View source for Calais

==Notable landmarks==

===Place d'Armes===
Place d'Armes is one of the largest squares in the city of Calais. It adjoins the watchtower, and during medieval times was once the heart of the city. While Calais was a territory of England (1347–1558), it became known as Market Square (place du Marché). Only at the end of English rule did it take the name of Place d'Armes. After the reconquest of Calais in 1558 by Francis, Duke of Guise, Francis II gave Calais the right to hold a fair twice a year on the square, which still exists today, as well as a bustling Wednesday and Saturday market.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Place d'Armes |url=http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/sights/place-darmes.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313060639/http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/sights/place-darmes.html |archive-date=13 March 2012 |access-date=5 February 2012 |publisher=Calais Guide.co.uk}}</ref>

===Hôtel de Ville===
[[File:Calais_hotel_de_ville_face.jpg|thumb|[[Hôtel de Ville, Calais|Hôtel de Ville]]]]
The town centre, which has seen significant regeneration over the past decade, is dominated by its distinctive town hall ([[Hôtel de Ville, Calais|Hôtel de Ville]]) at Place du Soldat Inconnu. It was built in the Flemish [[Renaissance architecture|Renaissance style]] between 1911 and 1925 to commemorate the unification of the cities of Calais and Saint Pierre in 1885.<ref name="CGhv">{{Cite web |title=Hôtel de Ville |url=http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/sights/hotel-de-ville.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208131820/http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/sights/hotel-de-ville.html |archive-date=8 February 2012 |access-date=5 February 2012 |publisher=Calais Guide.co.uk}}</ref> An extra terrace had been erected at the previous town hall in 1818.<ref name="Demotier1856">{{Cite book |last=Demotier |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bs_06S5W7YC&pg=PA345 |title=Annales de Calais |publisher=L'auteur |year=1856 |page=345}}</ref> One of the most elegant landmarks in the city, its ornate 74-metre (246&nbsp;ft) high clock tower and belfry can be seen from out to sea and chimes throughout the day and has been protected by [[UNESCO]] since 2005 as part of [[Belfries of Belgium and France|a series of belfries across the region]].<ref name="FréretBalédent2007">{{Cite book |last1=Fréret |first1=Sophie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFBP0_sriPQC&pg=PA73 |title=Nord Pas-de-Calais Picardie |last2=Balédent |first2=Martin |publisher=MICHELIN |year=2007 |isbn=978-2-06-712165-2 |page=73}}</ref> The building parts have also been listed as a series of historic monuments by government decree of 26 June 2003, including its roofs and belfry, main hall, glass roof, the staircase, corridor serving the first floor, the rooms on the first floor (including decoration): the wedding room, the VIP lounge, the lounge of the council and the cabinet room. The hall has stained glass windows and numerous paintings and exquisite decor.<ref name=CGhv/> It houses police offices.<ref name="Perry2007" />

