Arras

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Administration
Commune of Arras Petite Place in Arras
Location
Longitude	02° 46' 51" E
Latitude	50° 17' 23" N
Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas de Calais
Department	Pas-de-Calais (préfecture)
Arrondissement	Arras
Canton	Chief town of 3 cantons
Intercommunality	Communauté urbaine d'Arras
Mayor	Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe (2001-2008)
Statistics
Altitude	52 m–99 m (avg. 72 m)
Land area¹	11.63 km²
Population² (1999)	40,590
- Density (1999)	3,490/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	62041/ 62000
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

Arras (Dutch: Atrecht) is a town and commune in northern France, préfecture (capital) of the Pas-de-Calais département. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is nonetheless characterized as a Picarde dialect. Unlike many French words, the final "s" in the name should be pronounced.

The position of Arras

1 History
2 Ecclesiastical history
- 2.1 Bishopric of Arras (Atrebatum)
- 2.2 Councils of Arras
3 Sights
4 Transport
5 Miscellaneous
- 5.1 In literature
- 5.2 Births
6 See also
7 Sources and external links

Originally settled by the Celtic tribe of the Atrebates, it later became a Roman garrison town known as Atrebatum.

It is located in the former Dutch and French province of Artois. For many centuries, Arras was on the border between France and the Low Countries and it frequently changed hands before firmly becoming French in the late 17th century, the fortifications upgraded by Vauban helping keep it in French hands. The town was closely linked to the trade of Flanders and later became an important centre for sugar beet farming and processing as well as a prosperous market centre.

The Union of Atrecht (the Dutch name for Arras) was signed here in January 1579 by the Catholic principalities of the Low Countries that remained loyal to king Philip II of Habsburg; it provoked the declaration of the Union of Utrecht later the same month.

The Town Square, Arras. February, 1919

During the First World War, Arras was near the front and a long series of battles fought nearby are known as the Battle of Arras in which a series of medieval tunnels beneath the city, unknown to the Germans, became a decisive factor in the French holding the city. The city, however, was heavily damaged and had to be rebuilt after the war. In the Second World War the town was occupied by the Germans and 240 suspected French Resistance members were executed in the Arras citadel.

The diocese comprises the Department of Pas-de-Calais. On the occasion of the Napoleonic Concordat, the three Dioceses of Arras, Saint-Omer and Boulogne were united to make the one Diocese of Arras. It was a suffragan of the Archbishopric of Paris from 1802 to 1841, in which year Cambrai again became an archdiocese and Arras returned to it as suffragan.

At the beginning of the sixth century St. Remi (Remigius), Archbishop of Reims, placed in the See of Arras St. Vedastus (St. Vaast) (d. c. 540), who had been the teacher of the Merovingian king Clovis after the victory of Tolbiac. His successors, Dominicus and Vedulphus, are also both venerated as saints. After the death of the latter, the See of Arras was transferred to Cambrai, and it was not until 1093 that Arras again became a diocese.

Among the bishops of Arras are Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, Councillor of the emperor Charles V, Bishop of Arras from 1545 to 1562, later Archbishop of Malines and Viceroy of Naples; François Richardot, a celebrated preacher, Bishop of Arras from 1562 to 1575; Monseigneur Parisis (d. 1866), who figured prominently in the political assemblies of 1848.

Two famous relics were long greatly venerated at Arras: the "sacred manna", said to have fallen from heaven in 371 during a severe famine, and the "holy candle", a wax taper said to have been given to Bishop Lambert in 1105 by the Blessed Virgin, to stop an epidemic. Not far from Arras, the city of Saint-Omer, a diocese till the Revolution, perpetuates the memory of St. Audomare, or Omer, Bishop of Thérouanne, the apostle of the Morini in the sixth century. Its cathedral, a Gothic monument of the fourteenth century, was built over the saint's tomb. The ruins of St. Vaast at Arras, and of St. Bertin at Saint-Omer, keep alive the memory of two celebrated abbeys of the same name; the Abbey of St. Bertin (founded in the seventh century) gave twenty-two saints to the Church.

The Diocese of Arras at the end of 1905 contained 955,391 inhabitants, 52 parishes, 690 churches of the second class, and 53 vicariates formerly with state subventions.

In 1025 a council was held at Arras against certain Manichaean (dualistic) heretics who rejected the sacraments of the Church. The Catholic Faith in the Blessed Eucharist was proclaimed with special insistence.

In 1097, two councils, presided over by Lambert of Arras, dealt with questions concerning monasteries and persons consecrated to God.

The town hall

The centre of the town is marked by three large squares, the Grande Place, the Place des Héros, and the Petite Place. These are surrounded by buildings largely restored to their pre-war World War One conditions. Most notable are the Gothic town hall (rebuilt in a slightly less grandiose style after the war) and the 19th-century cathedral.

The original cathedral of Arras, constructed between 1030 and 1396, was one of the most beautiful Gothic structures in northern France. It was destroyed in the French Revolution.

Many of Arras's most notable structures, including the museum and several government buildings, occupy the site of the old Abbaye de Saint-Vaast. The abbey's church was demolished and rebuilt in fashionable classical style in 1833, and now serves as the town's cathedral. The design was chosen by the one-time Abbot of St Vaast, the Cardinal de Rohan, and is stark in its simplicity, employing a vast number of perpendicular angles. There is a fine collection of statuary within the church and it houses a number of religious relics.

Vimy Memorial is a memorial just north of the town honouring a major WWI battle, notable for the heroic service of a detachment of Canadians. The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Lorette, overlooking the nearby village of Ablain St-Nazaire, likewise stands before one of France's largest WWI necropolises.

Arras is served by the LGV Nord high speed railway.

Arras is a setting in several famous works of French literature:

In Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, the fourth act takes place during the French siege of Arras in 1640 during the Thirty Years' War
In Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, Arras is the scene of Champmathieu's trial
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote a story called Pilote de Guerre (English title: Flight to Arras)