BAYEUX (Q84664005
on Wikidata), a town of north-western France,
capital of an arrondissement in the department of Calvados, 18 m. N.W.
of Caen on the Western railway. Pop. (1906) 6930. Bayeux is situated on
the Aure, 5 m. from the English Channel. Its majestic cathedral was
built in the 13th century on the site of a Romanesque church, to which
the lateral arcades of the nave and the two western towers with their
high stone spires belonged. A third and still loftier tower, the upper
part of which, in the florid Gothic style, is modern, surmounts the
crossing. The chancel, surrounded with radiating chapels, is a fine
example of early Gothic. Underneath it there is a crypt of the 11th
century restored in the 15th century. The oak stalls in the choir are
fine examples of late 16th-century carving. The former bishop's palace,
parts of which are of great age though the main building is of the 18th
century, serves as law-court and hôtel de ville. Bayeux possesses many
quaint, timbered houses and stone mansions in its quiet streets. The
museum contains the celebrated Bayeux tapestry. The town is the seat of
a bishop and of a sub-prefect; it has tribunals of first instance and of
commerce, an ecclesiastical seminary, a communal college and a chamber
of arts and manufactures. Dyeing, leather-dressing, lace-making and the
manufacture of porcelain for household and laboratory purposes are
carried on.
Till the 4th century Bayeux bore the name of Augustodurum, but afterwards, when it became the capital of the two tribes of the Baiocasses and Viducasses, took the name of Civitas Baiocassium. Its bishopric dates from the latter half of the 4th century. Before the Norman invasion it was governed by counts. Taken in 890 by the Scandinavian chief, Rollo, it was soon after peopled by the Normans and became a residence of the dukes of Normandy, one of whom, Richard I., built about 960 a castle which survived till the 18th century. During the quarrels between the sons of William the Conqueror it was pillaged and sacked by Henry I. in 1106, and in later times it underwent siege and capture on several occasions during the Hundred Years' War and the religious wars of the 16th century. Till 1790 it was the capital of the Bessin, a district of lower Normandy.
This page was last edited on 2026-09-09 03:47:06.
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