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21 unusual facts about Valenciennes


Automotive industry in France

2001 - Toyota built its Western European assembly line for the Toyota Yaris in Valenciennes.

Cambron Abbey

It became one of the wealthiest monasteries of Hainault and variously founded, or was given the supervision of, several daughter houses: the abbeys of Fontenelle at Valenciennes (1212), Nieuwenbosch near Ghent (1215), Épinlieu at Mons (1216), Beaupré near Mechelen (1221), Le Refuge at Ath (1224), Le Verger at Cambrai (1225) and Baudeloo at Saint-Nicolas (1225).

Charles I de Croÿ

He was also stadtholder of the County of Hainaut and governor of Valenciennes but he resigned in 1521 in favour of his son-in-law Philippe II de Croÿ.

Council of Troubles

The first were 84 inhabitants of Valenciennes (then still part of the Netherlands) on January 4, 1568; followed on February 20 by 95 people from several places in Flandres; February 21: 25 inhabitants of Thielt and 46 of Mechelen etc. etc.

Crespin Abbey

The traditional story is that he then withdrew with two disciples into the forest of the County of Hainault between Valenciennes and Mons, where he built a wooden cell on the bank of the Haine, which flows into the Scheldt at Condé-sur-l'Escaut.

DSK Supinfocom International Campus

Founded in 1988 in Valenciennes, the school offers a five-year course leading to a diploma of digital direction (certified Level I).

Supinfocom (école SUPérieure d'INFOrmatique de COMmunication, roughly University of Communication Science) is a computer graphics university with campuses in Valenciennes, Arles(France) and Pune (India).

Ernest-Eugène Hiolle

Hiolle was born in Valenciennes, where he studied at the École Académique, before studying under François Jouffroy and Laurent Séverin Grandfils at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Georg von Hantelmann

Upon graduation from this basic aviation training, he moved on to learn to fly a fighter plane at the Jastaschule in Valenciennes, France.

Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine

In 1056 and 1059, by the treaties of Andernach, Baldwin received the march of Ename in the Landgraviate of Brabant, probably in exchange for giving up the march of Valenciennes, which was confiscated by emperor Henry III in 1045.

Gustave Crauck

He was born and died at Valenciennes, where a special museum for his works was erected in his honor.

Hans Ehlers

On 18 May 1940, he recorded his first victories when he claimed two RAF fighters shot down over Valenciennes.

Herlindis of Maaseik

Herlindis and Relindis were the daughters of the Frankish nobleman Adelard, who had his daughters brought up at the Benedictine monastery in Valenciennes.

House of Dampierre

Charles took up her cause and warred with John I of Avesnes, but failed to take Valenciennes and just missed being killed in a skirmish.

John Stuart, Count of Maida

He took part in the sieges and battles of the 1793 campaign, Valenciennes, Lincelles, Dunkirk and Lannoy.

Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart

Commissioned an ensign in the Coldstream Guards on 28 January 1791, he was killed at the siege of Valenciennes, without issue.

Philip I de Croÿ

Towards the end of his life, he was employed by the Emperor as Governor of Valenciennes, Lieutenant General of Liege, and Captain General of Hainaut.

Platax

In a joint effort with Valenciennes, Cuvier published a natural history work in 1831 where the freshwater angelfish was classified as Platax scalaris.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Angoulême

St. Salvius, honoured as a martyr at Valenciennes, whom the Gallia Christiana makes a Bishop of Angoulême, was undoubtedly only a missionary bishop of the eighth century.

Saint-Amand Abbey

The same manuscript, now held at the municipal library of Valenciennes, was found to contain one of the earliest literary texts in vernacular French, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing France

Toyota Motor Manufacturing France S.A.S., or better known under its acronym TMMF, is the French automobile manufacturing division of Japanese automaker Toyota located in Onnaing near the city of Valenciennes.


1993 UEFA Champions League Final

The club and their president Bernard Tapie would later be found to have been involved in a match-fixing scandal during the 1992–93 season (in which Marseille allegedly paid Valenciennes to lose a match), which saw them relegated to Division 2 and banned from participation in European football for the following season.

Amphiarius

phrygiatus and A. rugispinis were both originally described by Achille Valenciennes in 1840 as Arius species, where they have been traditionally placed.

ANF Industrie

Société Franco-Belge, rolling stock manufacture, now part of Alstom with factory located at Raismes, Valenciennes, France

Anzin

Anzin was once the centre of important coal mines of the Valenciennes basin belonging to the Anzin Company, the formation of which dates to 1717.

