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From, Beautiful Buildings in France & Belgium, Including many which have been destroyed during the war. Reproductions in Colour and Monochrome from rare old Prints and Drawings, by and after Prout, Boys, Coney, W. Callow, David Roberts, C. Wild and others, with descriptive notes, by C. Harrison Townsend, F.R.I.B.A.; New York: The Hubbell Publishing Co., 1916; pp. 82-85.


82


CALAIS :  HÔTEL DE VILLE

(J. Coney)

Black and white drawing of the Hôtel de Ville in Calais.  Late Renaissance in origin; built in 1740.  The Tour due Guet is on the left side of the picture. There are people in front of it, and a horse-drawn carriage.



83

Calais

HÔTEL DE VILLE

(J. Coney.)

Block Print of the decorated letter THE spirit of the old and sleepy Calais of Coney’s time, and its difference from the busy arrival and starting point for continental travel of to-day, are made clear to us from his drawing. Then an important harbour, certainly, but of moderate proportions, it is now a huge shipping and naval centre, with docks and harbour upon which, of late years, no less than £3,000,000 have been laid out.

The Hôtel de Ville, in the Place d’Armes, the subject of the sketch, is a late Renaissance building of 1740, standing on the site of an earlier building. The bronze 84 busts surrounding the balcony commemorate Richelieu, the founder of the Citadel, which overlooks the town on the west, and the Duc de Guise, “libérateur de Calais” in 1558. The Belfry is a portion, somewhat modernized, of the older building, and belongs to the XVIth and early XVIIth centuries. To the left of the picture is the Tour du Guet, a massive watch-tower, used as a lighthouse till 1848.

The ramparts of Old Calais — a portion of the town separated by the harbour from Calais St. Pierre, the newer industrial portion of the town — have been demolished and replaced by a new circle of defences and a deep moat.



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Copyright  © 2007 by Elfinspell


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