Saint-Quentin, Aisne
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2011) |
Saint-Quentin
Saint-Kintin (Picard) | |
---|---|
Subprefecture | |
Coordinates: 49°50′55″N 3°17′11″E / 49.8486°N 3.2864°E | |
Country | France |
Region | Hauts-de-France |
Department | Aisne |
Arrondissement | Saint-Quentin |
Canton | Saint-Quentin-1, 2 and 3 |
Intercommunality | CA Saint-Quentinois |
Government | |
• Mayor (2020–2026) | Frédérique Macarez[1] |
Area 1 | 22.56 km2 (8.71 sq mi) |
Population (2021)[2] | 52,958 |
• Density | 2,300/km2 (6,100/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
INSEE/Postal code | 02691 /02100 |
Elevation | 68–125 m (223–410 ft) (avg. 74 m or 243 ft) |
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. |
Saint-Quentin (French: [sɛ̃ kɑ̃tɛ̃] ⓘ; Picard: Saint-Kintin; older Dutch: Sint-Kwintens [sɪnt ˈkʋɪntəns]) is a city in the Aisne department, Hauts-de-France, northern France. It has been identified as the Augusta Veromanduorum of antiquity. It is named after Saint Quentin of Amiens, who is said to have been martyred there in the 3rd century.
Administration
Saint-Quentin is a sub-prefecture of Aisne. Although Saint-Quentin is by far the largest city in Aisne, the capital is the third-largest city, Laon.
Mayors
The mayor of Saint-Quentin is Frédérique Macarez,[1] a member of the centre-right LR Party.
From | To | Name | Party |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | present | Frédérique Macarez | LR |
2010 | 2016 | Xavier Bertrand | UMP |
1995 | 2010 | Pierre André | UMP |
1989 | 1995 | Daniel Le Meur | PCF |
1983 | 1989 | Jacques Braconnier | RPR |
1977 | 1983 | Daniel Le Meur | PCF |
1966 | 1977 | Jacques Braconnier | UDR |
History
The city was founded by the Romans, in the
During the early Middle Ages, a major monastery, now the Basilica of Saint-Quentin, developed, based on pilgrimage to the tomb of Quentin, a Roman Christian who came to evangelize the region and was martyred in Augusta, giving rise to a new town which was named after him.
From the 9th century, Saint-Quentin was the capital of Vermandois County. From the 10th century, the counts of Vermandois (descendants of the Carolingian, then Capetian families) were very powerful. The city grew rapidly: the "bourgeois" organized themselves and obtained, in the second half of the 12th century (a very early date), a municipal charter, which guaranteed their commune a large degree of autonomy.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Saint-Quentin entered the
From the 14th century, Saint-Quentin suffered from this strategic position: it endured the French-English wars (
Between the end of the 15th century and the mid-17th century, this strategic position was the cause of frequent misfortune. In 1557, a siege by the Spanish army (as part of the battle of Saint-Quentin) ended with the looting of the city and its desertion for two years. Given back to France in 1559, it underwent intense fortification work: the medieval wall, redesigned several times, was protected by many new advanced fortifications. Two districts were razed to make way for them. In the mid-17th century, the city escaped the sieges, but suffered the horrors of wars ravaging the Picardy region, accompanied by the plague (in 1636, 3,000 people died, out of perhaps 10,000 inhabitants) and famine.
In the second half of the 17th century, the conquests of
During the
In the 19th century, Saint-Quentin developed into a thriving industrial city, thanks to entrepreneurs constantly on the lookout for new technologies. Textiles and mechanical devices were foremost among a wide variety of products.
In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, the population repelled the Prussians on 8 October, but the city fell during the second offensive. The hopeless but heroic action had national repercussions: Saint-Quentin was decorated with the Legion of Honour. On 19 January 1871 the French army was defeated near the town.
