne Roger (c 1664–1722), printer, bookseller and publisher of sheet music
  • Paul Jacques Malouin (1701–1778), physician and chemist
  • Guillaume-François Rouelle (1703 at Mathieu – 1770), chemist and apothecary
  • Louis Lépecq de La Clôture (1736–1804), surgeon and epidemiologist
  • Pierre-Simon Girard (1765–1836), mathematician and engineer, worked on fluid mechanics.
  • Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils (1773–1815), chemist; discovered iridium in 1803.
  • Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps (1794–1867), naturalist and palaeontologist
  • Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps (1830–1889), paleontologist and naturalist
  • Jules Lair (1836–1907), businessman, paleographer, historian and antiquary
  • André-Louis Danjon (1890–1967), astronomer, measured the earthshine on the moon.
  • René Herse (1908–1976), builder of high-quality touring, randonneur and racing bicycles
  • Jean-Pierre Lehman (1914–1981), paleontologist who studied the anatomy and evolution of fossil fish
  • Jean-Yves Marin (born 1955), archeologist, medievalist and chief curator of French heritage
  • Pierre Denis (born 1964), businessman, CEO of Jimmy Choo Ltd, 2012–2020

Sport

thumb|140px|[[Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, 2009]]

  • René Menzies (ca.1889 – ca.1971), long-distance cycling record holder
  • Jean-Pierre Jaussaud (1937–2021), racing driver, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1978 and 1980.
  • Jean-François Ballester (1965–2018), figure skater, gold medallist at the 2018 Winter Olympics
  • Corinne Lagache (born 1975), former football goalkeeper with 27 caps with France women
  • Bruno Grougi (born 1983), a former footballer with 451 club caps and 3 for Martinique
  • Jérémy Sorbon (born 1983), a former footballer with 518 club caps
  • Benoît Costil (born 1987), footballer with over 480 club caps and 1 for France
  • Youssef El-Arabi (born 1987), footballer with over 546 club caps and 46 for Morocco and over 303 goals
  • Bruno Massot (born 1989), pair skater, gold medallist at the 2018 Winter Olympics
  • Kaïlé Auvray (born 2004), footballer

International relations

Caen is twinned with:

  • Alexandria, United States
  • Nashville, United States
  • Ohrid, North Macedonia
  • Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom
  • Reșița, Romania
  • Thiès, Senegal
  • Würzburg, Germany
  • Anzio, Italy

Sport

thumb|[[Stade Michel d'Ornano]]

From 1947 to 2006, Caen was a stage of the Tour de France a total of 15 times. Further, Caen was one of the hosts of the EuroBasket 1983. The city has a football team, SM Caen, who as of 2024 are owned by superstar footballer Kylian Mbappé. The Drakkars de Caen play ice hockey in the FFHG Division 1. In 2014, Caen was the location of the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games.

Caen has a racecourse called the Hippodrome de la Prairie; it has been used since 1837. The course is designed specifically for harness racing.

Symbols

Heraldry

Current arms:

<blockquote>Gules, a single-towered open castle Or, windowed and masoned sable.</blockquote>

Under the Ancien Régime: Per fess, gules and azure, 3 fleurs de lys Or.

During the First French Empire: Gules, a single-towered castle Or, a chief of Good Imperial Cities (gules, 3 bees Or).

<gallery>

File:Blason ville fr Caen ancien.svg|

File:Blason Caen 1809.svg|

File:Blason ville fr Caen (Calvados) Empire (Orn ext).svg|

File:Blason ville fr Caen (Calvados) (Orn ext).svg|

</gallery>

Motto

Today, Caen has no motto, but it used to have one, which did not survive the French Revolution. As a result, its spelling is archaic and has not been updated:

<blockquote>Un Dieu, un Roy, une Foy, une Loy.</blockquote>

(One God, one King, one Faith, one Law.)

This motto is reflected in a notable old Chant royal.

Code

Caen's home port code is CN.

<gallery mode=packed>

File:Escoville Angle.jpg|Hôtel d'Escoville, 16th century, Caen

File:Chateau_Caen.jpg|South Wall of the Castle, a huge fortress in the centre of the city

File:Caen Hôtel de Ville.JPG|Town Hall of Caen

File:Tramway de Caen Station.jpg|Caen's former 'tramway' was in fact a modern guided-bus system.

File:Normandie Calvados Caen6 tango7174.jpg|Saint-Étienne-le-Vieux Church

File:Caen-1.JPG|Interior of Saint-Pierre Church

File:Caen-2.JPG|The fortress of Caen

File:Caen-3.JPG|The Abbey of St. Étienne

File:Église Saint Pierre seen from in front of the Château.jpg|Église Saint Pierre seen from in front of the Château

</gallery>

See also

  • Communes of the Calvados department
  • Forum of Vieux-la-Romaine

References

Bibliography

  • Joseph Decaëns and Adrien Dubois (ed.), Caen Castle. A ten Centuries Old Fortress within the Town, Publications du CRAHM, 2010, , Publications du CRAHM
  • Caen City Council
  • Encyclopædia Britannica Caen
  • Mémorial pour la Paix museum
  • Caen town guide