Alençon (, , ; ) is a commune in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, France, and the capital of the

Orne Orne (; or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.department. It is situated between

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

(about west of Paris) and a little over north of

Le Mans Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...

. Alençon belongs to the intercommunality of Alençon (around 56,000 people in 2018, of which around 26.000 lived in Alençon).

History

The name of Alençon is first recorded in a document dated in the seventh century. During the tenth century, Alençon was a buffer state between

and the

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

regions. In 1049–1051, William Duke of Normandy, later known as

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

and king of England, laid

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

to the town, which had risen in support of the

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

of Anjou along with two other towns of the Bellême estates, Domfront (then in Maine) and Bellême (held directly from King Henry I of France). According to Duke William's chaplain and panegyrist, William of Poitiers, the defenders of the fortress refused to surrender and mockingly waved animal hides from the castle walls, referencing William's lineage as the grandson of a tanner. In response to this, William had 32 prisoners of the town's hands and feet cut off, prompting a sudden surrender. Upon hearing of this event, the town of Domfront also surrendered. Alençon was occupied by the English during the Anglo-Norman wars of 1113 to 1203. The city became the seat of a dukedom in 1415, belonging to the sons of the King of France until the French Revolution, and some of them played important roles in French history: see Duke of Alençon. The French Revolution caused relatively little disorder in this area, although there were some royalist uprisings nearby. A long-standing local fabric industry gave birth to the town's famous point d'Alençon lace in the 18th century. The economic development of the nineteenth century was based on iron foundries and mills in the surrounding region. In the first half of the twentieth century the city developed a flourishing

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

industry. Alençon was home to Sts. Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin, the parents of St.

Thérèse of Lisieux Thérèse of Lisieux (born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin; 2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), religious name, in religion Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, was a French Discalced Carmelites, Discalced Carmelite who is widely v ...

. They were the first spouses in the history of the Catholic Church to be proposed for sainthood as a couple, in 2008. Zélie and Louis were married at the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Alençon on 13 July 1858 and spent their whole married life in Alençon, where Thérèse was born in January 1873 and spent her early childhood until the death of her mother in 1877
Beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin - Saint Therese of Lisieux
On 17 June 1940, the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

occupied Alençon. O
12
August 1944 Alençon was the first French city to be liberated by the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

under General Leclerc, after minor bomb damage. After the war the population sharply increased and new industries settled. Many of these were related to plastics and the town is now a major plastics educational centre.

Geography

The river

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

flows through the town. Alençon along with another 32 communes is part of a 3,503 hectare, Natura 2000 conservation area, called the Haute vallée de la Sarthe.

Climate

Alençon benefits from an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

with mild winters and temperate summers.

Population

Heraldry

Economy

In the seventeenth century, Alençon was chiefly noted for its lace called point d'Alençon. Today, Alençon is home to a prosperous

plastics industry The plastics industry manufactures polymer materials—commonly called plastics—and offers services in plastics important to a range of industries, including packaging, building and construction, electronics, aerospace, manufacturing and transpo ...

, and, since 1993, to a plastics engineering school. MPO Fenêtres is a local PVC window company established in Alençon in 1970, is one of the first company in Alençon with around 170 employees (2009) and a turnover of 28 million euros in 2008. It is also the oldest French PVC window company still in business.

Points of interest

Museums

* Musée des Beaux-arts et de la Dentelle d'Alençon a museum dedicated to point d'Alençon and art, that has been open since 1981.

National heritage sites

The Commune has 31 buildings and areas listed as a Monument historique *Le Château des Ducs is a Castle built in the Middle ages. *Municipal Library was a former

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

chapel built in 1620, it became the city's library in the 18th century. It was registered as a Monument in 1926. *Prout sawmill and steam engine is a former sawmill, built in 1874, it was registered as a monument in 1995. *Café la Renaissance, built in 1855 the cafe, its interior decor is inspired by the second French Renaissance, it was registered as a monument in 2009. *Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Chapel is a seventeenth century chapel, it was registered as a monument in 1975. * Basilica of Notre-Dame d'Alençon is a fifteenth century church, that was registered as a monument in 1862. *Saint-Pierre church in the Montsor district is a church that was built in 1880, it features Mosaics made by the Facchina workshop, it was registered as a monument in 2006. *The Wheat Market (Halle aux blé) was built in 1812, featuring a 1000 m² glass dome, with a circumference of 110 metres, it was registered as a monument in 1975. *Psychiatric hospital was built in 1774, and initially built as a hospital for the sick, the destitute, the prisoners and the mentally ill. After the revolution it was turned into a prison, then becoming a hospice, before finally becoming a psychiatric hospital. It was registered as a monument in 1974. *Le Grand Cerf is a nineteenth century hotel, that was registered as a monument in 2008. *Hotel Libert is a hotel dating back to the 18th century, registered as a monument in 1947. *Hotel Radigue is a hotel dating back to the 18th century, registered as a monument in 1960. The hotel was mentioned in the Honoré de Balzac novel La Vieille Fille. *Hôtel de la préfecture, formerly known as the Hôtel de Guise is a hotel (a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

in France usually means a large building that now houses some sort of office, in this case the