Auguste Marie Raymond d'Arenberg

These duties were Marck's chief occupation till 1789, apart from them, having married in 1776, Marck led an agreeable life, alternately at Raismes, his country residence near Valenciennes, and at Versailles, where his rank and position gave him the means of observing all that was passing, which he appears to have noted with care and tolerable impartiality.

Battle of Valenciennes

Battle of Famars or Valenciennes (1793), fought on 23 May was an First Coalition victory on the borders of France which prepared the way for a siege of Valenciennes

Cologne–Aachen high-speed railway

The opening of the line created further connections as the already well-developed Belgian network had two connections with northern France, but the routes to Paris was only finished in 1846, on 16 June from Valenciennes, and on 20 June 1846 from Lille.

County of Flanders

The region comprising future Flanders was, from an economic point of view, a flourishing region, with a series of ports along the Scheldt river: Ghent, Tournai, Valenciennes, Cambrai and Lambres at Douai on the Scarpe and a number of seaports: Quentovic, Boulogne and Isère portus, a port at the mouth of the Yser.

Éric de Montgolfier

When head prosecutor in Valenciennes, he became famous for prosecuting the businessman-cum-politician Bernard Tapie for rigging the match between his football club Olympique de Marseille and the local club Valenciennes FC.

Fokker Eindecker fighters

On 8 April 1916, a novice German pilot took off from Valenciennes with a new E.III (IdFlieg serial number 210/16) bound for Wasquehal but became lost in haze and landed at a British aerodrome east of St. Omer.

Johann Jakob Heckel

Fish were his specialty and he worked with many of the greatest ichthyologists of his time including Cuvier, Valenciennes, Bonaparte, Müller, and Troschel.

Laurent Dufresne

Despite being a mere 1 star team, Valenciennes managed to beat some great top class teams such as FC Barcelona and Boca Juniors under Dufresne's charismatic leadership.

On his second run at Valenciennes, Dufresne led his team in goals in FIFA 06 at many a game between Guerms and Francs.

Louis Joseph Lahure

Louis Joseph Lahure (Mons, Austrian Netherlands, 29 December 1767 - château de Wavrechain-sous-Faulx, near Bouchain, Valenciennes, 24 October 1853) was a general from the Southern Netherlands in the service of the First French Republic and First French Empire.

Louis-François Lejeune

He became a sergeant in the 1st Arsenal battalion and in 1793 moved to the artillery at La Fère, assisting in the sieges of Landrecies, Le Quesnoy and Valenciennes.

Maurice Vieux

Maurice Edgard Vieux (April 14, 1884 at Savy-Berlette near Valenciennes – April 28, 1951 in Paris) was a French violist whose teaching at the Conservatoire de Paris plays a key role in the history of the viola in France.

Sallaumines

Sallaumines has a train station (Gare de Sallaumines) on the line from Lens to Lille, and another one (Gare de Pont-de-Sallaumines) on the line from Lens to Valenciennes.

Samuel Cleverley

He was detained a prisoner in France for no less a period than eleven years, being confined successively at Fontainebleau, Verdun, and Valenciennes.

Sequence of Saint Eulalia

In September 1837, Hoffmann von Fallersleben visited the library of Valenciennes with the intention of unearthing the lost text of the Ludwigslied.

Société Franco-Belge

The company originated in 1959 as the Belgian firm Compagnie Belge pour la Construction de Machines et de Matériels de Chemins de Fer founded by Charles Evrard; the company expanded its share capital in 1881 forming a new firm Société Anonyme Franco-Belge pour la Construction de Machines et de Matériel de Chemins de Fer and constructed a factory in Raismes (Valenciennes) in the Département Nord in France.

Stefan Marinković

Already a member of the Switzerland U-17 national team at age 16, Ajax won the young player over ahead of Juventus, Sampdoria, Brescia, Nancy and Valenciennes, all who were in running for the young defender.

Supinfocom

Supinfocom (école SUPérieure d'INFOrmatique de COMmunication, roughly University of Communication Science) is a computer graphics university with campuses in Valenciennes, Arles (France) and Pune (India).

Théophile Bra

His marble and plaster sculptures are numerous, in Douai's Musée de la Chartreuse, Paris churches and the museums at Versailles, Lille and Valenciennes, many of them being commissions under the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy.