Watten (; , meaning " ford" as in "river-crossing") is a commune in the Nord department in northern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Its inhabitants are called "Wattenais".

History

In the 10th century the region around Watten belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Riquier though the counts of Boulogne and

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

attempted to take possession of it. The abbey of Watten was the oldest foundation of regular canons in the dioceses of Therouanne. While on the way to the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

during the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

, count Robert II of Flanders received several relics from the duke of Apulia,

Roger Borsa Roger Borsa (1060/1061 – 22 February 1111) was the Norman Duke of Apulia and Calabria and effective ruler of southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its sou ...

, including a hair of the

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

as well as some bones of

St Matthew Matthew the Apostle was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. According to Christian traditions, he was also one of the four Evangelists as author of the Gospel of Matthew, and thus is also known as Matthew the Evangelist. The claim of his g ...

and

St Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...

. Robert II sent them back to his wife Clemence who had them installed in the abbey of Watten in October 1097. In 1099, pope Urban II granted the regular canons of the Abbey privileges.

Geography

Watten is located at the limit of the

French Flanders French Flanders ( ; ; ) is a part of the historical County of Flanders, where Flemish—a Low Franconian dialect cluster of Dutch—was (and to some extent, still is) traditionally spoken. The region lies in the modern-day northern French regi ...

historical county. However, the local Dutch dialect (

French Flemish French Flemish (, Standard Dutch: , ) is a West Flemish dialect spoken in the north of contemporary France. Place names attest to Flemish having been spoken since the 8th century in the part of Flanders that was ceded to France at the 1659 ...

) is virtually extinct. The neighbouring villages are Wattendam (commune of Holque), Millam, Serques,

Éperlecques Éperlecques (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography It is a farming commune comprising eight hamlets, all found within the regional natur ...

and Wulverdinghe. While Watten belongs to the Nord ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'', it is bordering the

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) 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 of France, with 890, and is the ...

''département''. The village is crossed by the rivers Aa and Colme.

Climate

Watten has 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 ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfb''). The average annual temperature in Watten is . The average annual rainfall is with November as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Watten was on 25 July 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 14 January 1982.

Population

Heraldry

Sights

The village is famous for its old ruined abbey, and for its mill, which was restored in the 1990s. These two buildings are located on the "Mountain of Watten" (72 metres high). Its church dates from the thirteenth century. Nearby is the

Blockhaus d'Éperlecques The ''Blockhaus d'Éperlecques'' (, also referred to as "the Watten bunker" or simply "Watten") is a Second World War bunker, now part of a museum, near Saint-Omer in the northern Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, ''département'' of France, ...

, a massive German bunker site from World War Two, wrecked by Allied bombing. It is now a museum.

References

External links

Official website
Communes of Nord (French department) Burial sites of the House of Metz French Flanders {{DunkirkArrondissement-geo-stub