===Église Notre-Dame===
[[File:Église_Notre-Dame_de_Calais_2012_1.jpg|thumb|right|Église Notre-Dame]]
[[Église Notre-Dame de Calais|Église Notre-Dame]] is a great church which was originally built in the late 13th century and its tower was added in the late 14th or early 15th century. Like the town hall it is one of the city's most prominent landmarks. It was arguably the only church in the English perpendicular style in France.<ref name="CWSndc">{{Cite web|title=Notre Dame Church|url=http://www.calais.ws/EgliseDeNotreDame.htm|access-date=5 February 2012|publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell|archive-date=1 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120201224324/http://www.calais.ws/EgliseDeNotreDame.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Much of the current 1,400-capacity church dates to 1631–1635.<ref name="CWSndc" /> It contains elements of Flemish, Gothic, Anglo-Norman and Tudor architecture. In 1691, an {{Convert|1800|m3|adj=on}} [[cistern]] was added to the church by order of [[Vauban]].<ref name="CGndc">{{Cite web |title=Notre Dame Church |url=http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/sights/notredame-church.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105012410/http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/sights/notredame-church.html |archive-date=5 January 2012 |access-date=5 February 2012 |publisher=Calais Guide.co.uk}}</ref> The church is dedicated to the Virgin, and built in the form of a cross, consisting of a nave and four aisles—<ref name="Calton1852">{{Cite book |last=Calton |first=Robert Bell |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t8snAAAAYAAJ |title=Annals and legends of Calais |publisher=J. R. Smith |year=1852 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t8snAAAAYAAJ/page/n98 89] |access-date=5 February 2012}}</ref> The old grand altar dated to 1628 and was built from Carrara marble wrecked on the coast, during its transit from [[Genoa]] to [[Antwerp]]. It contained eighteen figures, the two standing on either side of the altarpiece—representing [[St. Louis]] and [[Charlemagne]].<ref name="Calton1852" /> The organ—of a deep and mellow tone, and highly ornamented by figures in relief—was built at [[Canterbury]] sometime around 1700. The pulpit and reading-desk, richly sculptured in oak, is another well-executed piece of ecclesiastical workmanship from [[Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais|St. Omer]]. The altarpiece, the Assumption, was often attributed to [[Anthony van Dyck]], though in reality it is by [[Gerard Seghers]]; whilst the painting over the side altar, once believed to be by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]<ref name="Calton1852" /> is in fact by [[Pieter Van Mol]]. A high and strongly built wall, partaking more of the fortress than a cathedral in its aspect, flanks the building, and protects it from the street where the old river formerly ran, in its course through Calais to the sea.<ref name="Calton1852" />

The square, massive Norman tower has three-arched belfry windows on each face, surmounted by corner turrets, and a conically shaped tower of octagonal proportions, topped again by a short steeple. The tower was a main viewing point for the [[Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790)]] which linked the [[Paris Observatory]] with the [[Royal Greenwich Observatory]] using [[trigonometry]]. Cross-channel sightings were made of signal lights at [[Dover Castle]] and [[Fairlight, East Sussex]].

The church was assigned as a historic monument by decree of 10 September 1913, only to have its stained glass smashed during a Zeppelin bombardment on 15 January 1915, falling through the roof.<ref name="MFPM2010">{{Cite book |last=Michelin / MFPM |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1F1kHo5cZTkC&pg=PA106 |title=Nord Pas-de-Calais Picardie |publisher=Michelin |year=2010 |isbn=978-2-06-714775-1 |page=106}}</ref><ref name="Information quarterly">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rmI9AAAAYAAJ |title=Information quarterly |publisher=R.R. Bowker |year=1916}}</ref> General de Gaulle married Yvonne Vendroux on 6 April 1921 at the cathedral.<ref name="CGndc" /> The building sustained extensive damage during World War II, and was partially rebuilt, although much of the old altar and furnishings were not replaced.

===Towers===
[[File:Tour du Guet, Calais.jpg|thumb|right|[[Tour du Guet]]]]
The [[Tour du Guet]] (Watch Tower), situated in Calais Nord on the Places d'Armes, is one of the few surviving pre-war buildings. Dating from 1229, when [[Philip I, Count of Boulogne]], built the fortifications of Calais, it is one of the oldest monuments of Calais, although the oldest remaining traces date to 1302.<ref name="CWSltdg">{{Cite web|title=Le Tour de Guet|url=http://www.calais.ws/FrLeTourDuGuet.htm|access-date=5 February 2012|publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell|archive-date=2 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302021636/http://www.calais.ws/FrLeTourDuGuet.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> It has a height of {{Convert|35–39|m|disp=or}} (sources differ). An [[1580 Dover Straits earthquake|earthquake in 1580]] split the tower in two, and at one time it threatened to collapse completely.<ref name="Lepage2011">{{Cite book |last=Lepage |first=Jean-Denis G. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jpT2BJ0BF_MC&pg=PA276 |title=British Fortifications Through the Reign of Richard III: An Illustrated History |publisher=McFarland |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7864-5918-6 |page=276}}</ref> The tower was repaired in 1606, and then had the purpose of serving as a hall to accommodate the merchants of Calais.<ref name="Lepage2011" /> It was damaged in 1658 when a young stable boy set fire to it, while it was temporarily being used as royal stables during a visit of King [[Louis XIV]].<ref name="Lefèbvre1766">{{Cite book |last=Lefèbvre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXtGKdW_QawC&pg=PA606 |title=Histoire de la ville de Calais et du Calaisis: précis de l'histoire de Morins |publisher=Lebure |year=1766 |page=606}}</ref> It was not repaired for some 30 years. In 1770,<ref name="Rider2005b">{{Cite book |last=Rider |first=Nick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jwG65xpOh9oC&pg=PA29 |title=Short Breaks Northern France, 2nd |publisher=New Holland Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-86011-183-9 |page=29}}</ref> a bell identical to the original bell of 1348 was cast. Due to its height, from the late 17th century it became an important watchout post for the city for centuries until 1905;<ref name="CWSltdg" /> the last keeper of the tower was forced to leave in 1926. [[Abraham Chappe]] (a brother of [[Ignace Chappe]]) installed a telegraph office in the tower in 1816 and operated for 32 years.<ref name="Demotier1856" /> It was this office which announced the death of Napoleon I to the French public in 1821. It also had the dual function as lighthouse with a rotating beacon fuelled by oil from 1818.<ref name="CWSltdg" /> The lantern was finally replaced by a new lighthouse on 15 October 1848. During the First World War, it served as a military observation post and narrowly missed destruction during World War II.<ref name="Lepage2011" /> This tower has been classified as a historic monument since 6 November 1931.<ref name="Lepage2011" />

