Richelieu. In the centre of the town is the great marketplace, in which stands the Hôtel de Ville (rebuilt in 1740, restored in 1867), with busts of Eustache de St Pierre, the Due de Guise, and Cardinal Richelieu. Near the Hôtel de Ville is the Tour du guet, or watch-tower, used as a lighthouse until 1848. The Church of Nôtre Dame was almost entirely rebuilt at the end of the 15th century, during the English occupancy of Calais; its lofty tower serves as a landmark for sailors. At the end of the Rue de la Prison is the Hôtel de Guise, built as a guildhall for the English woolstaplers. It was given to the Due de Guise as a reward for the recapture of Calais, and hence its name. The building which was formerly the Hôtel Dessin, immortalized by Sterne in the Sentimental Journey, is now used as a museum. The harbour of Calais is shallow, admitting vessels of from 400 to 500 tons only at high water. The French Government contemplates the construction of a large harbour of refuge near Calais. There are two lighthouses at the entrance to the harbour, and a still larger one on the fortifications, with a revolving light visible 20 miles off. The principal institutions are the schools of design, hydrography, and artillery, a public library with 10,000 volumes, and public baths. The imports are chiefly from Great Britain, and consist of coal, iron, woollen and cotton fabrics, linen, skins, machinery, and colonial produce. Of late years the importation of timber from Norway has greatly increased. The exports comprise corn, wine and spirits, eggs, silk, fruit, vegetables, glass, and sugar. The fisheries are much less important than those of Boulogne. The manufacture of tulle or bobbin-net was introduced from Nottingham by the English in 1818, and is one of the main sources of the prosperity of the town and suburbs. Calais communicates with Great Britain by submarine telegraph, laid down in 1851. Steamers carrying the mails cross twice a day to Dover and back. It is the principal landing-place for English travellers on the Continent. The number of passengers who crossed both ways was 208,432 in 1875, being an increase of 66 per cent, in the last ten years. The terminus of the proposed tunnel beneath the channel is near Sangatte, a village six miles west of Calais. The project has received the sanction of the French and English Governments. Population (in 1872) 12,843; the adjoining manufacturing suburb of St Pierre les Calais had 20,409 inhabitants in 1872, more than 1800 of whom were English.

Calais was a petty fishing-village, with a natural harbour at the mouth of a stream, till the end of the 10th century. It was first improved by Baldwin IV., count of Flanders, in 997, and afterwards, in 1224, was regularly fortified by Phillip of France, count of Boulogne. It was besieged in 1346, after the battle of Crécy, by Edward III., and held out resolutely by the bravery of Jean de Vienne, its governor, till famine forced it to surrender. Its inhabitants were saved from the cruel fate with which Edward menaced them by the devotion of Eustache de St Pierre and six of the chief citizens, who were themselves spared at the prayer of Queen Philippa. The city remained in the hands of the English till 1558, when it was taken by the duke of Guise at the head of 30,000 men, from the ill-provided English garrison only 800 strong, after a siege of seven days. It was held by the Spaniards from 1595 to 1598, but was restored to France by the treaty of Vervins.