Charleville-Mézières

Geography

Description

The city is located at the north of the department of the the Ardennes on the Meuse, at 239 km in the North-East of Paris and at 90 km in the south of Charleroi or 150 km of Brussels in Belgium. The Belgian border is to 15 km in the North-East of the commune. The surface of Charleville-Mézières rises with 3144 hectares and the city culminates with 323 meters.

Communication network

To come in the Ardennes from Paris it is necessary to take the highway A4 direction Rheims/Metz then, of Rheims, to take the highway A34, this last section of 80 km being free; it forms the southern part of Y of the Ardennes towards Brussels/Amsterdam (connects western) and Liege/Cologne (branch is). Lille, (then Arras and Calais), is at 2 hours of car, like Metz (then Strasbourg).

TGV Is, with a connection in Rheims, puts Charleville-Mézières at 1 hour 35' of Paris since June 2007. A line exists towards Givet and the Belgium, but it is not used any more after the border: the line is simply maintained there (FOR THE THIRD TIME then drunk). As for the connections towards the Northern and the Lorraine , they is made thanks to the FOR THE THIRD TIME.

Communes bordering

Climatology

History

Heraldic

History of Charleville

Foundation of Charleville

It is on May 6th 1606 which Charles I {{er}} Gonzague (1580 - 1637), duke of Nevers and Rethel, decides creation of Charleville to make of it the capital of the sovereign principality of Arches. With this intention, it calls upon the architect Clément II Métezeau, brother of Louis Métezeau the architect of the Place of the Vosges to Paris. Pierre Large the, at the time of its turn of Europe, passed by the city. This new ducal city, which is next to the medieval village of Arches, is intended to compete with Sedan, another princely capital but protesting stronghold and especially Mézières, garrison town to the prestigious past.

XVIIe-XVIIIe centuries

In 1667, the Manufacture of Armes is founded.

XIXe-XXe centuries

The city especially developed at the 19th century and 20th century thanks to the metallurgical industry (many small factories and workshops); the most known names being certainly Clement-Bayard (frame of the Workshops Eiffel, in Mézières), Establishments Deville (Charleville) and more recently Citroen.

The city suffered at the time of each conflict. In 1870, it was the theater close to the fall of the Second Empire with Sedan. In 1914-1918 it sheltered the general headquarter of the Kronprinz (German crown prince) and has to undergo bombardments in particular place of the Hotel-of-City in Mézières where the town hall and the hospital were destroyed (the new town hall was inaugurated in 1933 by the president of the Republic Albert Lebrun, in which the wife was originating in Wall, in style Art déco, and the new hospital was called Manchester in homage to the British city which took part in its construction, the Lord-maire of the city had also taken part besides in its inauguration the same year. Lastly, in 1939-1945 the city being almost emptied of its inhabitants at the beginning of the conflict (order of evacuation obliges), the district of the place of Nevers burned during several days without the firemen intervening (it is the same of the synagog of the 18th century " bombardée").

With each world war, the city and its area were declared " zone of peuplement" (1st conflict), literally colony, or " closed Area " (2nd conflict), which did not facilitate the supply and the movement of the goods and the people. The the Ardennes were, with the Low-Rhine, the only department of France to apply the order of evacuation (each commune of the department had a " jumelage" with a commune of the Two-Sevres), during which the train transporting the majority of the departmental records was bombarded.

History of Wall

Origins

Wall would have been founded in 899. The etymology of the name Mézières comes from Latin Maceriae whose significance can be ruins or fortifications. The ramparts which were built thereafter are preserved besides for almost a third their length of origin. There remains about it the door of Burgundy, the tower of Roy and the Millard tower.

History of Wall

Demography

This table presents the demographic trends of the town of Charleville-Mézières. It is necessary however to take into account the fact that until 1966, the figures presented relate to only the town of Charleville, then after 1966, the towns of Charleville and Mézières then joined together (as well as the three other built-in communes).

Population pyramid

Administration

Intercommunality

The commune of Charleville-Mézières was created in 1966 by regrouping of five communes which formed the same agglomeration: Charleville , Étion , Wall (Chief town of the department), Mohon and Montcy-Saint-Pierre . Another commune, Theux , had already been attached to Mézières in 1965.

Since January 1st 2005, the community of agglomeration of Charleville-Mézières is launched. It gathers the chief town and seven common neighbors for a whole of more than 75 000 inhabitants. Having of clean competences and a budgetary autonomy, the purpose of the Communauté of agglomeration is the Economic development basin of life and a greater coherence in the Town and country planning. The president of the community of agglomeration was elected the January 8th of the same year by the Community Conseil of this news Territorial collectivity.

