Dunkirk ( Duinkerke in Dutch, Duynkercke in Flemish Westerner, German Dünkirchen in , Dunkirk in English) is a French city , located in the department of the Northern and the area Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Historically, the city and its neighborhoods belonged to the Comté of Flanders and they concern the Flemish linguistic zone although today Dunkirk is a primarily French-speaking city.

Its inhabitants is called the Dunkirk ones (be).

Blazon

Geography

Located at the edge of the the North Sea and the meridian line of Paris, it is also the third port of France.

History

The name of Dunkirk comes from the Flemish Duinkerk , which means “Church in the dunes”. One speaks a very particular dialect there, with words borrowed from the sailors and the Flemish : the Dunkirk . The legend wants that the city was strengthened by terrible the Allowyn, frankly reconverted by the good Saint Eloi, and was thus the only city of the coast (sea going then until Saint-Omer) to being preserved attacks and plunderings of the Normands. Today, Allowyn reappears with each Carnaval of Dunkirk under the features of the “Reuze” ( of reuzen ), the giant (see: Giant of North).

960: Baudoin III known as Baudouin the young person , fourth count de Flandre, makes build the first ramparts.

1383: Dunkirk Flemish is plundered by the English, then by the French.

1520: Charles Quint thirty-and-unième count de Flandre, is received triumphantly in the city.

During the wars of 16th and 17th centuries, the Dunkirk Corsaire made great devastations in the enemy navy.

It was taken by the English under Philippe II of Spain, and was taken again by the French in 1558; those yielded it to Spain in 1559, but Condé took it again in 1646, which had to defend it in 1652.

Lost again, on June 25th 1658, Turenne takes the city with the Spanish . The evening even, Louis XIV gives the city to Charles II of England.

Dunkirk is definitively attached to the kingdom of France in 1662 after Louis XIV had repurchased it with the England. Vauban then undertakes to strengthen the city and develops its port. France was forced by the Traité of Utrecht to fill the port and to shave the fortifications (1713), which however was carried out only partly, and Louis XV strengthened it again.

1793: the duke of York vainly tried to take it. After the Battle of Hondschoote and the fallen through head office of Dunkirk, the city is renamed Free Dune .

1848: the Railroad connects Dunkirk to Arras.

During the First World War Dunkirk is severely bombarded on several occasions. The church Saint-Éloi (middle of the 15th century) is partly destroyed.

Second world war

See article detailed on the battle of Dunkirk

At the time of the Second world war, in June 1940, the armies free - British which had advanced in Belgium to contain the projection of the German armies , was taken out of clipper between the forces come by the Netherlands and those which passed more to the south by the Ardenne S. While being folded up, they were finally encircled in Dunkirk. One of the greatest operations of evacuation of the military Histoire made it possible to bring back in Great Britain more 300.000 British and 100.000 French. Many of other French were done prisoners. The town of Dunkirk was severely bombarded by German aviation during this battle. It was to it again the following years, this time by the allied forces of the Liska general especially made up of a Czech armor-plated brigade, British artillery and FFI which in September 1944 will besiege the German Admiral Frisius who on order of Hitler had cut off himself in the " Festung Dunkerque" , and only the May 9th, the shortly after the capitulation will go.

The rebuilding

The shortly after the war, Dunkirk is destroyed with more than 70%. The statue of Jean Bart, set up of center town, remains intact in the middle of the ruins: the Germans, in spite of the lack of metal indeed saved it because the sword of the statue is pointed towards the England. The port is inaccessible until June 1946. The rebuilding of urban fabric is undertaken by Theodore Leveau. The architect Jean Niermans will have the responsibility for the rebuilding of the habitat (red small islands).

In 1957, the iron and steel group Usinor decides the establishment of a factory of production of steel in Dunkirk. Following its opening in 1963, the agglomeration passes very quickly from: 70000 inhabitants with: 200000 inhabitants. Dunkirk becomes a great industrial agglomeration.

Since 1989, the agglomeration engaged in an urban project of great width: the Neptune project. It is a question for the town of of developing its center, to be turned over towards its harbor-basins. The whole of public spaces of the city were refitted, the university of the littoral was established in the harbor district of the Citadel, from the new inhabitants came at the edges from the basins, of the trade and cultural equipment came to decorate the site.

The Carnival of Dunkirk

See article detailed on the Carnival of Dunkirk

The Carnival of Dunkirk is the major annual event of the city. It is a whole of festivities which take place in the Dunkirk agglomeration of at the end of January at the beginning of April. One distinguishes

  • bands: the carnavaleux ones ravel in the streets behind the music, led by a drum major. The drum major carrying a Napoleonean uniform.

  • balls: the carnavaleux ones are found the night, in the big rooms of the agglomeration, to have fun the festival, by mélant carnavalesques songs and modern music. The major part of these balls is organized by philanthropic associations.

The carnival would find its roots in fishing with cod. Indeed, it is often known as that the fishermen had fun the festival the day before their departure by fear never of not returning, because much found death in the perilous seas of Iceland. Today, of the songs, the yellow behavior of the musicians waxed or the herring throw in front of the town hall refers to fishing.

Economy

The saving in Dunkirk benefits from the position of the city. It is indeed located at less than 300 kilometers of five capitals: London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Luxembourg.

Dunkirk is the seat of the Chamber of commerce and industry of Dunkirk. It also accommodates the seat of one of the four delegations of the National school of Application of the Territorial Executives (ENACT).

The port authority of Dunkirk (PAD)

See also: Port authority of Dunkirk

The PAD is a public corporation of the state equipped with the civil personality and financial autonomy, placed under the supervision of the minister in charge for the seaports and subjected to the control economic and financial of the state. The wearing of Dunkirk presents one of the most noticed reversals of tendency French harbor world. Transformed in the years 1960-70 (extension towards west-17 km) and more recently socially and economically, the port authority lived years 1990 difficult. It made a success of a repositioning towards goods with more strong added value (containers, carriers, fresh produce) in particular by gaining confidence of large operators. Of long time industrial port, Dunkirk seeks today to cultivate its place in the international and European logistic networks. The main resources of the PAD come: - harbor dues charged on the ships, the passengers and the goods, - Use by the companies of the installations and equipment harbor, - Domanial receipts (hirings of ground).

Pad is in load: - work of extension, improvements, of lately and rebuilding of the harbor works. - Exploitation and maintenances of the equipment, - Police force of the port and her dependences (channels, basins and water levels), - Management of the real field which is affected for him, - Installation of the harbor industrial parks.

Currently, Dunkirk is it: - first French port of coal and ore imports, - first French port of fruit traffic, - first French port of the traffic except oil products, - second French port for the exchanges with Great Britain.

In term of volume of goods, to the PAD in 2005, forwarded: - for the liquid vracs, 14.8 million tons, - for the solid vracs, 26.2 million tons, - for the goods various, 12.3 million tons,

That is to say a total of 53.3 million tons of goods (for a traffic of 6300 ships) what represent an increase of 5% compared to the year 2004.

For several years, the port authority of Dunkirk has shown initiative in its branches of industry: public/private partnership in certain terminals, engagement in the feeder and the river one… Like the other European ports, the wearing of Dunkirk must consolidate its traffics, extremely industrial, and simultaneously develop strategic markets and carriers. Containerization, logistics, the car, the carrier transmanche, and why tomorrow highways of the sea representing as many market potentials for the PAD.

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