Online Encyclopedia

BOULOGNE, or BOULLONGNE

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 324 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

BOULOGNE, or BOULLONGNE  , the name of a
See also:
family of French painters . Louis (1609-1674), who was one of the
See also:
original members of the Academy of
See also:
Painting and Sculpture (1648), became celebrated under Louis XIV . His traditions were continued by his children: GENEVIEVE (1645-1708), who married the sculptor Jacques Clerion; MADELEINE (1646-1710), whose
See also:
work survives in the Trophees d'armes at
See also:
Versailles; BoN (1649-1717), a successful teacher and decorative artist; and Lours the younger (1654-1733), who copied Raphael's cartoons for the Gobelins
See also:
tapestry, and besides taking a high place as a painter was also a designer of medals . BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, a fortified seaport of
See also:
northern France and chief
See also:
town of an arrondissement in Pas-de-
See also:
Calais, situated on the
See also:
shore of the
See also:
English Channel at the mouth of the
See also:
river Liane, 157 M . N.N.W. of Paris on the Northern railway, and 28 m. by sea S.E. of
See also:
Folkestone, Kent . Pop . (1906) 49,636 . Boulogne occupies the
See also:
summit and slopes of a ridge of hills skirting the right
See also:
bank of the Liane; the
See also:
industrial quarter of Capecure extends along the opposite bank, and is reached by two bridges, while the river is also crossed by a double railway viaduct . The town consists of two parts, the Haute Ville and the Basse Ville . The former, situated on the top of the hill, is of comparatively small extent, and forms almost a parallelogram, surrounded by ramparts of the 13th century, and, outside them, by boulevards, and entered by ancient gateways . In this
See also:
part are the law court, the chateau and the hotel de ville (built in the 18th century), and a belfry tower of the 13th and 17th centuries is in the immediate neighbourhood . In the chateau .

(13th century) now used as

barracks, the emperor
See also:
Napoleon III. was confined after the abortive insurrection of 1840 . At some distance north-west stands the church of Notre-Dame, a well-known place of pilgrimage, erected (1827-1866) on the site of an old
See also:
building destroyed in the Revolution, of which the extensive crypt still remains . The
See also:
modern town stretches from the
See also:
foot of the hill to the harbour, along which it extends, terminating in an expanse of sandy
See also:
beach frequented by bathers, and provided with a bathing establishment and casino . It contains several good streets, some of which are, however, very steep . A main street, named successively rue de la Lampe, St Nicolas and Grande rue, extends from the
See also:
bridge across the Liane to the
See also:
promenade by the side of the ramparts . This is intersected first by the Quai Gambetta, and farther back by the rue Victor Hugo and the rue Nationale, which contain the
See also:
principal shops . The public buildings include several modern churches, two hospitals and a museum with collections of antiquities, natural
See also:
history,
See also:
porcelain, &c . Connected with the museum is a public library with 75,000 volumes and a number of valuable
See also:
manuscripts, many of them richly illuminated . There are English churches in the town, and numerous boarding-
See also:
schools intended for English pupils . Boulogne is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France . There are also communal colleges, a
See also:
national school of
See also:
music, and schools of hydrography, commerce and industry . Boulogne has for a long time been one of the most anglicized of French cities; and in the tourist season a continuous stream of English travellers reach the continent at this point .

The harbour is formed by the mouth of the Liane . Two jetties enclose a channel leading into the river, which forms a tidal

basin with a
See also:
depth at
See also:
neap-tides of 24 ft . Alongside this is an extensive
See also:
dock, and behind it an inner
See also:
port . There is also a tidal basin opening off the entrance channel . The depth of
See also:
water in the river-harbour is 33 ft. at spring-tide and 24 ft. at neap-tide; in the sluice of the dock the numbers are 291 and 231 respectively . The commerce of Boulogne consists chiefly in the importation of jute, wool,
See also:
woven goods of
See also:
silk and,wool, skins, threads,
See also:
coal,
See also:
timber, and iron and steel, and the exportation of wine, woven goods, table fruit, potatoes and other vegetables, skins, motor-cars,
See also:
forage and cement . The
See also:
average
See also:
annual value of the exports in the five years 190I-1905 was £10,953,000 (£11,704,000 in the years 1896-1900), and of the imports £6,064,000 (£7,003,000 in the years 1896-1900) . From 1901 to 1905 the annual average of vessels entered, exclusive of fishing-smacks, was 2735,
See also:
tonnage 1,747,699; and cleared 2750, tonnage 1,748,297 . The
See also:
total number of passengers between Folkestone and Boulogne in 1906 was 295,000 or 49 % above the average for the years 1901-1905 . These travelled by the steamers of the South-Eastern & Chatham railway
See also:
company . The liners of the Dutch-
See also:
American,
See also:
Hamburg-American and other companies also call at the port . In the extent and value of its
See also:
fisheries Boulogne is exceeded by no seaport in France .

