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, ...
A suburban town immediately southwest of Béthune, southwest of
Lille
Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the No ...
, at the junction of the D945, D72 and N41 roads. Light industry and a little farming have replaced the coal mining of the past.
History
The town's name comes from ''beaver'' (in Old French, ''bièvre'') and underwent variations on this over the centuries: Berri; Beuvri; Bevery; Bouvry and finally Beuvry.
On September 19, 1784 the Robert brothers (Anne-Jean Robert and Marie-Noël Robert) plus M. Collin-Hullin flew their hydrogen balloon, ''La Caroline'', on request of
Philippe III Alexandre, 1st Prince de Ghistelles Philippe III Alexandre Emmanuel François de Ghistelles died 1808, was a French noble lord. He was 4th Marquess of Saint-Floris, Lord of Beuvry and became the 1st Prince de Ghistelles in 1760.
Family
He descends member of the old noble House of ...
for 6 hours 40 minutes, covering 186 km from Paris to Beuvry. ''La Caroline'' owed its design to the work of professor Jacques Charles and
Jean Baptiste Meusnier
Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meusnier de la Place (Tours, 19 June 1754 — le Pont de Cassel, near Mainz, 13 June 1793) was a French mathematician, engineer and Revolutionary general. He is best known for Meusnier's theorem on the curvature ...
and achieved the world's first ever flight over 100 km. In the Ville de Beuvry a stone monument was erected to commemorate the 200th anniversary landing of the brothers in ''La Caroline'' on September 19, 1784. A celebration ball ''la ducasse "du Ballon"'' is now held at the end of every September.
The town has been awarded the
Croix de Guerre
The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first aw ...
twice: after World War I and again, after World War II.
A
coal-mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
town for about 100 years, the last pit closed in the 1960s. The town was merged with the nearby city of
Béthune
Béthune ( ; archaic and ''Bethwyn'' historically in English) is a city in northern France, sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department.
Geography
Béthune is located in the former province of Artois. It is situated south-east of Calais, ...
at the end of 1993. However, many of the Beuvrygeois voiced their dissatisfaction with the decision at the time, which resulted in the municipal elections of 1995, petitions in 1995 and 1996 and the creation, in October 1996, of a special commission to give an opinion on draft amendments to the territorial limits of the city of Béthune for the re-creation of a separate town of Beuvry. The municipal election in September 1997 led to a de-merger and Beuvry became an independent full-fledged town again in November 1997.
Population
Sights
* The church of St. Martin, dating from the sixteenth century.
* An old
windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some p ...
* The Prévôté building (once belonging to an abbey)..
* The sixteenth-century Manor of l'Estracelles.
* An eighteenth-century chateau.
* The
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...
cemetery.
International relations
Beuvry is twinned with:
*
Hemer
Hemer is a town in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Hemer is located at the north end of the Sauerland near the Ruhr river. The highest elevation, at 546 metres (1,791 ft), is in the ''Balver Wa ...