Guise

Dungeon and basse court of the Château de Guise

Coat of arms

Guise

Location within Hauts-de-France region

Guise

Coordinates: 49°54′03″N 3°37′42″E / 49.9008°N 3.6283°ECoordinates: 49°54′03″N 3°37′42″E / 49.9008°N 3.6283°E

Country

Government

• Mayor (2008–2014)

Hugues Cochet

Area¹

16.13 km² (6.23 sq mi)

Population (2012)²

5,182

• Density

320/km² (830/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

INSEE/Postal code

02361 /02120

Elevation

91–157 m (299–515 ft)
(avg. 97 m or 318 ft)

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

²Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Guise is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.

The ruins of the medieval castle of Guise, seat of the Dukes of Guise, are located in the commune.

Guise is the agricultural centre of the northern area of Aisne.

Guise was the birthplace of Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794), a journalist and politician who played an important part in the French Revolution.

Over a period of 20 years, beginning about 1856, Jean-Baptiste Godin built Le Familistère (the Social Palace), an industrial and communal residential complex that was a separate community within Guise. It expressed many of his ideas about developing social sympathy through improved housing and services for workers and their families, influenced by the ideas of the philosopher Charles Fourier. In 1880 Godin created a cooperative association by which the workers owned and managed the complex. This continued until 1968.

On the 29th of August 1914 the Battle of St. Quentin (1914) was fought in and around the town. A memorial in Guise celebrates this event.

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Wikipedia