Calais-Ville station

The Burghers of Calais (French: Les Bourgeois de Calais) is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin in twelve original castings and numerous copies. It commemorates an event during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, a French port on the English Channel, surrendered to the English after an eleven-month siege. The city commissioned Rodin to create the sculpture in 1884 and the work was completed in 1889.

The Pas-de-Calais (French: [pɑ d(ə) kalɛ] , "strait of Calais"; Picard: Pas-Calés; Dutch: Nauw van Calais) is a department in north-eastern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the 8th most populous. It had a population of 1,465,278 in 2019. The Calais Passage connects to the Port of Calais on the English Channel. The Pas-de-Calais borders the departments of Nord and Somme and is connected to the English county of Kent via the Channel Tunnel.

The Canal de Calais connects the Aa River near Ruminghem to the inner basins of the Port of Calais. Many boats enter the French canal system through the port of Calais and this canal. It is 30 km long and has 3 locks.

The Arrondissement of Calais is an arrondissement of France in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region. It has 52 communes. Its population is 158,492 (2016), and its area is 593.4 km2 (229.1 sq mi).

The Hôtel de Ville (French pronunciation: [otɛl də vil], City Hall) is the seat of the city council in Calais, France. The building features a belfry of red brick and white limestone which is 72 metres (236 ft) high. It was designated a monument historique by the French government in 2003.

The siege of Calais (4 September 1346 – 3 August 1347) occurred at the conclusion of the Crécy campaign, when an English army under the command of King Edward III of England successfully besieged the French town of Calais during the Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years' War. The English army of some 10,000 men had landed in northern Normandy on 12 July 1346. They embarked on a large-scale raid, or chevauchée, devastating large parts of northern France. On 26 August 1346, fighting on ground of their own choosing, the English inflicted a heavy defeat on a large French army led by their king Philip VI at the Battle of Crécy. A week later the English invested the well-fortified port of Calais, which had a strong garrison under the command of Jean de Vienne. Edward made several unsuccessful attempts to breach the walls or to take the town by assault, either from the land or seaward sides. During the winter and spring the French were able to run in supplies and reinforcements by sea, but in late April the English established a fortification which enabled them to command the entrance to the harbour and cut off the further flow of supplies. On 25 June Jean de Vienne wrote to Philip stating that their food was exhausted. On 17 July Philip marched north with an army estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000 men. Confronted with a well-entrenched English and Flemish force of more than 50,000, he withdrew. On 3 August Calais capitulated. It provided the English with an important strategic lodgement for the remainder of the Hundred Years' War and beyond. The port was not recaptured by the French until 1558.

The Reims campaign took place during the Hundred Years' War. It occurred after the French de facto government rejected the terms of the Treaty of London and consequently Edward III of England organised and commanded an expeditionary army to gain by force what he had failed to win by diplomacy. On 28 October 1359 Edward landed at Calais, and advanced to Reims, where he hoped to be crowned king of France. The strenuous resistance of the citizens frustrated this scheme, and Edward marched into Burgundy, and then he made his way back towards Paris. Failing in an attack on the capital, he was glad to conclude, on 8 May 1360, preliminaries of peace at Brétigny, near Chartres. This treaty, less onerous to France than that of London, took its final form when Edward and John ratified the treaty in Calais on 9 October 1360. By it Edward renounced his claim to France in return for Aquitaine and other French territories in full sovereignty.

The Battle of Calais took place in 1350 when an English force defeated an unsuspecting French army which was attempting to take the city. Despite a truce being in effect the French commander Geoffrey de Charny had planned to take the city by subterfuge, and bribed Amerigo of Pavia, an Italian officer of the city garrison, to open a gate for them. The English king, Edward III, became aware of the plot and personally led his household knights and the Calais garrison in a surprise counter-attack. The French were routed by this smaller force, with significant losses and all their leaders captured or killed. Later that day, Edward dined with the highest-ranking captives, treating them with royal courtesy except for Charny, whom he taunted for having abandoned his chivalric principles both by fighting during a truce and by attempting to purchase his way into Calais rather than fight. As Charny was considered a paragon of knightly behaviour, the accusations struck deep, and were frequently repeated in subsequent English propaganda, as Charny was to write several authoritative books on chivalry. Two years later, having been ransomed from English captivity, Charny was placed in charge of a French army on the Calais front. He used it to storm a small fortification commanded by Amerigo, who was taken captive to Saint-Omer and publicly tortured to death.

Église Notre-Dame ("The Church of Our Lady") is a Roman Catholic parish church located on Rue de la Paix, in Calais, department of Pas-de-Calais, in northern France. It dates from the 12th century, and chiefly from the 14th century. Arguably, it is the only church built in the English perpendicular style in all of France.

The Tour du Guet is a 13th-century watchtower in Calais, Pas-de-Calais, northern France. Located on Place d'Armes behind the Hotel de Ville, it is 39 metres (128 ft) in height, and features a dovecote for carrier pigeons. The tower dates from 1214, when Philip I, Count of Boulogne built fortifications in the town. Damaged by a 1580 earthquake, it was used as a lighthouse until 1848, when it became a watch tower. During World War I, it served as a military post.

The Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode is a museum of lace in Pas de Calais in northern France. It is one of two museums in France to celebrate machine lace making. The museum is an Anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode is a museum of both fashion and industry, its vast galleries present the techniques, the lingerie, and haute couture associated with this prestigious textile, as well as its most contemporary aspects. Derived from a technique invented in England in the nineteenth century, today lace woven on Leavers looms is primarily produced in Northern France. The Museum for Lace and Fashion is a focal hub for fashion. In its exhibition gallery, it showcases great couturiers and renowned young designers alike (Cristóbal Balenciaga, Anne Valérie Harsh, Iris Van Herpen, Hubert de Givenchy, On Aura Tout Vu, Yves Saint Laurent.)

The canton of Calais-1 is an administrative division of the Pas-de-Calais department, in northern France. It was created at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Calais. It consists of the following communes: