X-Nico

68 unusual facts about Arras


Abbey of St. Vaast

The abbey church, which had been desecrated and partially destroyed, was rebuilt and consecrated in 1833 and now serves as the cathedral of Arras, substituting for the former Gothic cathedral destroyed during the Revolution.

Alfred St. George Hamersley

Colonel Hamersley, now in his sixty-eighth year gave over the command to a younger man, Major Drought and the Batteries were commended by the authorities for their efficiency in battles such as the Somme, Arras and Ypres.

Andrieu Contredit d'Arras

Andrieu Contredit d'Arras (c.1200–1248) was a trouvère from Arras and active in the Puy d'Arras.

Battle of Festubert

The resumption of the British offensive was intended to assist the French Tenth Army offensive against Vimy Ridge near Arras, by attracting German divisions to the British front, rather than reinforcing the defenders opposite the French.

Battle of Givenchy

With the French under heavy pressure at Arras the order was given that the British force would provide relief by attacking the Germans around Givenchy, thus preventing German reinforcement of Arras from that quarter.

Biache-Saint-Vaast

A small farming and light industrial town located 8 miles (13 km) east of Arras, on the banks of the Scarpe river, at the junction of the D42, D43 and D46 roads.

Brunetto Latini

He took refuge for some years (1260–1266) in France working as a notary - in Montpellier, Arras, Bar-sur-Aube and Paris.

Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras

There they were to adjudicate their dispute before the bishop in the cathedral of Notre-Dame.

The Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras was a fraternity of jongleurs founded in Arras in or around 1175.

Congress of Arras

The Congress of Arras was a diplomatic congregation established in Arras in 1435 between representatives of England, France, and Burgundy.

Dutch gable

The Flemish culture also had a strong architectural impact in Arras, northern France.

EPSI

Later on, with the rise of the computer science industry, the school built branches in Bordeaux, Montpellier, Arras then in October 2002 in Nantes and then later in Lyon.

Erluin

In 1007, Henry gave Erluin comital authority in the entire region of the Cambrésis, to the chagrin of Walter of Lens, the castellan of Arras and a leading regional nobleman.

Ernst Hess

He then joined Flieger-Abteilung (Flier Detachment) 9 as an Unteroffizier, when they were operating in the vicinities of Lille and Arras, France.

Escadrille SPA.57

It was initially assigned to operate in the vicinity of Arras.

Flight to Arras

The book condenses months of flights into a single terrifying mission over the town of Arras.

Frederick Rosier

He first saw active service during the Second World War in France where he commanded a detachment of 229 Squadron at Vitry-en-Artois near Arras and was shot down by an Messerschmitt Bf 109 receiving facial burns.

Friedrich Bertram Sixt von Armin

For his handling of combat operations on the Western Front, particularly at Arras and on the Somme, he was awarded the Pour le Mérite in 1916.

Friedrich Paulus

When World War I began, Paulus's regiment was part of the thrust into France, and he saw action in the Vosges and around Arras in the autumn of 1914.

Gautier d'Arras

Eracle, the hero of which becomes emperor of Constantinople as Heraclius, is purely a roman d'aventures and enjoyed great popularity.

Generals Die in Bed

The reception was lukewarm in Canada, however, because of scenes depicting Canadian soldiers looting the French town of Arras and shooting unarmed Germans (which amounted to a war crime).

Gilles le Vinier

Gilles le Vinier (died 1252) was a trouvère from a middle-class family of Arras.

Guillaume le Vinier

Guillaume was born into a wealthy bourgeois family of Arras, the son of Philippe le Vinier and Alent.

He composed jeux-partis with Colart le Boutellier, Andrieu Contredit and Adam de Givenchi for certain, and may also have collaborated with Moniot d'Arras, Thomas Herier and the King of Navarre.

Hampshire Yeomanry

1/1st Hampshire Yeomanry was part of the 1st South Western Mounted Brigade on mobilisation but departed for France and saw action in Messines, the Somme, Arras, Ypres, and Flanders.

Henry of Marcy

He did a great deal to mediate between the leaders of the Crusade before his death at Arras, bringing Henry II of England and Philip II of France to reconcile, as well as healing the rift between the Emperor Frederick I and Philip I, Archbishop of Cologne.

Humphrey Leech

After some time at Arras, in 1609 he entered the English College, Rome, under the assumed name Henry Eccles, and on 2 May 1610 he took the college oath.

Ivan Uzhevych

Two manuscripts are known of Ivan Uzhevych’s Grammatica sclavonica, written in Latin: The Paris manuscript from 1643 and the Arras manuscript from 1645, called so because of the place it is kept now; no place of

J. R. Ackerley

In May 1917 Ackerley led an attack in the Arras region where he was wounded, this time in the buttock and thigh.

