LISIEUX, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Calvados, France, 113 miles by rail west-northwest from Paris, and 24 miles as the crow flies east from Caen, is prettily situated on the Touques, at the point where it is joined by the Orbiquet, 24 miles above Trouville. The Paris and Caen Railway has a branch from Lisieux to Honfleur and Trouville, and another to Orbec. The cathedral church, dedicated to St Peter, founded about 1045, and finished in 1233, which has recently been restored, is the most interesting specimen to be found in Normandy of the transition from the Roman to the Ogival style. It is 360 feet in length, 90 in breadth, and 65 in height; the south tower rises to 230 feet. The nave is remarkable for harmony of proportion, purity of design, and unity of style. The church of St Jacques, built at the end of the 15th century, contains some beautiful glass of the Renaissance, some remarkable woodwork and old frescos, and a curious picture on wood, restored in 1681. The old episcopal palace (Lisieux ceased to be a bishopric in 1801) near the cathedral is now used as a court-house and prison. In the court-house is a beautiful hall called the Salle Dorée. The town still retains quaint examples of the wooden houses of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries; and there are some elegant modern villas. It also possesses a charming public garden and a small museum. The confluence of the two rivers renders it subject to disastrous inundations; but its commerce and industry cause it, notwithstanding, to rank among the richest towns of Normandy. There is a large cattle trade, and the arrondissement has nearly three hundred factories, employing about ten thousand workmen in the manufacture of cloth and cretonnes. Connected with this industry are numerous ...spinning-mills, bleach-fields, and dye-works; and there are besides wool-mills, chemical works, tanneries, saw-mills, and the like, which bring up the trade of Lisieux to an annual aggregate of upwards of 50 million francs. The population in 1876 was 18,400.
In the time of Caesar, Lisieux, by the name of Noviomagus, was the capital of the Lexovii. Though destroyed by the barbarians, by the 6th century it had become one of the most important towns of Neustria. Its bishopric is said to date from the 3d or 4th century. In 877 it was pillaged by the Normans; and in 911 we find it included in the duchy by the treaty of St Clair-sur-Epte. Civil authority was exercised by the bishop as count of the town. In 1136 Geoffrey Plantagenet laid siege to Lisieux, which had taken the side of Stephen of Blois. The war lasted five years, and reduced Lisieux and its neighbourhood to the direst extremities of famine. In 1152 the marriage of Henry II. of England to Eleanor of Guienne, which added so largely to his dominions, was celebrated in the cathedral. Thomas à Becket took refuge here, and some vestments used by him are still shown in the hospital chapel. Taken by Philip Augustus and reunited to France in 1203, the town was a frequent subject of dispute between the contending parties during the Hundred Years’ War, the religious wars, and those of the League.
Among the bishops of Lisieux may be mentioned Nicholas Oresme, who died in 1382, and Pierre Cauchon, the judge of Joan of Arc, who occupied this see after he had been driven from that of Beauvais.
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