The [[Calais Lighthouse]] (Le phare de Calais) was built in 1848, replacing the old watch tower as the lighthouse of the port. The {{convert|55|m|ft|adj=mid|-high}} tower was electrified in 1883 and automated in 1992. The staircase has 271 steps leading up to the lantern. By day it is easily distinguishable from other coastal lighthouses by its white color and black lantern. The lighthouse was classified as a historical monument on 22 November 2010.

===Forts===
[[File:Citadelle de Calais - La Porte de Neptune.JPG|thumb|right|The Citadel of Calais]]

The [[Citadel of Calais|Citadel]], located on the Avenue Pierre Coubertin, was built between 1560 and 1571 on the site of a former medieval castle which was built in 1229 by Philippe de Hureprel.<ref name="CWStc">{{Cite web|title=La Citadelle|url=http://www.calais.ws/LaCitadelle.htm|access-date=5 February 2012|publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell|archive-date=14 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214075250/http://www.calais.ws/LaCitadelle.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The purpose of its construction was to fend off would-be invaders, but it wasn't long until the city was successfully invaded by Archduke Albert of Austria on 24 April 1596. Both [[Louis XIII]] and [[Cardinal Richelieu]] at one time considered expanding the citadel and Calais into a great walled city for military harbour purposes but the proposals came to nothing.<ref name="CWStc" />

[[Fort Risban]], located on the coast on the Avenue Raymond Poincaré at the port entrance, was built by the English to prevent supplies reaching Calais by sea during the siege in November 1346 and continued to be occupied by them until 1558 when Calais was restored to France. In 1596, the fort was captured by the Spanish Netherlands until May 1598 when it was returned to the French following the [[Peace of Vervins|Treaty of Vervins]]. It was rebuilt in 1640.<ref name="Lepage2009">{{Cite book |last=Lepage |first=Jean-Denis G. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeVAPShsbTMC&pg=PA185 |title=French Fortifications, 1715–1815: An Illustrated History |publisher=McFarland |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7864-4477-9 |page=185}}</ref> Vauban, who visited the fort some time in the 1680s, described it as "a home for owls, and place to hold the Sabbath" rather than a fortification.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Risban |url=http://www.calais.ws/FortRisban.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208083741/http://www.calais.ws/FortRisban.htm |archive-date=8 February 2012 |access-date=5 February 2012 |publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell}}</ref> During World War II it served as an air raid shelter. It contains the Lancaster Tower, a name often given to the fort itself.<ref name="Lepage2011b">{{Cite book |last=Lepage |first=Jean-Denis G. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jpT2BJ0BF_MC&pg=PA275 |title=British Fortifications Through the Reign of Richard III: An Illustrated History |publisher=McFarland |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7864-5918-6 |page=275}}</ref>