The most important branch is the

herring-fishery; next in value is the
See also:
mackerel . Large quantities of fresh fish are transmitted to Paris by railway, but an abundant supply is reserved to the town itself . The fishermen live for the most part in a
See also:
separate quarter called La Beurriere, situated in the upper part of the town . In 1905 the fisheries of Boulogne and the neighbouring
See also:
village of Staples employed over 400 boats and 4500 men, the value of the fish taken being estimated at £1,025,000 . Among the numerous industrial establishments in Boulogne and its environs may be mentioned foundries, cement-factories, important steel-pen manufactories, oil-
See also:
works, dye-works, fish-curing works,
See also:
flax-mills, saw-mills, and manufactories of
See also:
cloth, fireproof
See also:
ware,
See also:
chocolate, boots and shoes, and
See also:
soap .
See also:
Shipbuilding is also carried on . Among the
See also:
objects of
See also:
interest in the neighbourhood the most remarkable is the Colonne de la Grande Armee, erected on the high ground above the town, in honour of Napoleon I., on occasion of the projected invasion of England, for which he here made
See also:
great preparations . The pillar, which is of the Doric order, 166 ft. high, is surmounted by a statue of the emperor by A . S . Bosio . Though begun in 1804, the monument was not completed till 1841 . On the edge of the cliff to the east of the port are some rude brick remains of an old building called Tour d'Ordre, said to be the ruins of a tower built by Caligula at the time of his intended invasion of Britain .

Boulogne is identified with the Gessoriacum of the

Romans, under whom it was an important harbour . It is suggested that it was the
See also:
Portus Itius where
See also:
Julius Caesar assembled his
See also:
fleet (see ITIUS PORTUS) . At an early period it began to be known as Bononia, a name which has been gradually modified into the
See also:
present form . The town was destroyed by the
See also:
Normans in 882, but restored about 912 . During the Carolingian period Boulogne was the chief town of a countship that was for long the subject of dispute between Flanders and Ponthieu . From the
See also:
year 965 it belonged to the house of Ponthieu, of which Godfrey of
See also:
Bouillon, the first king of Jerusalem, was a
See also:
scion . Stephen of
See also:
Blois, who became king of England in 1135, had married Mahaut, daughter and heiress of Eustace, count of Boulogne . Their daughter Mary married Matthew of Alsace (d . 1173), and her daughter
See also:
Ida (d . 1216) married Renaud of
See also:
Dammartin . Of this last
See also:
marriage was issue Mahaut, countess of Boulogne, wife of Philip Hurepel (d . 1234), a son of King Philip Augustus .

To her succeeded the house of

Brabant, issue of Mahaut of Boulogne,
See also:
sister of Ida, and wife of Henry I. of Brabant; and then the house of
See also:
Auvergne, issue of Alice, daughter of Henry I . .of Brabant, inherited the Boulonnais . It remained in the possession of descendants of these families until Philip the Good, duke of
See also:
Burgundy, seized upon it in 1419 . In 1477 Louis XI. of France reconquered it, and reunited it to the French
See also:
crown, giving Lauraguais as compensation to Bertrand IV. de la Tour, count of Auvergne, heir of the house of Auvergne . To avoid doing homage to Mary of Burgundy, suzerain of the Boulonnais and countess of
See also:
Artois, Louis XI. declared the countship of Boulogne to be held in
See also:
fee of Our Lady of Boulogne . In 1544 Henry VIII.—more successful in this than Henry III. had been in 1J47—took the town by siege; but it was restored to France in 1550, From 1566 to the end of the 18th century it was the seat of a bishopric . BOULOGNE-SUR-SEINE, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine, on the right bank of the Seine, S.W. of Paris and immediately outside the fortifications . Pop . (1906) 49,412 . The town has a
See also:
Gothic church of the 14th and 15th centuries (restored in 1863) founded in honour of Notre-Dame of Boulogne-sur-Mer . To this fact is due the name of the place, which was previously called Menus-
See also:
les-St Cloud . Laundrying is extensively carried on as well as the manufacture of metal boxes, soap, oil and furniture, and there are numerous handsome residences .

For the neighbouring Bois de Boulogne see PARIS .

End of Article: BOULOGNE, or BOULLONGNE
[back]
ANDRE CHARLES BOULLE (1642–1732)
[next]
MATTHEW BOULTON (1728-1809)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.