Vimy.html



Coordinates: 50°22′24″N 2°48′41″E / 50.3733333333, 2.81138888889

Commune of Vimy
Location
Administration
Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Arras
Canton	Vimy
Intercommunality	Communaupole de Lens-Liévin
Mayor	Lionel Lancry (2008-2014)
Statistics
Elevation	49 m–146 m (avg. 71 m)
Land area¹	11,33 km²
Population² (1999)	4675
- Density	412/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	62861/ 62580
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: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

Vimy is a commune and chief town of a canton in the Pas-de-Calais département in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.

Geography & History

Eastern Pas-de-Calais (Béthune, Lens, Hénin-Beaumont)

A farming town, situated some 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Arras, at the junction of the D51 and the N17 roads.

The town was first mentioned in 1183 as ‘’Viniarcum’’ and was the scene of much fighting during the fourteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, between the French, English, Dutch and Spanish forces.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge took place southeast of Vimy and was an important battle of the First World War for Canadian military history. The town was practically destroyed during the fighting in the area.

Places of interest

Canadian National Vimy Memorial Park

Main article: Canadian National Vimy Memorial

The front of the Vimy Ridge Memorial

Set on the highest point of Vimy Ridge is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, the largest of Canada's war monuments. In 1922, use of the land, for the battlefield park which contains the memorial was granted, in perpetuity, for all time by the French nation to the people of Canada in recognition of Canada's war efforts.¹ 250 acres (100 ha) of the former Vimy Ridge battlefield is preserved as part of the memorial park which surrounds the monument. The grounds of the site are still honeycombed with wartime tunnels, trenches and craters, closed off for public safety.

The memorial took eleven years and $1.5 million to build and was unveiled on 26 July 1936 by King Edward VIII (prior to his abdication), in the presence of President Albert Lebrun of France and 50,000 or more Canadian and French veterans and their families.

The memorial site is tended by Veterans Affairs Canada.

Town of Vimy

• The church of St.Martin, rebuilt, along with much of the village, after World War I.

Vimy church

• The remains of a thirteenth century castle, destroyed in 1833, now the site of the current town hall.

Population

Twinned with

• Horley in Surrey, England.
• Fischach in Bavaria, Germany.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Vimy

• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department
• Canadian National Vimy Memorial
• Battle of Vimy Ridge

External links

• Official website of the commune (French)
• Vimy on the Quid website (French)

Notes

• This article is based on the original and the equivalent article from the French Wikipedia, consulted on July 7th 2008.

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