Lisieux, Calvados Département, Normandy, France

Name | History : Middle Ages | Events | Geography | Transport | Religion

🇫🇷 Lisieux is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in north-western France. It is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland.

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Name The name of the town derives from the Latin: Noviomagus Lexoviorum ("Noviomagus of the Lexovii"). The town was originally known in Celtic as Novio Magos ("New Field", "New Market"), which was Latinized as Noviomagus. Owing to the large number of similarly named cities, however, it was necessary to specify where this one was located. The local French demonym Lexoviens derives from the Latin as well.

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History Lisieux was the capital of the Lexovii. In his work, Commentaries on the Gallic War, Caesar mentions a Gallic oppidum, a term which refers to Celtic towns located on the tops of hills. The oppidum has been pinpointed to a place referred to as le Castellier, located 3 km (1.9 mi) to the south-west of the town. However the Gallo-Roman city was in fact located where Lisieux is to be found today.

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History: Middle Ages Lisieux was an important centre of power in medieval times. The bishopric of Lisieux controlled most of the Pays d'Auge by the 12th century. King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine are thought to have married at Lisieux in 1152, and the town remained powerful for several centuries afterwards, until, in the 14th century, the triple scourges of the Plague, war and resulting famine devastated Lisieux and reduced its influence. The main judge of Joan of Arc, Pierre Cauchon, became a bishop of Lisieux after Joan's death, and is buried in the Lady Chapel of the cathedral.

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Events • 4th century: Presence of the Germanic laeti, auxiliaries of the Roman Army, who settled in Lisieux with their families. Their graves have been discovered in the “Michelet” necropolis, some of which contain artefacts typical of northern Germania. • 1432: Pierre Cauchon, the supreme judge during the trial of Joan of Arc at Rouen became the bishop of Lisieux. He commissioned the building of the side chapel of the cathedral, in which he is now buried. • 1590: During the Eighth War of Religion, Henri IV had to fight to win back his kingdom. When he arrived at Lisieux he took the town without force, after the garrison had fled the town. • 1897: Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, died in the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux. In 1925, she would be canonized as "St. Thérèse of Lisieux". • 1907: The first helicopter flight, piloted by Paul Cornu. • 1937: Monseigneur Eugenio Pacelli, papal legate and future Pope Pius XII, visited Lisieux. • 6/7 June 1944: An Allied bombardment killed 800 people and destroyed two thirds of the town. • 23 August 1944: Liberation by the Allied troops. • 1960: Lisieux merged with the Saint-Jacques commune. • 2 June 1980: Pope Jean-Paul II visited Lisieux.

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Geography Lisieux is situated on the confluence of the river Touques and many of its tributaries: the rivers Orbiquet, Cirieux and Graindain.

The town is in the heart of the Pays d'Auge, of which it is the capital. Lisieux is therefore surrounded by Normandy's typical hedged farmland, where there is a mix of livestock farming (mostly milk cows) and cider apple cultivation (from which cider and calvados are made, not forgetting pommeau).

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Transport The town of Lisieux is served by a bus network called Lexobus, with 6 routes. The town is also linked to surrounding towns and villages by a network of buses; Bus Verts du Calvados. The main railway station, Lisieux station, which is the connecting station between the Paris-Cherbourg and Paris-Trouville/Deauville main lines, is served by Transport express régional (regional express) trains on the TER Normandie routes. The station appeared in the film Un singe en hiver by Henri Verneuil. There is another station on the line to Deauville: Le Grand-Jardin station.

To reach the town by car, the D613 (formerly route nationale 13) from Paris to Cherbourg crosses the town from east to west. The second main road serving Lisieux is the D579, leading to Deauville to the north and the department of Orne to the south. Lisieux benefits from a bypass, built in the 1990s, running to the south of the town, easing traffic in the town-centre, particularly on boulevard Sainte-Anne.

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Religion Since the Middle Ages Lisieux has been the seat of one of the seven Roman Catholic dioceses of Normandy under the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical province of Rouen. The bishopric was abolished in 1801 before being recreated and merged with that of Bayeux in 1855, under the new name of "Bayeux and Lisieux".

The best-known of the Bishops of Lisieux is Pierre Cauchon, who had a decisive influence during the trial of Joan of Arc. He is buried in Lisieux Cathedral.

Devotion to Sainte-Thérèse also known as St. Teresa of the Child Jesus who lived in the nearby Carmelite convent has made Lisieux France's second-most important site of pilgrimage, after the Pyrenean town of Lourdes. Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux died in 1897, she was canonized in 1925 and named a doctor of the church by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

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Lisieux, Calvados Département, Normandy, France 
<b>Lisieux, Calvados Département, Normandy, France</b>
Image: Rundvald

Lisieux has a population of over 20,170 people. Lisieux also forms the centre of the wider Lisieux Arrondissement which has a population of over 162,678 people. It is also a part of the larger Calvados Département.

To set up a UBI Lab for Lisieux see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Lisieux has links with:

🇨🇦 Saint-Georges, Canada 🇨🇦 Saint-Jérôme, Canada, since 2010 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Taunton, England
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Lisieux is: -179.771,-49.147

Locations Near: Lisieux 0.229271,49.1466

🇫🇷 Le Havre 0.108,49.495 d: 39.7  

🇫🇷 Bernay 0.6,49.09 d: 27.7  

🇫🇷 Argentan -0.02,48.751 d: 47.7  

🇫🇷 Caen -0.373,49.181 d: 43.9  

🇫🇷 Mortagne-au-Perche 0.547,48.521 d: 73.3  

🇫🇷 Alençon 0.093,48.431 d: 80.2  

🇫🇷 Mamers 0.368,48.349 d: 89.3  

🇫🇷 Rouen 1.089,49.44 d: 70.4  

🇫🇷 Évreux 1.151,49.024 d: 68.5  

🇫🇷 Le Mans 0.198,48.007 d: 126.7  

Antipodal to: Lisieux -179.771,-49.147

🇹🇴 Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 16874.4  

🇦🇸 Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 16050.6  

🇼🇸 Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 16020.6  

🇵🇫 Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 15576.4  

🇺🇸 Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 11976.8  

🇺🇸 Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 11910.1  

🇺🇸 Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 11899.1  

🇺🇸 Honolulu -157.85,21.3 d: 11886.2  

🇺🇸 Wailuku -156.505,20.894 d: 11893.1  

🇺🇸 Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 11892.3  

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