Fort Nieulay, located along the Avenue Roger Salengro originally dated to the 12th or 13th century. During the English invasion in 1346, sluices gates were added as water defences and a fort was built up around it in 1525 on the principle that the people of the fort could defend the town by flooding it.<ref name="CWSfn">{{Cite web|title=Fort Nieulay|url=http://www.calais.ws/FortNieulay.htm|access-date=5 February 2012|publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell|archive-date=24 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224201719/http://www.calais.ws/FortNieulay.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In April and May 1677, [[Louis XIV]] and Vauban visited Calais and ordered a complete rebuilding of Fort Nieulay. It was completed in 1679, with the purpose to protect the bridge of Nieulay crossing the [[Hames River]].<ref name="Lepage2010">{{Cite book |last=Lepage |first=Jean-Denis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fzp3MWRNPFAC&pg=PA151 |title=Vauban and the French military under Louis XIV: an illustrated history of fortifications and strategies |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7864-4401-4 |page=151}}</ref> By 1815 the fort had fallen into a ruined state and it wasn't until 1903 that it was sold and improved by its farmer tenants.<ref name="CWSfn" /> The fort was briefly the site of a low-key scuffle with Germans in May 1940.

===Museums, theatres and cultural centres===
[[File:Calais theatre.jpg|thumb|right|Calais Theatre]]
Calais contains several museums. These include the [[Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle de Calais]], [[Cité internationale de la Dentelle et de la Mode de Calais]] and the Musée de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (World War II museum). Cité internationale de la Dentelle et de la Mode de Calais is a lace and fashion museum located in an old Boulart factory on the canalside and contains workshops, a library and a restaurant and regularly puts on fashion shows.<ref name="Ruler69" /> The World War II museum is located at Parc St Pierre opposite the town hall and south of the train station. The building is a former Nazi bunker and wartime military headquarters, built in 1941 by the [[Todt Organisation]]. The {{Convert|194|m|4=-long|adj=mid}} structure contains twenty rooms with relics and photographs related to World War II, and one room dedicated to World War I.<ref name="Ruler69" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=War Museum |url=http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/sights/war-museum.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313052338/http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/sights/war-museum.html |archive-date=13 March 2012 |access-date=5 February 2012 |publisher=Calais Guide.co.uk}}</ref>

Theatres and cultural centres include Le théâtre municipal, Le Centre Culturel Gérard Philipe, Le Conservatoire à rayonnement départemental (CRD), L'auditorium Didier Lockwood, L'École d'Art de Calais, Le Channel, Le Cinéma Alhambra and La Médiathèque municipale. Le théâtre municipal or Calais Theatre is located on the Boulevard Lafayette and was built in 1903 on a plot of land which was used as a cemetery between 1811 and 1871.<ref name="CWSct">{{Cite web|title=Calais Theatre|url=http://www.calais.ws/CalaisTheatre.htm|access-date=5 February 2012|publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell|archive-date=1 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120201224319/http://www.calais.ws/CalaisTheatre.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The theatre opened in 1905. On the first floor of the façade are statues which represent the performing arts subjects of Poetry, Comedy, Dance and Music.<ref name="CWSct" />

===Monuments and memorials===
[[File:Calais statue bourgeois.jpg|thumb|right|''[[The Burghers of Calais]]'']]
[[File:Calais colonne louis XVIII.JPG|thumb|right|Louis XVIII column]]

Directly in front of the town hall is a bronze cast of ''Les Bourgeois de Calais'' ("[[The Burghers of Calais]]"), a sculpture by [[Auguste Rodin]] to commemorate six men who were to have been executed by Edward III in 1347.  The cast was erected in 1895, funded by a public grant of 10,000 francs.<ref name="ElsenJamison2003" /> Rodin (who based his design on a fourteenth-century account by [[Jean Froissart]]) intended to evoke the viewer's sympathy by emphasizing the pained expressions of the faces of the six men about to be executed.<ref name="ElsenJamison2003" />