The
Despite national support, the reconstruction process was long, and the city struggled to regain its pre-1914 dynamism. The 1911 population of 55,000 was achieved again only in the mid-1950s, in the context of general economic expansion. This prosperity continued until the mid-1970s, when the French textile industry began to suffer through competition from
Climate
Climate data for Saint-Quentin, Aisne (1981–2010 averages) | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 14.9 (58.8) |
19.2 (66.6) |
23.1 (73.6) |
27.8 (82.0) |
30.3 (86.5) |
36.6 (97.9) |
35.9 (96.6) |
37.9 (100.2) |
31.8 (89.2) |
27.8 (82.0) |
19.6 (67.3) |
16.8 (62.2) |
37.9 (100.2) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 5.5 (41.9) |
6.6 (43.9) |
10.6 (51.1) |
14.0 (57.2) |
17.9 (64.2) |
20.7 (69.3) |
23.4 (74.1) |
23.4 (74.1) |
19.6 (67.3) |
14.9 (58.8) |
9.3 (48.7) |
5.9 (42.6) |
14.4 (57.9) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 0.6 (33.1) |
0.6 (33.1) |
3.0 (37.4) |
4.5 (40.1) |
8.2 (46.8) |
10.6 (51.1) |
12.5 (54.5) |
12.4 (54.3) |
10.1 (50.2) |
7.3 (45.1) |
3.6 (38.5) |
1.3 (34.3) |
6.3 (43.3) |
Record low °C (°F) | −19.3 (−2.7) |
−18.6 (−1.5) |
−11.5 (11.3) |
−7.8 (18.0) |
−2.1 (28.2) |
0.0 (32.0) |
3.5 (38.3) |
3.2 (37.8) |
−1.0 (30.2) |
−4.8 (23.4) |
−9.6 (14.7) |
−14.6 (5.7) |
−19.3 (−2.7) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 57.2 (2.25) |
48.0 (1.89) |
57.7 (2.27) |
48.1 (1.89) |
61.6 (2.43) |
60.6 (2.39) |
60.6 (2.39) |
67.9 (2.67) |
52.5 (2.07) |
64.4 (2.54) |
58.4 (2.30) |
65.6 (2.58) |
702.6 (27.66) |
Average precipitation days | 10.9 | 9.6 | 11.2 | 9.7 | 10.6 | 9.7 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 9.3 | 10.5 | 11.1 | 11.7 | 122.5 |
Average snowy days | 4.9 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 3.3 | 18.6 |
Average relative humidity (%)
|
89 | 85 | 82 | 78 | 78 | 79 | 79 | 78 | 82 | 87 | 89 | 90 | 83 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 68.0 | 75.0 | 128.3 | 174.8 | 198.7 | 203.5 | 208.2 | 206.6 | 162.1 | 116.9 | 66.7 | 51.1 | 1,659.9 |
Source 1: | |||||||||||||
Source 2: Infoclimat.fr (humidity, snowy days 1961–1990)[5] |
Population
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: EHESS[6] and INSEE (1968–2017)[7] |
Culture
Monuments
- Basilica of Saint-Quentin, built in the 12th-15th century. Heavily damaged in World War I, the vaults, windows and roofs have been restored.[8]
- Hôtel de ville (city hall), built between 1331 and 1509 in a gothic style. L'hôtel de ville of Saint-Quentin is famous for its peal of 37 bells. It was modified in the 19th century and heavily restored in 1926 in Art Déco style.[9]
- The municipal theatre Jean-Vilar, built in 1844.[10]
- The city has several beguinages, dating from the Middle-Age.
- The Fervaques palace: was built between 1897 and 1911, it is the place of High court.
- The Porte des Canonniers, a 17th century city gate
Museums
- Butterflies' Museum which has a collection of more than 600,000 insects, displaying 20,000 of them
- Antoine Lecuyer Museum which owns the largest collection of Maurice Quentin de La Tour's pastels
- Academic Society, archaeologic museum Société Académique de Saint-Quentin
Transport
The
Personalities
- Alexis Yetna, basketball player
- Viviane Adjutor, basketball player
- Anthony Benezet, American Abolitionist
- Dudo of Saint-Quentin (born ca. 965), historian
- linguist
- bibliophile
- William Cliff, inventor of machine-woven tulle
- Marc Delmas (1885–1931), Expressionist composer and biographer
- Jeanne-Marie de Maille (1331-1414), saint
- Antoine Francisque (c.1570–1605), lutenist and composer
- Jules Gallay (1822–1897), lawyer and music historian
- Alexandre Avez (1858-1896), politician
- NBA; 3x Defensive Player of the Year
- Kafetien Gomis(born 1980), athlete
- Étienne Mendy (born 1969), footballer
- explorer
- François-Noël Babeuf (1760–1797), known as Gracchus Babeuf, political agitator and journalist of the revolutionary period
- Charles Rogier (1800–1885), Belgian statesman
- Félix Davin (1807–1836), French poet and journalist
- Jean Leune (1889 - 1944), war correspondent, writer, military officer, and member of the French Resistance.