Charleville-Mézières is divided into five cantons, but is the chief town only of four of them:

the Canton of Charleville-Center is made of part of Charleville-Mézières and communes of Aiglemont and Montcy-Our-Lady (12 746 inhabitants);
the Canton of Charleville it Houillère is made of part of Charleville-Mézières and communes of Damouzy and Houldizy (14 925 inhabitants);
the Canton of Wall-Center-West is made of part of Charleville-Mézières and communes of Belval, Évigny, Fagnon, Neuville-lès-This, Price-the-Wall, Sury, This, Warcq and Warnécourt (15 690 inhabitants);
the Canton of Wall-Is is made of part of Charleville-Mézières and commune of Francheville (19 311 inhabitants).

The fifth part of Charleville-Mézières belongs to the Canton of Villers-Sower.

List mayors

Public transport

Charleville-Mézières lay out of a network of drunk urban (TAC) of ten lines serving the town suit and most of the communes bordering.

Economy

Agroalimentary Metallurgy
Mechanical engineering
Tertiary

The city has an antenna of the Chamber of commerce and industry of the Ardennes which manages the aerodrome of the city (with Belval).

Famous characters

Charles I {{er}} Gonzague (1580 - 1637), duke of Nevers and Rethel founder of the town of Charleville; it will become duke of Mantoue and Montferrat in 1627.
the Chevalier Bayard defended the citadel of Mézières in 1521 vis-a-vis the troops of Charles Quint. In 2005, Claudine Ledoux, mayor of the city, inaugurated a reproduction with identical statue of Bayard, taken by the German Armée during the First World War, taken again with the Armistice of 1918 and melted by the troops of the Third Reich. This statue is the work of the of the Ardennes sculptor Aristide Croisy.
Edmond Louis Alexis Dubois-Crancé, politician born the October 14th 1747.
Jean Nicolas Pierre Hatchet (1769 - 1834), French mathematician born in Mézières.
Gaspard Monge, celebrates French geometrician, taught mathematics with the college of the Genius of Wall during the end of the 18th century. Its passage marked the spirits and it left a share of itself in this college.
Arthur Rimbaud : the poet was born with Charleville, 12, rue Napoléon with, become thereafter “street Thiers”, then finally famous “street Bérégovoy” then, currently " Rimbaud" quay;. The city opened, at the time of the Rimbaud year in 2004, “the House of elsewhere” dedicated to the poet, quay Arthur-Rimbaud , in the house occupied by the family Rimbaud starting from 1869. Y are recalled the many voyages of the poet.

Other personalities

Among the other personalities related to Charleville-Mézières, one can quote:

Elisee de Montagnac, industrialist having invented the Velvet Montagnac which died there
Leon Renier, historian specialist in Latin epigraphy which was born there
Luc Etienne, writer, which carried out there his studies
Jean Hubert, historian which, being specialized in the Histoire of the Ardennes, died there after having passed there most of its life
Jean Augustin Sénemaud, archivist which died there
Natalis de Wailly, conservative of the National library of France officer of the Légion ofhonor which was born there
Louis Nicolas Matoux, painter officer of the Légion of honor which was born there
Jules François Riché, politician under Napoleon III which there was born and buried
Louis Eugene Regnault, bishop of Chartres having occupied of laic high positions which was born there
Louis Joseph Demaison-Henriot, mayor of Rheims of 1837 to 1838, which was born and deceased there
the Général Noizet, general and man of letters which died there
the painter Jean-Baptiste Couvelet born in Charleville in 1772, died in Mézières in 1830, professor of drawing at the Central School of Drawing of Charleville.
the son of this last Adolphe-Hippolyte Couveley, painter and first conservative of the museum of Le Havre, born in Charleville.

Inheritance

Civil and religious inheritance

the Ducal Place, located at the center of the town of Charleville, was created in 1606 by Clément II Métezeau on order of the duke Charles I {{er}} of Mantoue.

the current prefecture of the Ardennes (old palate of the Small towers, set up by the family Gonzague) occupies the buildings of the royal École of the genius of Wall which trained almost all the military engineers under the Ancien Mode.

the place of the town hall (district of Wall) of style Art déco (1933) composed of two bodies of building facing and separated by a broad place, one constituting the town hall itself and the other constituting of the dwellings for the harmony of the unit.

Historic building since 1910, the Basilica Notre-Dame d' Espérance of style is of style Gothic blazing and Renaissance. Started in 1499, Charles IX, king de France, married there Elisabeth of Austria in 1570. The basilica shelters many interesting objects: the statue of the black virgin, organ, stained glasses of Rene Dürrbach and inscriptions of all the times left on the wall on the right of the large porch. Degraded by time, it is the object recently restoration campaign.

the church Saint-Dependant of Mohon, remarkable for its woodworks of the the Middle Ages and by its architectural style.

the Saint-Remi church is of style néo-novel. It constitutes in volume the second church of the city. Built in 1860, it is located at two steps of the Ducal Place and the place of Agriculture.

Museums

the Place of Agriculture. It is in this place that Arthur Rimbaud studied in the college of the Holy Sepulchre where the public library is today. A Statue honors this a little particular pupil. At its time, a dome dominated the whole of the Collège, but victim of a collapse at the beginning of the 20th century, it was never rebuilt.

the Rimbaud Museum is located in the Old Mill, on the Meuse. One sees there many originals such as the sonnet “Vowels”.
the Musée of Ardenne is located between the Ducal Place and Winston-Churchill places it. It joins together historical collections and many archaeological works, parts of local arts and crafts. It also accommodates temporary exhibitions, as that which was devoted in 2005 with Madeleine Rebérioux, organized by the Ligue of the human rights. A board game imagined and conceived by pupils of the college Monge and recalling a course through the city, is presented to the reception.

Large Marionnettiste is not strictly speaking a Musée but represents an attraction impossible to circumvent of Charleville-Mézières. Located at the accesses of the place Winston Churchill, this 10 height meters automat carried out by Jacques Monestier presents each day of 10:00 to 21:00 the life of the Four wire Aymon. All the Saturday S with 21:15, the twelve tables which compose the legend are presented to the public. A visit with the Musée of Ardenne makes foresee the slides of this Automate and the names of the givers are engraved on large plates affixed on the automat.

the House of Elsewhere is located in the house where Arthur Rimbaud with its family lived. One can follow the voyages of the poet there through texts and images projected on the walls and the ground.

Teaching

The Ville has 23 elementary schools, 12 school complexes (confused nursery school and primary education), as well as 3 private schools (maternal and primary education confused).

With regard to the colleges, they are 8 for the public colleges and of 2 for the colleges privés.

Charleville-Mézières counts several colleges:

the college Chanzy. It was arranged in 1876 in the old Imperial Stud farms following the fire of the college of the place of Holy Sepulchre. The average of success to the vat in 2006 all sections confused amounts to 91,6%.
the college Sévigné. It was created in 1882 like college of young girls.
the college François Bazin. It trains many pupils with various BTS, many series of genius, etc
Other colleges: vocational school Armand Malaise, college of vocational training of Etion, general-purpose college Monge, private college Notre Dame, private college St Remi.

The International institute of the puppet is also very important. It is located behind the Museum of Ardenne, places Winston Churchill. It is in the world capital of the Marionnette that is Charleville-Mézières, that this institute created in 1981 accommodates each year through its National University of Arts of the Puppet of the pupils come from the whole world in order to form them with the Diploma of the Trades of Arts of the Puppet.

Charleville-Mézières also has of an antenna IUFM, a Regional center for the Innovation and the Technology transfer (CRITT), of a IUT and a technical training institute higher (IFTS).

Sport

Charleville-Mézières has a team of dynamic tennis shoe: the Star of Charleville-Mézières. The city counts several swimming pool S of which the watery center of the Mount-Olympe.

Twinnings

Charleville is twinned with many cities such as for example Nevers in the Nievre and Mantoue in Italy, two cities whose Charles Gonzague was duke.

As there existed, of 1949 with 1990, two separated German States, Charleville is also twinned with three (at the beginning two) German cities: Euskirchen in Rhineland-of-North-Westphalia, close to Bonn and Cologne, since 1961, Nordhausen in Thuringe in ex-GDR and finally Dülmen in Rhineland-of-North-Westphalia, close to Münster.

Within the framework of the cultural activities on the topic of Rimbaud, of the strong bonds were woven with Harar in Ethiopia.

Events

the World Festival of the Puppet theaters : the city accommodates, every three years, a universally famous Festival, devoted to the Marionnette S.
the Festival of the children of the cinema : Every year, at the beginning of year, takes place a festival dedicated to the Cinéma and more particularly to the children and to teenagers playing to the cinema. Opened with all, the purpose of this festival is to make discover another cinema far from the Hollywood spectaculars. Edition 2006 was held from January 25th to February 10th. This 16th festival celebrated the German cinema.
the Green Cabaret : created in 2005, it is about a festival rock'n'roll taking place every year on the space of the Bayard stage. In 2006, occurred there Dionysos, Babylon Circus, Wampas, HF Thiéfaine, among a score of artists.
the international Critérium of the road : The city has accommodated for several years celebrates it race cyclist. The race proceeds over one weekend, in three stages, including one in the valley of the Meuse, the stage of coasts. Sunday afternoon generally proceeds the against-the-watch in Charleville. In 2006, it is the Italian Ivan Basso who gained this critérium.
the Sedan-Charleville is a pedestrian race whose arrival is located at the stage of Glazing bar. The hundredth edition proceeded in 2006, and the race remains the oldest test of " city with ville" in France.

Photograph gallery

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