Hotel de Ville in Flemish Renaissance style, Calais, Pas de Calais, France Vertical 100409_Calais
Calais is a town in northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras. The population of the metropolitan area at the 1999 census was 125,584. Calais overlooks the Strait of Dover, the narrowest point in the English Channel, which is only 34 km wide here, and is the closest French town to England, of which Calais was a territorial possession for several centuries. The white cliffs of Dover can easily be seen on a clear day. The old part of the town, Calais proper (or Calais-Nord), is situated on an artificial island surrounded by canals and harbours. The modern part of the town, St-Pierre, lies to the south and southeast. Virtually the entire town was destroyed by heavy bombardments during World War II, so little in Calais pre-dates the war. The Tour de Guet, situated in Calais Nord on the Places d'Armes, is one of the few surviving pre-war buildings. The German wartime military headquarters, situated south of the train station in a small park, is today open to the public as a war museum. The town centre is dominated by its distinctive town hall, built in the Flemish Renaissance style (and visible well out to sea). Directly in front of the town hall is a cast of the statue The Burghers of Calais (French Les Bourgeois de Calais), by Auguste Rodin. The town centre has seen significant regeneration over the past decade.
Size: 3751px × 5616px
Location: Hotel de ville, Calais, Pas de Calais, France
Photo credit: © Daniel Valla FRPS / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: architecture, blue, bourgeois, burghers, calais, channel, city, de, francais, francaise, france, french, hall, hotel, mairie, mollien, nord-pas-de-calais, renaissance, rue, sky, statue, town, travel, tunnel, ville
