Lisieux

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Coordinates: 49°08′47″N 0°13′36″E / 49.1463888889, 0.226666666667

Commune of Lisieux Town hall
Location
Lisieux (France)
Lisieux
Administration
Country France
Region Basse-Normandie
Department Calvados
Arrondissement Lisieux
Canton Seat of 3 cantons
Intercommunality Lisieux Pays d'Auge
Mayor Bernard Aubril
Statistics
Land area¹ 13.07 km²
Population²
(1999)		 23,166
 - Density 1,772.5/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 14366/ 14100
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.
France
Street in Lisieux by Henry Edridge
Street in Lisieux by Henry Edridge

Lisieux is a commune in the Calvados département in the Basse-Normandie region of France.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Lisieux lies in the bottom of the valley of the river Touques and on the road from Paris to Caen (RN13).

[edit] Administration

Lisieux amalgamated with the commune of Saint Jacques in 1960. The old INSEE code for the old commune was 14594.

The Communauté de communes Lisieux Pays d'Auge includes 24 communes and has a population of 36,085 inhabitants (as of 2004).

The city is chief town of three cantons. They cover 30 communes and have a total population of 37,792 inhabitants:

[edit] Demography

Lisieux has a population of 24,080 inhabitants (1999). The population without double-counts is 23,166 (1999). The metropolitan area has a population of 45,065.

[edit] History

The area now known as Lisieux was inhabited by the Gallic tribe known as the Levixiiduring Gallo-Roman times. This explains why inhabitants are known as Lexoviens today. The commune was known as Noviomagus or Noviomagus Lexoviorum by the Romans.

[edit] Ecclesiastical history

The first known Bishop of Lisieux was Theodibandes, mentioned in connection with a council held in 538. The most celebrated among his successors were Freculfus (d. 850), a pupil of the palace school founded by Charlemagne, and author of a universal history; Arnoul (1141-81), statesman and writer; Nicole Oresme (1378-82), philosopher, mathematician, and tutor to Charles V of France; Pierre Cauchon (1432-42), concerned in the condemnation of Joan of Arc; Thomas Basin (1447-74), the historian of Charles VII, and one of the promoters of the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc; Guillaume du Vair (1618-21), the well-known philosopher who left the bench for the Church.

The see of Lisieux maintained the Collège de Lisieux at Paris for poor students of the diocese.

In the Concordat of 1801, the ancient diocese of Lisieux was united to the neighbouring bishopric of Bayeux. A pontifical Brief, in 1854, authorized the Bishop of Bayeux to call himself Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux.

[edit] Religion

Lisieux Cathedral
Lisieux Cathedral
Basilique de Sainte-Thérèse, Lisieux
Basilique de Sainte-Thérèse, Lisieux

Catholic devotion to Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, who lived in the Carmel de Lisieux, makes it the most significant pilgrimage site in France after Lourdes.

[edit] Sites of interest

  • Lisieux Cathedral Built between 1170 and the middle of the 13th century. The front of the building is three portals mounted by two towers. The right hand tower was built in the XVIth century and is moutned by a 17th century arrow. Buttresses were added on the south face in the 15th century.
  • Basilique Sainte-Thérèse was consecrated on 11 July 1954. The Campagnile's construction ended in 1975 and is 45 m tall.
  • Carmel
  • Jardin de l'Evêché (Jardin Public) built in the second quarter of the XIXth century and bordered by Cour Matignon, rue Condorcet and Boulevard Carnot.

[edit] Transport

Lisieux-Gare Principale is on the railway line from Gare Saint-Lazare to Cherbourg, it is served by regular. Intercity and regional rail services to both Paris, Basse-Normandie and Haute-Normandie. There are two stations in Lisieux, the second station Lisieux-Grands Jardins, is only served by regional services to and from Trouville-Deauville.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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