Audruicq

Audruicq
Audruicq
Location within Nord-Pas-de-Calais region Audruicq
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardy
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Saint-Omer
Canton	Audruicq
Intercommunality	Région d'Audruicq
Government
• Mayor	Nicole Chevalier
Area1	14.44 km2 (5.58 sq mi)
Population (2009)2	4,741
• Density	330/km2 (850/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	62057 / 62370
Elevation	3–22 m (9.8–72.2 ft) (avg. 10 m or 33 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Audruicq (in Dutch: Ouderwijk) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.

Geography

A town located 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Calais, at the junction of the D224 with the D309 road.

History

Baldwin II, Count of Flanders named it a city in 1175, rebuilding the castle and converting the surrounding marshland to tillable soil. After continuously changing authority between the 13th century and the 17th century, Audruicq finally became a French town after the Peace of Nijmegen in 1678.

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1962	3,388	—
1968	3,606	+6.4%
1975	3,616	+0.3%
1982	4,078	+12.8%
1990	4,586	+12.5%
1999	4,555	−0.7%
2009	4,741	+4.1%

Sights

• The eighteenth-century church of St. Martin.
• The eighteenth-century château.

Personalities

• Gilbert Brazy: Born at Audruicq on 15 February 1902. A pilot, he disappeared, flying a "Latham47" in the Arctic in 1928 with Roald Amundsen.1

International relations

Audruicq is twinned with: Hawkhurst in Kent, England, since 1998.

See also

• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department

References

• INSEE commune file

External links

• Audruicq, a stroll in the past
• Audruicq on the Quid website (French)
• The German Air Force in the Great War The 1916 bombing of the ammunition dump at Audruicq