Hesdin

Hesdin
Town hall
Coat of arms
Hesdin
Location within Nord-Pas-de-Calais region Hesdin
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardy
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Montreuil
Canton	Hesdin
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes de l'Hesdinois
Government
• Mayor (2014–)	Stéphane Sieczkowski-Samier
Area1	0.9 km2 (0.3 sq mi)
Population (2006)2	2,474
• Density	2,700/km2 (7,100/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	62447 / 62140
Elevation	23–34 m (75–112 ft) (avg. 26 m or 85 ft)
Website	http://www.ville-hesdin.fr/
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Hesdin (French pronunciation: ​[edɛ̃]) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.

Geography

The N39, from Arras to Montreuil, used to be the main thoroughfare of the town. In the 1950s, a circular route was created to help traffic flow. A second bypass was built in the 1980s, taking all through traffic well away from the town centre.
The Canche river flows through the centre of Hesdin.

History

Hesdin was a fief of the counts of Artois, vassals of the Counts of Flanders until 1180. When Philip, count of Flanders gave Artois as dowry to his niece Isabella of Hainault when she married Philip Augustus of France in 1180, Hesdin and the other seigneuries passed to France. Though subsequently the territory passed to the Dukes of Burgundy, Hesdin remained one of a handful of French strongholds, until in 1553 Emperor Charles V ordered the utter destruction of the old fortified town on a rise of ground and built the present town the following year, some 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the original site, on the banks of the Canche. The unfortified village of Vieil-Hesdin was later built on the original site.

In 1639 the French laid siege to Hesdin and under Louis XIII, it was recaptured for France. Thus, though Hesdin has an ancient name and 16th century structures, there is nothing left of the medieval town.

The most recent and resourceful book on the history of Hesdin is Promenades dans Hesdin by Regis Deparis (2004) (French)

In 2014 Hesdin elected a 22-year-old law student, Stéphane Sieczkowski-Samier, as Mayor. Sieczkowski-Samier became the youngest mayor in France and is nicknamed "Petit Sarko" (little Sarkozy) in the French press as a reference to the previous French President Nicolas Sarkozy who is from the same political party.

Population

Historical population of Hesdin

Year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006
Population	3010	3105	3248	2977	2713	2686	2474
From the year 1962 on: No double counting—residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) are counted only once.

Places of interest

Hesdin is dominated by the central square, the Place d'Armes overlooked by the 16th-17th-century town hall. The contemporary Church of Notre Dame was begun in 1565 and completed in 1685.

The belfry of the town hall

Notable people

• Ernulf de Hesdin (died 1097-8), important Domesday landholder and participant in the First Crusade.
• Jacquemart de Hesdin (c. 1355– c. 1414), miniaturist and painter to the duc de Berry
• Loyset Liédet (c.1420-1479), Netherlandish miniaturist and illuminator.
• The Abbé Prévost, (April 1, 1697 – 1763), celebrated novelist known worldwide for his Manon Lescaut, was born in Hesdin.
• Henri Titelouze de Gournay (1871–1933)
• Clovis Normand
• François Dalle
• Jean-Louis Cottigny

Events

Thursday is market day in Hesdin, when a large range of local produce and more typical inexpensive market items can be purchased from the stalls in the surrounding streets.

In the first two weeks of August the town has the fete of the Cochon Rose (Pink Piglet) which includes a variety of events including a Sunday Brocante (flea market) which is the biggest in the region.

Twinned with

• London Borough of Havering in London, England
• Heusden-Zolder, Belgium

See also

• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department

External links

• INSEE commune file
• Hesdin on the Insee website (French)
• Hesdin on the Quid website (French)
• Hesdin (French)