- Andre Trocmepacifist Protestant church leader.
- Yves Velan (1925-2017), Swiss writer
- Jean-Marie Lefèvre (born 1953), modernist and minimalist poet
- Xavier Bertrand (born 1965), former Minister of Labour, Social Relations, Family and Solidarity in François Fillon's second government, conservative
- Édouard Lucien Briquet (1854-1905) (engineer, left Paris under siege, going to work on the construction of the Trans-Saharan Railroad, in the 1870s. He moved to Brazil in 1883, working on several railroads in the interior of the country.
- Maïa Hirsch (born 2003), basketball player drafted by the WNBAin 2023.
Artists
- Mathieu (de) Bléville, born in Saint-Quentin at the beginning of the 16th century, painter on glass (vitraux).
- Pierre Berton (16th century), « Pierre de Saint-Quentin », stonecutter.
- Ulysse Butin (1838–1883), painter.
- John Cross, (1819-1861), English painter who studied at the Saint-Quentin School of Design
- Benoît Delépine (1958-), scriptwriter, actor.
- Michel Dorigny (1617–1665), painter and printmaker, professor at Painting Academy of Paris.
- Delphine Gleize (1973-), film director.
- Paul Guiramand, (1926–2007), painter and winner of the grand prix de Rome in 1953.
- Édouard Hippolyte Margottet (1848–1887), painter.
- Arthur Midy (1887–1944), painter.
- Amédée Ozenfant (1886–1966), leader of Purism, an avant-garde movement of the 1920s.
- Jean-Christophe Paré, (1957-) dancer and teacher.
- Julie-Marie Parmentier (1981-), actress.
- Maurice Pillarddit Verneuil, (born on 29 April 1869; died in 1942, Genève), well-known illustrator of Art nouveau.
- Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788), pastellist, he became famous by his portrait, portrait painter official of Louis XV, benefactor of the city (foundation of School of design Maurice Quentin de La Tour).
French sartorial heritage
The city was a pivotal centre of mulquinerie.
Incidents
On 30 March 2013 five children between the ages of two and ten, were killed in a house fire in the city.
Their parents had recently separated and their father was hosting the children at his new home for the first time for the weekend, as they had been spending most of their time with their mother. At 10:30pm local time on 30 March the fire started via an unknown cause. The children's father, alongside neighbours, made desperate attempts to save the children, but by the time the emergency services arrived, it was too late. The building was considered "too dangerous to enter" and the bodies of the five children were discovered once the fire was extinguished.
The children's father was seriously burned in a failed attempt to save his children's lives and jumped through a window to safety. He was hospitalised and wasn't informed until later on Sunday that his children had died. [1][2]
Twin towns - sister cities
Saint-Quentin is
- Kaiserslautern, Germany
- Rotherham, Yorkshire, England
- San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain
- Tongzhou (Beijing), China
See also
Gallery
-
The Basilica
-
The Basilica with renovations to front entrance
-
The Railway Station
-
Félix Davin (1807-1836), French poet and journalist
-
Facade of the old Carillon cinema
References
- ^ a b "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 2 December 2020.
- ^ "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
- ^ "Données climatiques de la station de Saint-Quentin" (in French). Meteo France. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ^ "Climat Picardie" (in French). Meteo France. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
- ^ "Normes et records 1961-1990: Saint-Quentin - Roupy (02) - altitude 98m" (in French). Infoclimat. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ^ Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Saint-Quentin, EHESS (in French).
- ^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
- ^ Base Mérimée: L'ancienne collégiale royale, puis église paroissiale, actuellement basilique Saint-Quentin, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
- ^ Base Mérimée: Hôtel de ville, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
- ^ Base Mérimée: Théâtre municipal, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
- ^ "Jumelages". saint-quentin.fr (in French). Saint-Quentin. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
External links
- Official website (in French and English)
- Official website of Saint-Quentin tourism office (in French and English)
- Historical footage of Saint-Quentin in World War I, europeanfilmgateway.eu