Avesnes-sur-Helpe (; vls, Avenne aan de Helpe) is a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Nord department. It is situated 14 km from the Belgian border, and 18 km south of
Maubeuge
Maubeuge (; historical nl, Mabuse or nl, Malbode; pcd, Maubeuche) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.
It is situated on both banks of the Sambre (here canalized), east of Valenciennes and about from the Belgian border ...
, the nearest larger town. The river
Helpe Majeure
Helpe Majeure () is a river that runs through the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It rises in the municipality of Ohain, with about a third of its watershed in Belgium, near the town of Momignies. The river initially mar ...
, a tributary of the
Sambre
The Sambre (; nl, Samber, ) is a river in northern France and in Wallonia, Belgium. It is a left-bank tributary of the Meuse, which it joins in the Wallonian capital Namur.
The source of the Sambre is near Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache, in the Aisne ...
, flows through the town. Upstream of Avesnes on the river there is the
Lac du Val-Joly
The Lac du Val-Joly is an artificial lake in France, constructed before the 1970s.
Located from the Belgian border, and close to Willies in the Nord département, asl on the course of the Helpe Majeure, a tributary of the Sambre.
It was cre ...
house of Avesnes
The Avesnes family played an important role during the Middle Ages. The family has its roots in the small village Avesnes-sur-Helpe, in the north of France.
One branch produced a number of Counts of Holland during the 13th century. The family di ...
played an important role in the low countries, including several
Counts of Holland
The counts of Holland ruled over the County of Holland in the Low Countries between the 10th and the 16th century.
House of Holland
The first count of Holland, Dirk I, was the son or foster-son of Gerolf, Count in Frisia (Dijkstra suggests th ...
. It was destroyed by Louis XI in 1477 after his victory in the
Burgundian Wars
The Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) were a conflict between the Burgundian State and the Old Swiss Confederacy and its allies. Open war broke out in 1474, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the battlefield in th ...
. Historically a part of the
County of Hainaut
The County of Hainaut (french: Comté de Hainaut; nl, Graafschap Henegouwen; la, comitatus hanoniensis), sometimes spelled Hainault, was a territorial lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire that straddled what is now the border of Belg ...
, it became French in 1659 as a result of the
Treaty of the Pyrenees
The Treaty of the Pyrenees (french: Traité des Pyrénées; es, Tratado de los Pirineos; ca, Tractat dels Pirineus) was signed on 7 November 1659 on Pheasant Island, and ended the Franco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635.
Negotiations were ...
, and was fortified by Vauban, although it was captured by Prussia in 1815.
Avesnes was heavily fortified, with fortifications that were continually modernised, from the 11th century up until 1867 when its fortifications, like those of other isolated bastions, were deemed to be redundant. In the 1870 some of the fortifications were demolished to allow easier access to the town.
Population
Culture
Many of the buildings on the main streets in this town are made of
dimension stone
Dimension stone is natural stone or rock that has been selected and finished (e.g., trimmed, cut, drilled, ground, or other) to specific sizes or shapes. Color, texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are also normal requirements. A ...
, like the 200 ft bell tower of the main church, St Nicholas, which dates from the 16th century.
The
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
race cycled through town in its 1999 progression around France.
The region of Avesnes-Sur-Helpe is known for its distinctive cheeses: the
Maroilles cheese
Maroilles (; also known as Marolles, or simply known as Maroilles) is a cow's-milk cheese made in the regions of Picardy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais in northern France. It derives its name from the village of Maroilles in the region in which it is sti ...
and also the "boule d'Avesnes", a local cone-shaped red cheese that is coated in paprika.
The high school in the region is the Lycée Jesse de Forest, named for an Avesnes native son who was responsible for the earliest settlement of the Dutch and Huguenots in what is now New York.