Javert

Javert goes to Arras to see Champmathieu and satisfies himself that this is the real Valjean.

Jean Richardot the Younger

He was consecrated in Rome on 30 April 1603 and made his solemn entry in Arras in February 1604.

Jean Richardot the Younger (Mechelen 7 October 1570 - Cambrai 28 February 1614) was bishop of Arras (1602–1609) and prince-archbishop of Cambrai, duke of Cambrai and count of the Cambrésis (1609–1614).

Jehan Bretel

Seven works by other trouvères (Jehan de Grieviler, Jehan Erart, Jaques le Vinier, Colart le Boutellier, and Mahieu de Gant) are dedicated to Bretel and he was for a time the "Prince" of the Puy d'Arras.

Bretel held the hereditary post of sergeant at the Abbey of Saint Vaast in Arras, in which capacity he oversaw the rights of the abbacy on the river Scarpe.

Jehan de Nuevile

Jehan de Nuevile (c.1200–c.1250) was the second son of the Eustache de Nuevile, a minor nobleman with land in Neuville-Vitasse, near Arras.

Jehan Erart

Jehan Erart (or Erars) (c.1200/10–1258/9) was a trouvère from Arras, particularly noted for his favouring the pastourelle genre.

Jeu de Robin et Marion

It consists of dialogue in the old Picardian dialect of Adam's home town, Arras, interspersed with short refrains or songs in a style which might be considered popular.

Jonas of Bobbio

Appealed to by Saint Amand for assistance in his missionary work among the pagans of what is now Belgium and northern France, which occasioned his vita of Saint Vedast or Vaast, the first Frankish Bishop of Arras.

Joseph Kaeble

He was buried in the local cemetery in Wantequin, some seven miles west of Arras (Wantequin memorial/cemetery: Plot II. Row A. Grave 8. Headstone).

Joseph Stones

The incident for which he was executed occurred near Arras on 26 November 1916.

Le Paradis massacre

By the time the operation had finished in Cambrai, the first German units had reached the English Channel, but the British counter-attacked just west of Arras on 21 May, following on from the counter-attack of the day before (Battle of Arras).

Louis de Crevant, Duke of Humières

Voltaire said of him, that he was the first who was served in silver in the trenches, and had ragouts and entremets served up to his table (at the siege of Arras, in 1658).

M. A. MacPherson

He was wounded by shellfire, however, at Arleux, near Arras a few days later.

Max Immelmann

The British flight had just crossed the lines near Arras, with the intent of photographing the German infantry and artillery positions within the area, when Immelmann's flight intercepted them.

Minuscule 578

Currently the manuscript is housed at the library of the Bibliothèque municipale (Sect. Med., H. 446) in Arras.

Musée des beaux-arts d'Arras

There are also French paintings by artists such as Claude Vignon, Philippe de Champaigne, Gaspard Dughet, Jean Jouvenet, Sébastien Bourdon, Laurent de La Hyre, Charles Le Brun, Joseph Parrocel, Nicolas de Largillière, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Charles-André van Loo, Louis Joseph Watteau, Joseph-Marie Vien, Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau, Théodore Chassériau, Eugène Delacroix...

The Musée des beaux-arts d'Arras is located in the old Abbey of St. Vaast in Arras, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

Otto von Below

Below was expected to overrun Arras during March 1918 in a repeat of Caporetto; his inability to do so led to the failure of the German campaign to capture the Somme that same month.

Peasant revolt in Flanders 1323–28

The King agreed to organize an expedition, and the royal army was summoned to gather at Arras on July 22.

Peter Goggins

On 26 November 1916, Goggins was guarding a position near Arras on the Western Front with Corporal John McDonald.

Philippe de Vitry

While some medieval sources claim that he was born in the Champagne region, more recent research indicates that he may have originated in Vitry-en-Artois near Arras.

Potez 630

On 20 May 1940, three Potez 633s took part in a strafing mission against German troops near Arras.

Puy d'Arras

Other puys under her patronage were founded at Amiens, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Caen, Évreux, and Rouen.

The poets Andrieu Contredit d'Arras and Jean de Renti (criticisingly) make mention of it and its contests.

The Puy d'Arras, called in its own day the Puy Notre-Dame, was a medieval poetical society formed in Arras for holding contests between trouvères and pour maintenir amour et joie (for maintaining love and joy, i.e. the courtly love lyric).

The statutes of the Puy d'Arras do not survive, only the later ones of the Puy d'Amiens from 1471 shed any light on the nature of laws of the puys.

The Puy is less well-documented than the contemporary Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras, and the two are sometimes conflated.

Undoubtedly the highest personage to attend the Puy's festivals was Theobald I of Navarre.