The ''Monument des Sauveteurs'' ("Rescuers' Monument") was installed in 1899 on Boulevard des Alliés, and transferred to the Quartier of Courgain in 1960.  It is a bronze sculpture, attributed to [[Edward Lormier]]. The ''Monument Le Pluviôse'' is a {{convert|620|kg|0|abbr=on}} bronze monument built in 1912 by [[Émile Oscar Guillaume]] on the centre of the roundabout near the beach of Calais, commemorating the accidental sinking of the submarine ''[[French submarine Pluviôse (Q51)|Pluviôse]]'' in May 1910, off the beach by the steamer ''Pas de Calais''.<ref name="Chisholm1913">{{Cite book |last=Chisholm |first=Hugh |url=https://archive.org/details/britannicayearb00chisgoog |title=The Britannica year book |publisher=The Encyclopœdia Britannica Company, Ltd. |year=1913 |access-date=5 February 2012}}</ref> [[Armand Fallières]], president of the Republic, and his government came to Calais for a state funeral for its 27 victims.  One of these victims, Delpierre Auguste, (1889–1910), drowned at age 21 before the beach at Calais; a dock in the city is named for him.  The monument was dedicated on 22 June 1913.

Monument "Jacquard" was erected on the square in 1910, opposite the entrance to the Calais theatre.  It commemorates [[Joseph Marie Jacquard]], popular in Calais because of his contribution to the development of lace through his invention of the [[Jacquard loom]].<ref name="MuirheadMonmarché1930">{{Cite book |last1=Muirhead |first1=Findlay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f-lnAAAAMAAJ |title=North-eastern France |last2=Monmarché |first2=Marcel |publisher=Macmillan & co. ltd |year=1930 |pages=16–17 |access-date=5 February 2012}}</ref> A tall [[Louis XVIII column|column]] in the Courgain area of the city commemorates a visit by [[Louis XVIII]].

''Parc Richelieu'', a garden behind the war memorial, was built in 1862 on the old city ramparts and redesigned in 1956.<ref name="(France)1986">{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=x1IpAQAAIAAJ |title=Monuments historiques |date=1 January 1986 |publisher=Caisse nationale des monuments historiques |access-date=5 February 2012}}</ref> It contains a statue designed by [[Yves de Coëtlogon]] in 1962, remembering both world wars with an allegorical figure, representing Peace, which clutches an olive branch to her breast.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Richelieu Garden|url=http://www.calais.ws/ParcRichelieu.htm|access-date=5 February 2012|publisher=Calais.ws|first1=June|first2=Len|last1=Riddell|last2=Riddell|archive-date=1 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120201224401/http://www.calais.ws/ParcRichelieu.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Another monument in the Parc Richelieu, erected on 23 April 1994, marks the approximate site of [[Emma, Lady Hamilton]]'s last resting place. She died in Calais on 15 January 1815.<ref name = Brayne>Brayne, Martin (2016), ''Gone to the Continent: the British in Calais, 1760–1860''</ref>

===Historic hotels===
For many years the most famous hotel in Calais was the Hôtel d'Angleterre, often called Dessin's or Dessein's, after the family which owned it for almost a hundred years.<ref name = Brayne/> Its popularity increased after [[Laurence Sterne]] set the early chapters of his 1768 novel ''[[A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy]]'' there. With the arrival of the railway fewer British visitors stopped in Calais and Dessin's closed in 1860.<ref name = Brayne/>

[[Hôtel Meurice de Calais]] is a hotel, established in 1771 as Le Chariot Royal by the French postmaster, [[Charles-Augustin Meurice]], who would later establish the five-star [[Hôtel Meurice]], one of Paris's most famous luxury hotels. It was one of the earliest hotels on the continent of Europe to specifically cater for the British elite.<ref name="GublerGlynn2008">{{Cite book |last1=Gubler |first1=Fritz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5inN5WqkdOAC&pg=PT47 |title=Great, grand & famous hotels |last2=Glynn |first2=Raewyn |publisher=Great, Grand & Famous Hotels |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-9804667-0-6 |page=47}}</ref> The hotel was rebuilt in 1954–55.<ref name="Ruler2011">{{Cite book |last=Ruler |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwXioEolUbMC&pg=PA63 |title=Cross-Channel France: Nord-Pas de Calais: The Land Beyond the Ports |publisher=Bradt Travel Guides |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84162-327-6 |page=63}}</ref> It has 41 en-suite rooms.