Dieppe is a commune in the Seine-Maritime
department in
France
. In 1999, the population of the whole Dieppe
urban area was 81,419.
A port on the English Channel
, famous for its scallops,
and with a regular ferry service from the Gare
Maritime
to Newhaven
in England
, Dieppe also
has a popular pebbled beach, a 15th-century castle and
the churches of Saint Jacques and Saint Rémi.
Geography
Dieppe
belongs to the Pays de
Caux
, in the Haute-Normandie
regionIt is
located on the Manche coast, north of Rouen.
History
First recorded as a small
fishing settlement
in 1030, Dieppe was an important prize fought over during the
Hundred Years' War.Dieppe housed
the most advanced French school of
cartography in the 16th century, and was the
premier port of the kingdom in the 17th century.On
July 23, 1632, 300
colonists heading to
New
France departed from Dieppe.At the
Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes in 1685, Dieppe lost 3000 of its
Huguenot citizens, who fled abroad.
Dieppe was
an important target in wartime; the town was
largely destroyed by an Anglo-Dutch
naval bombardment in 1694. Rebuilt after
1696, it was popularised as a
seaside
resort following the 1824 visit of the widowed
Duchess of Berry,
Charles X's daughter-in-law. She
encouraged the building of the recently-renovated municipal
theater, the
Petit-Theatre (1825),
associated particularly with
Camille Saint-Saëns.
During the later nineteenth century, Dieppe became popular with
English artists as a
beach resort.
Prominent literary figures such as
Arthur
Symons loved to keep up with the latest fads of avant-garde
France here, and during "the season" sometimes stayed for weeks on
end.
The
Dieppe Raid in the
Second World War became known as a bloody
battle, and a costly one for the
Allies. On
August 19, 1942 Allied soldiers,
mainly drawn from the
2nd
Canadian Infantry Division, landed at Dieppe in the hope of
occupying the town for a short time, gaining intelligence and
drawing the
Luftwaffe into open
battle. The Allies suffered more than 1,400 deaths, 1,946 Canadian
soldiers were captured - more prisoners than the army lost in the
11 months of the 1944-45 NW Europe campaign. But no major
objectives were achieved.
Dieppe was
liberated on September 1, 1944 by soldiers from the
2nd Canadian Infantry
Division.
Dieppe, New
Brunswick
(previously Léger Corner) received its present name
in 1946, in honour of the Canadian soldiers killed in the Dieppe
Raid.
Famous people
Louis de Broglie, a
Nobel Prize-winning physicist, was born in
Dieppe.
Emmanuel 'Manu' Petit, a World
Cup-winning footballer, is from Dieppe.
St.
Jean de LaLande SJ, a
seventeenth century Jesuit brother who was martyred by the Iroquois
Indians in present-day New York State.
St.
Antoine Daniel SJ, martyr and
saint.
Jean (Johan) Cossin(s), one of the first to show the Sinusoidal
projection, he used it for a world map of 1570.
Heraldry
Historical images of Dieppe
Image:Dieppe-port.jpg|View of Dieppe's
Grand quaiImage:Boillot-ACF-GP1912.jpg|Georges Boillot winning the 1912 French Grand
Prix
in DieppeImage:Carl Spitzweg
051.jpg|
Carl Spitzweg's painting
Frauenbad in Dieppe IIIImage:Frits Thaulow-Fra Dieppe med
elven Arques.jpg|
Frits Thaulow's
Fra Dieppe med elven Arques (
From Dieppe with the
river Arques)Image:Nicolae Vermont - Plaja (la
Dieppe).jpg|
Nicolae Vermont's
painting
View of Dieppe's beach (1929)
Sights
The
castle, Château de Dieppe
, which survived the 1694 bombardment, is now a
museum and exhibition space, with a strong maritime
collection. A rich collection of 17th- and 18th century
ivory carvings, including lacy folding fans,
for which Dieppe was known, and the furnishings and papers of
Camille Saint-Saens. The castle's interior courtyard is
picturesque.
At the
Square du Canada, near the castle in a park at the
western end of the Esplanade, there is a monument erected by the
town commemorating the long relationship between Dieppe and
Canada
. The events recorded begin with the early
16th century, and culminate with the Dieppe Raid and the liberation
of Dieppe by Canadians on
September 1,
1944. The base of the monument is inscribed with the words
"
nous nous souvenons" ("we remember"). Above the monument,
the
Canadian Maple Leaf flag is flown
side-by-side with that of France.
Some of
the Canadian soldiers who were killed are buried in the Dieppe
Canadian War Cemetery
, in the commune of Hautôt-sur-Mer
south of Dieppe.
Image:CastleDieppe.JPG|Château-musée de DieppeImage:Château-musée
de Dieppe.jpg|Château-muséeImage:Dieppe.JPG|The
harbourImage:Dieppe2.JPG|The waterfront
Transport
The town has a railway station, operated by SNCF, with frequent
departure for Rouen and Paris.
Dieppe
has a ferry port, directly linked with the town of Newhaven, situated at the mouth of the river
Ouse
in East
Sussex
.
Current services
- Transmanche Ferries (Newhaven x 2 sailings daily)
Former services
- Hoverspeed (Newhaven x 3 sailings daily). Withdrawn in
2004.
- P&O Stena Line (Newhaven x 3 sailings daily). Withdrawn in
1999.
Twin towns
Dieppe has several
twin towns, including:
See also
References
External links
Wikis
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