Wissant
| Wissant | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
|
||
 Wissant
|
||
|
Location within Hauts-de-France region
Wissant
|
||
| Coordinates: 50°53′10″N 1°39′49″E / 50.8861°N 1.6636°ECoordinates: 50°53′10″N 1°39′49″E / 50.8861°N 1.6636°E | ||
| Country | France | |
| Region | Hauts-de-France | |
| Department | Pas-de-Calais | |
| Arrondissement | Boulogne-sur-Mer | |
| Canton | Desvres | |
| Intercommunality | TDC | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor (2014-2020) | Bernard Bracq | |
| Area1 | 12.79 km2 (4.94 sq mi) | |
| Population (2014)2 | 998 | |
| • Density | 78/km2 (200/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 62899 /62179 | |
| Elevation | 0–158 m (0–518 ft) (avg. 17 m or 56 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.
Wissant (from Dutch "wit zand"; equal to English "white sand") is a seaside commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
Wissant is a fishing port and farming village located approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of Boulogne, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) west-southwest of Calais, 36 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of Dover, 53 kilometres (33 mi) west-southwest of Dunkirk, 66 kilometres (41 mi) from the Belgian coast, 191 kilometres (119 mi) north of Le Havre, 523 kilometres (325 mi) northeast of Brest, and 231 kilometres (144 mi) north of Paris, at the junction of the D238 and the D940 roads, on the English Channel coast.
Located at the eastern end of a lagoon formed by a storm-breach of the coastal dunes, probably in the mid-10th century, Wissant has been a fishing village for a millennium: along with Audresselles it is the last fishing village in France to use a traditional method of fishing using a wooden boat called a and was in the Middle Ages a major port for embarkation for England: In a mid-11th century Life of St. Vulganius, Wissant was specified, probably anachronistically, as the natural disembarkation point for the early eighth-century Celtic saint in his evangelizing travels. Wissant was the embarkation port of Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester, for his ill-fated invasion of England in 1173, with an army of 3000 Flemings.Henry III of England of England was stranded at Wissant for lack of cash. According to Matthew Paris (mid-13th century) its naucleri habitually interfered with English fishing fleets.
...
Wikipedia