Cambrai

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Administration
Commune of Cambrai
Location
Longitude	03°14'08" E
Latitude	50°10'36" N
Country	France
Région	Nord-Pas de Calais
Département	Nord (sous-préfecture)
Arrondissement	Cambrai
Canton	Cambrai
Intercommunality	Communauté d'agglomération de Cambrai
Mayor	François-Xavier Villain (2001-2008)
Statistics
Altitude	41 m–101 m (avg. 60m)
Land area¹	18.12 km²
Population² (1999)	(Cambrésiens) 33,716
- Density (1999)	1,861/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	59122/ 59400
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq. mi. or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).
Image:Flag of France.svg

Cambrai (Dutch: Kamerijk; old spelling Cambray) is a French town and commune, in the Nord département, of which it is a sous-préfecture.

Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included the central part of the Low Countries. The bishopric had some limited secular power.

1 History
- 1.1 Music history
- 1.2 Births
2 Twin towns
3 See also
4 Sources
5 External links

[edit] History

The Battle of Cambrai (November 20 - December 3, 1917), a campaign of World War I took place there. It was noted for the first successful use of tanks.

[edit] Music history

Cambrai has a distinguished musical history, particularly in the 15th century. The cathedral there, a musical center until the 17th century, had one of the most active musical establishments in the Low Countries; many composers of the Burgundian School either grew up and learned their craft there, or returned to teach. In 1428 Philippe de Luxembourg claimed that the cathedral was the finest in all of Christendom, for the fineness of its singing, its light, and the sweetness of its bells. Guillaume Dufay, the most famous European musician of the 15th century, studied at the cathedral from 1409 to 1412, and returned in 1439 after spending many years in Italy: other composers such as Johannes Tinctoris and Ockeghem went to Cambrai to study with him.

Image:Cambrai 1915.jpg

Cambrai cathedral had other famous composers in the later 15th century, including Nicolas Grenon, Alexander Agricola, and Jacob Obrecht. In the 16th century, Philippe de Monte, Johannes Lupi, and Jacobus Kerle all worked there.

As the economic center of northern Europe moved away from Bruges, the area became poorer, with an associated period of cultural decline. The cathedral was destroyed in 1796, but the archives were preserved (presently they are in the Archives Départmentales du Nord at Lille).

There was a pub L'homme armé in Cambrai, across the street from Dufay's residence.

[edit] Births

Cambrai was the birthplace of:

Charles François Dumouriez (1739-1823), French general
Francisco de Carondelet (1747-1807), in Noyelles, Spanish governor of Louisiana, president of the Audiencia of Quito
Louis Blériot (1872-1936), aviator
Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), Jesuit and theologian
Julien Torma (1902-1933), writer, playwright and poet
René Dumont (1904-2001), engineer in agronomy, sociologist, and environmental politician
Maurice Godelier (born 1934), social anthropologist, neo-Marxist, and French intellectual

[edit] Twin towns

Image:Cambrai.jpg Cambrai is twinned with:

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

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Cambrai

David Fallows, Barbara H. Haggh: "Cambrai", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 18, 2005), (subscription access) (source for the music history section)