Valognes () is a commune in the Manche

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 Normandy in north-western France.

Geography

Valognes is situated in the Cotentin Peninsula, southeast of

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

. Valognes station has rail connections to Caen, Paris and Cherbourg.

History

The town was built not far from the Gallo-Roman town of Alauna or Alaunia, from where the town derives its name. It was a fortified stronghold under the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

dukes and French monarchs. Also here, William the Conqueror received the news that the barons of Cotentin and

Bessin Bessin () is an area in Normandy, France, corresponding to the territory of the Bajocasses, a Gallic tribe from whom Bayeux, its main town, takes its name. History The territory was annexed by the count of Rouen in 924. The Bessin corresponds t ...

were conspiring to kill him, enabling him to escape to

Falaise Falaise may refer to: Places * Falaise, Ardennes, France * Falaise, Calvados, France ** The Falaise pocket was the site of a battle in the Second World War * La Falaise, in the Yvelines ''département'', France * The Falaise escarpment in Quebec ...

. Edward III of England took Valognes without resistance, spent one night there and then pillaged and burnt the city. Henry III of England possessed the town, which remained under English rule for thirty years. (It would be a kind of resort for English aristocratic visitors until the 1920s.) In 1588, during the French Wars of Religion, Valognes sided with the Catholic League. The

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

, like that of

, was completely destroyed under Louis XIV. Of the convent of the Capuchins and

Cordelier The Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Société des Amis des droits de l'homme et du citoyen), mainly known as Cordeliers Club (french: Club des Cordeliers), was a populist political club during the French ...

s and the abbey of Benedictine nuns, which existed in Valognes prior to 1792, only the latter remains and was transformed into the hospice of the ''Rue des Religieuses''. The 14th-century church of Notre Dame had a dome (dated 1612), the only example of a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

dome in France. The whole building was destroyed in 1944 during the Battle of Normandy. Before the French Revolution, Valognes was the residence of more than a hundred families of distinguished birth and fortune, and was for a long time afterwards the home, ''en villégiature'', of many of the old ''noblesse''. Thus the town was known as the ''Versailles of Normandy'' for its aristocratic mansions and palaces, as well as the quiet, mysterious ambience and exclusivity of its streets. This was the Valognes of Barbey d'Aurevilly. The 1928 Methuen guide book to Normandy by Cyril Scudamore rather more prosaically describes Valognes as "a clean and well-built town, whose fine old houses bear witness to its former prosperity". Little remains of Valognes's famous architectural heritage, as many of the aristocratic mansions were reduced to rubble during the battle of Normandy. The lovely ''hôtel'' de Beaumont, however, still stands.

Population

Heraldry

Museums

The town has two museums devoted to the two alcoholic drinks for which Normandy is known: one for

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...

, the other for the apple brandy called '' calvados''.

Twin towns

Valognes is twinned with * Wimborne in Dorset, England * Stolberg in Rhineland, Germany

Notable people

* Félix Vicq-d'Azyr born on 23 April 1746 *

Edelestand du Méril Edelestand Pontas du Méril (26 March 1801 – 24 May 1870) was a French medievalist and philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticis ...

(1801–1870), French medievalist and philologist. *

Frédéric Guilbert Frédéric Guilbert (; born 24 December 1994) is a French professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Ligue 1 club Strasbourg. A product of the Caen youth system, he has played mainly in France for AS Cherbourg, Bordeaux and Strasbour ...

born 24 December 1994 in Valognes, French professional footballer.

References

External links

Valognes ville d'art et d'histoire
(official site)
History of the Hotel de Beaumont, grand historic house in the town
Communes of Manche {{Manche-geo-stub