Guînes

Template:Infobox commune in France/maintenance/alternate coat of arms in Wikidata

Guînes (Flemish Giezene) is a French commune with 5619 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2018) in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region; it is part of the Calais arrondissement and the Calais-2 canton.

The commune is part of the Caps et Marais d'Opale Regional Natural Park.

History

Guînes was the capital of the county of Guînes in the Middle Ages. The Normans built a fort here in 928, which they surrounded with a double moat. Count Robert Manasse founded a Benedictine monastery near his castle, dedicated to Saint Leonard of Limoges. Count Balduin II had the old wooden castle replaced by a stone one at the end of the 11th century and surrounded the town with a wall. Three years after the conquest of Calais, on January 22, 1351, the castle of Guînes was surrendered to the English by treachery. The Peace of Brétigny then surrendered the town and the county entirely to the English.

A few kilometres to the south-east, south of the hamlet of Campagne les Guînes, there was a German Luftwaffe airfield during the Second World War. The German Air Force used it during the Battle of Britain. Major parts of the Bf 109 equipped fighter squadron 54 (JG 54) were based here. Its staff was based here between the beginning of August and the beginning of December 1940, from the end of August under the command of Obstlt. Hannes Trautloft. Between the end of July and the end of September the I. (I./JG 54) and afterwards until the end of November the II. Group (II./JG 54). Today the railway line to the canal tunnel cuts through the former airfield.

Place des Tilleuls. In the background, the Tour de l'Horloge on the medieval motte.

Population development

• 1962: 4.724
• 1968: 4.984
• 1975: 5.034
• 1982: 5.174
• 1990: 5.105
• 1999: 5.221