Robert de Févin

Little is known about his life, except that either he was born in Cambrai or Arras, the birthplace of his brother, and his father was an alderman in Arras in 1474.

Robert de la Piere

Robert de la Piere (died 1258) was a trouvère of the so-called "school" of Arras.

SECAT S-5

By 1964, it was owned by M. Rene Dupuis, and it was hangared at Arras Roclincourt Airport.

Stefano della Bella

In 1641 Cardinal Richelieu sent him to Arras to make drawings for prints of the siege and taking of that town by the royal army, and in 1644 Cardinal Mazarin commissioned four sets of educational playing cards for the young Louis XIV.

Storm of Steel

In 1917 Jünger saw action during the Battle of Arras in April, the Third Battle of Ypres in July and October, and the German counter-attack during the Battle of Cambrai in November.

Thomas Conecte

He travelled through Cambrai, Tournai, Arras, Flanders, and Picardy, his sermons vehemently denouncing the vices of the clergy and the extravagant dress of the women, especially their lofty head-dresses, or hennins.

Trench railways

Former British trench railway equipment was put to civilian use rebuilding Vis-en-Artois between Arras and Cambrai.

Union of Arras

The Union of Arras (Dutch: Unie van Atrecht, Spanish: Unión de Arrás) was an accord signed on 6 January 1579 in Arras (Atrecht), under which the southern states of the Netherlands, today in Wallonia and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (and Picardy) régions in France and Belgium, expressed their loyalty to the Spanish king Philip II and recognized his Governor-General, Don Juan of Austria.

William Henry Metcalf

On 2 September 1918 at Arras, France, when the right flank of the battalion was held up, Lance-Corporal Metcalf rushed forward under intense machine-gun fire to a passing tank and with his signal flag walked in front of the tank directing it along the trench in a perfect hail of bullets and bombs.

Yorkshire Hussars

On 16 May 1916, the 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars reassembled under Lieutenant Colonel W Pepys as Corps Cavalry to XVII Corps and were present at the Battle of Arras.


Arras culture

Other sites of similar La Tene period burials within the Arras culture, often with chariot burials include: Cawthorn Camps, Pexton Moor, Seamer, Hunmanby, Burton Fleming, Danes Graves, Garton, Wetwang, Middleton on the Wolds, Beverley and Hornsea.

BL 14-inch Railway Gun

King George V personally oversaw the firing of the first shell by Boche Buster from near Marœuil, 6 km NW of Arras, on 8 August in a fireplan to hit German reinforcements being sent south to oppose the British Amiens offensive.

East Surrey Regiment

Most were present at the principal battles of 1917, such as Arras, the Scarpe and the Third Battle of Ypres, and in 1918 at St Quentin, Albert and Cambrai.

Gallia Belgica

The newer Gallia Belgica included the cities of Camaracum (Cambrai), Nemetacum (Arras), Samarobriua (Amiens), Durocortorum (Reims), Diuidorum (Metz) and Augusta Treverorum (Trier).

Gayant

“In 1479, the French threatened the town of Douai then Burgundian. In the small hour of 16 June 1479, day of the Maurand Saint, the French troops tried to penetrate in the city by the Door of Arras, the gatekeeper gave alarm and thus saved the city. The gatekeeper declared that the godly man had prevented it in dream; the relics of the saint stored with the Collegial Saint-Heart were then walked in the city.”

Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy

With her husband, and accompanied by the Countess of Namur, Jeanne de Harcourt, Isabella then travelled through the main territories of Burgundy: from Ghent (16 January) to Kortrijk (13 February) to Lille, and then to Brussels, Arras, Péronne-en-Mélantois, Mechelen and, by mid-March Noyon, where Isabella, now pregnant, chose to rest through the spring, only leaving when Joan of Arc led a campaign against the nearby Compiègne.

Jacques Daret

He became a favorite of the Burgundian court, and his patron for 20 years was the abbot of St. Vaast in Arras, Jean de Clercq.

Jean Vendeville

He went to school in Menin, and from the age of fifteen in Paris, where he studied law, beginning a legal practice in Arras.

John Francis Young

On 2 September 1918 in the Dury-Arras Sector, France, when his company had suffered heavy casualties, Private Young, a stretcher-bearer, went forward to dress the wounded in open ground swept by machine-gun and rifle fire.

Leonaert Bramer

In 1614, at the age of 18, he left on a long trip eventually reaching Rome in 1616, via Atrecht, Amiens, Paris, Aix (February 1616), Marseille, Genoa, and Livorno.

Saint Warinus

In 677 Warinus was stoned to death near Arras because of a feud between his brother, Leodegarius and Ebroin, the Frankish Mayor of the Palace of Neustria.