Pihen-lès-Guînes ( vls, Pittem, lang) is a commune in the

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

department in the

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; pcd, Heuts-d'Franche; , also ''Upper France'') is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. The ...

region of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

.INSEE commune file
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Geography

Pihen-lès-Guînes is located 7 miles (11 km) southwest of

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. The p ...

, at the junction of the D243 and D244 roads. Pihen station has rail connections to Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer.

History

The name of Pihen appeared for the first time in the founding charter of the abbey of Andres in 1084, in the form of ''Pithem'', from the Germanic ''pit'' (wells ) + ''Heim'' (home, village), which became Pihen in the Calaisis and Boulonnais dialect, but -hem elsewhere.

Pihem Pihem () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Pihem lies about 5 miles (8 km) south of Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; vls, Sint-Omaars) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas- ...

(near to Wizernes) is almost the same as Pihen, which led to so many errors with the mail that the commune decided to add ‘lès-Guînes’ to its name in 1923. There is no doubt that the village is very old. Tombs have been discovered dating back to the