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

) dating back to the seventeenth century, registered as a monument in 1903. *The Town Hall dates back to the 17th century and was registered as a monument in 1926. *Saint-Pierre de Montsort Presbytery is a former hotel that might have served as a presbytery, it was built in 1639 and was listed as a monument in 1958. *Saint-Léonard Lodging house is a seventeenth century house, designated as a monument in 1975. *Pesche Pharmacy is a nineteenth century building with neo-classical decor very characteristic of the 1820s-1830s, it was listed as a monument in 1987. *Tribunal de commerce is a fifteenth century building used as a court house for Commercial matters, it was registered as a monument in 1958. *City Ramparts remains of the old sixteenth century ramparts, reworked on in the nineteenth century, they were listed as a monument in 1971. *House of Ozé a fifteenth century house, built entirely from granite. The house was registered as a monument in 1903, and now acts as the Tourist office for the Commune. There are a further eleven private buildings and houses listed as monuments with the commune.

Education

Primary education

Alençon has 16 elementary schools (Écoles élémentaire, these are typical of France, see the article in th
French Wikipedia
, of which 12 are public and 4 are private.

Secondary education

* Alençon has 6 colleges, 4 of which are public and 2 are private. * Alençon also has several ''lycées'', some of which are public and some are private. * There are also 2 schools which provide

vocational education Vocational education is education that prepares people for a skilled craft. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with req ...

Higher education

* Alençon has a branch of the University of Caen Normandy, specifically for law and engineering. * There is also a technical university. * There is a training institute for teachers (''Institut national supérieur du professorat et de l'éducation'')

Transport

Alençon is linked by the A28 autoroute (motorway/freeway) with the nearby cities of

to the south (

) and

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

(

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inf� ...

) to the north. The A88 autoroute links the A28 just north of Alençon to the coastal port of

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

. The Alençon railway station offers regional services towards Caen, Le Mans and Tours. A comprehensive town bus system operates from 7:00 to 19:00. Aérodrome d'Alençon - Valframbert is an Aerodrome within the commune which is also shared with neighbouring communes of Valframbert and Cerisé that opened in 1936. Its

IATA airport code An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a unique three-letter geocode designating many airports, cities (with one or more airports) and metropolitan areas (citie ...

is XAN and its

ICAO airport code The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published quarterly in ICAO Document 7910: ''Location Indic ...

is LFOF. There is a comprehensive network of cycle paths.

Sport

*Alencon has a football team US Alençon who play at the Jacques Fould stadium. *Hippodrome d'Alençon is a racecourse that specializes in Harness racing, it has been in operation since 1825.

Notable people

* Anne d'Alençon (1492–1562), marquise of Montferrat * Marie-Catherine de Villedieu (1640–1683), novelist * Pierre Allix (1641–1717), Protestant pastor and author * Jean Castaing (1723–1805), printer, playwright * Léonard Bourdon (1754–1807), revolutionist * Jacques Hébert (1757–1794), editor of the extreme radical newspaper '' Le Père Duchesne'' during the French Revolution * Louis de Frotté (1766–1800), Chouan general * Jean Pierre François Bonet, Military commander * Edme Castaing (1796–1824), doctor and murderer * Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (1755–1834), botanist * Juste Lisch (1828–1910), architect * Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre (1839–1919), general * Éléonore-Aglaé-Marie Despierres (1843–1895), historian * Adolphe Gérard (1844–1900), American restaurateur * Adhémar Leclère (1853–1917), author * Thérèse de Lisieux (1873–1897), Roman Catholic nun and saint, and one of only 33 Doctors of the Church * Auguste Poulet-Malassis (1825–1878), publisher and friend of Baudelaire * Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin (1831–1877), the mother of St. Thérèse of Lisieux who, along with her husband Louis Martin, is one of the few married couples ever to be beatified by the Catholic Church. * Daniel Balavoine (1952–1986), singer and songwriter * Louis Barillet (1880–1948), glass blower * André Couder (1897–1979), astronomer * Alain Lambert (born 1946), politician * Anne Consigny (born 1963), actress * Yoann (born 1971), graphic artist * Laurence Leboucher (born 1972), cyclist * Lorànt Deutsch (born 1975), actor and writer * Benoît Tréluyer (born 1976), car racer, two-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours * Jonathan Cochet (born 1976), car racer * Anthony Geslin (born 1980), cyclist * Orelsan (born 1982), rapper * Arnold Mvuemba (born 1985), footballer

Twin towns – sister cities

Alençon is twinned with: *

Basingstoke and Deane Basingstoke and Deane is a local government district with borough status in Hampshire, England. The main town is Basingstoke, where the council is based. The district also includes the towns of Tadley and Whitchurch, along with numerous vil ...

, England, United Kingdom * Quakenbrück, Germany

Gallery

Halle aux bles Alencon.jpg, ' Chateau des Ducs Alencon.jpg, ' Bibliotheque alencon 670px.jpg, Library

References

External links

Official website
*
Website about the life, writings, spirituality, and mission of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face; information about the life of her family in Alençon and about pilgrimages to Alençon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alencon Communes of Orne Prefectures in France Horse racing venues in France Monuments historiques of Orne Orne communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia Sport in Orne