CAEN, or, as it is called in the old chronicles, Cλdon, Cathim, Cahem, or Caam, the capital of an arrondissement in the department of Calvados in France. It stands about 80 or 90 feet above the level of the sea, in an extensive valley, on the left bank of the Orne, at the influx of the Odon, 9 miles from the English Channel, and 122 west of Paris, in 49° 1Γ 14" N. lat., 0° 2Γ 15" W. long. The town is handsome and well built; the streets, of which the most important is the Rue St Jean, are generally wide, straight, and clean; and the houses, being of freestone, have a very good appearance. Hardly any remains of its once extensive ramparts and towers are now to be seen; but the castle, founded by William the Conqueror and completed by Henry I., is still employed as barracks, though in a greatly altered condition. The city contains several ancient churches and other buildings, affording fine specimens of the Norman style of architecture. Among these are the church of St Pierre, dating from the 14th century and surmounted by a handsome stone spire, the finest in Normandy, 242 feet in height; the magnificent churches of the Abbaye Aux Hommes, or St ntienne, and the Abbaye Aux Dames, or Trinity, both founded in 1066,— the former by William the Conqueror, where a plain grey marble slab in the pavement now marks his long since desecrated tomb, and the latter by his queen Matilda, who was interred there. The old convent of the Capuchins is now occupied by the society of Le Bon Sauveur, which, founded by two poor girls about 1730, has grown into a most important institution, and maintains an asylum for the insane of both sexes, a charitable dispensary, a school for the education and industrial training of deaf and dumb children, and various minor establishments. Caen is ...the seat of a high court of appeal for the departments of Calvados, Manche, and Orne, and has tribunals of primary instance and commerce, a chamber of commerce, a conseil de prud’hommes, a university (founded in 1431 by Henry VI. of England), a royal college, a school of hydrography, a public library of 45,000 volumes, an extensive botanic garden, a museum belonging to the society of Norman antiquaries, and a theatre. There is a local Academie des sciences, arts, et belles-lettres, which has published a series of Mémoires since 1754. The commerce of Caen is considerable. It exports barley, flour, potatoes, wine, brandy, fruit, cattle, hardware; and imports timber from Norway, coal, pig-iron, o.ats, wheat, and oil-seeds. Its manufactures are of comparatively small importance with the exception of rape and colza oil, though there is a certain turn-out of caps, table-linen, cotton fabrics, leather, earthenware, and cutlery; breweries, dye-works, and ship-building yards are also in operation. The manufacture of lace, formerly of great extent, has very much declined. A fine kind of oolitic stone, in great favour as a building material, is quarried in the neighbourhood. Several large fairs are held annually. At high water, vessels of 150 or 160 tons can come up to the harbour, which consists of a part of the river bed and a basin 1896 feet in length by 164 in breadth, and has communication with the sea not only by the river, but also by a canal debouching at Ouistreham. A canal to connect it with the sea is in course of construction, which will render it accessible to large vessels. The town is situated on the main line of railway from Pans to Cherbourg, and is connected by branch lines with Courseulles on the coast, and with Laval inland.
Though Caen is not a town of great antiquity, the date of its foundation is unknown. It existed as early as the 9th century, and when, in 912, Neustria was~ceded to the Normans by Charles the Simple, it was a large and important city. Under the dukes of Normandy, and particularly under William the Conqueror, it rapidly increased. It became the capital of Lower Normandy, and in 1346 was besieged and taken by Edward III. of England. It was again taken by the English in 1417, and was retained by them till 1459, when it capitulated to the French, in whose possession it has since continued. In 1793 the. city was the focus of the Girondist movement against the Convention. Among the numerous celebrities to whom Caen has given birth may be mentioned Malherbe, Boisrobert, Huet bishop of Avranches, and Tannegui Lefebvre. Population in 1872, 39,415 in the city, and 41,210 in the commune.
See L’Abbé de la Rue, Essais historiques sur la ville de Caen, 1820- 42; Mancel, Histoire de la ville de Caen, 1844; Vauthier, ditto, 1843; L’Abbé Daniel, Embellissements de la ville de Caen, 1842; Freeman’s Norman Conquest, vol. iii.; Macquoid’s Normandy, 1874.
[829 words — estimated reading time: 5 minutes]