Cambrai

From the Roman Castrum in the 1st century to modern Cambrai flows 2000 years of an original and troubled history. Successively a Roman Castrum (Cameracum), the Frankish Kingdom, the County of the Holy Roman Empire, and then the Spanish Netherlands, finally French since 1677, the city has retained its three characteristics: a crossroads city, a military city, and a church city. Indeed, at the crossroads of major Roman roads and by the river Escaut, the Romans established a castrum: Cameracum. This expanded, and by 365, it was a city with a wall and endowed with a bishop, becoming the capital of the Nervii - when barbarian invasions broke out, the Franks established a kingdom there, soon annexed by Clovis (early 6th century). He dispatched St. Vaast, his catechist, but it is his successor, St. Géry, who would, starting in 584, be the true founder of the city; he established the episcopal seat and founded parishes and an abbey. In the Treaty of Verdun (843), Cambrai was attached to Lotharingia, then to the Holy Roman Empire. Governed by a Count-Bishop, it then experienced its peak as an important religious center, a strongly defended border city, and a place of economic exchange with its two fairs; it minted currency, its agricultural and textile productions thrived, and its cultural influence was significant. In the 15th century, the decline of the city began while the Flemish towns under the domination of the Dukes of Burgundy rose in power. However, it remained, in the 16th century, the diplomatic capital of Europe at the time - the League of Vaucelles, the Peace of the Ladies, the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559). In 1543, Charles V seized the city, now attached to the Spanish Netherlands, reinforcing its defenses by building a powerful citadel. It was more than a century later, after the failed attempts of Louis XI and Henry IV, that Louis XIV himself took the city. It would gradually adopt the "French taste" and see its gabled houses replaced by classical hotels and "rows" of identical houses, while Vauban strengthened the Stronghold. The French Revolution would provoke a violent terror and the destruction of a large part of its magnificent religious heritage. The 19th century would complete the transformation of the city with the dismantling of the 4 kilometers of ramparts with its gates and towers. The two wars would not be left out: the Germans deliberately destroyed a city they still considered theirs, and Allied bombings would be very deadly. The urban planning of the city would be completely transformed. However, despite invasions and wars, Cambrai has retained a heritage of great value that earned it, in 1992, the label “City of Art and History.” It has kept from its past the arms of the Holy Empire: the double-headed eagle on a gold background, with the count's crown and the lions of Hainaut; it has borne since 1919 the cross of the Legion of Honor awarded to Cambrai, the martyr city.

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