Fleury-sur-Orne
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Expand French Template:Infobox French commune
Fleury-sur-Orne (Template:IPA, literally Fleury on Orne) is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It is part of the Communauté urbaine Caen la Mer and of the agglomeration of Caen.<ref>Commune de Fleury-sur-Orne (14271), INSEE</ref>
Geography
The river Orne is the only watercourse to flow through the commune.<ref>Template:Sandre</ref>
History
Until 1916 Fleury-sur-Orne was known as Allemagne (Calvados) after the Alamanni tribe which once guarded the ford across the Orne.<ref name="histname">Template:Cite news</ref> During the First World War this name, meaning in French Germany, became inconvenient and embarrassing for the inhabitants (unlike those of Allemagne-en-Provence in Southern France).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The town council therefore decided on 23 August 1916, to change the name and to call it Fleury-sur-Orne in memory of the commune of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, a commune of the Meuse (in 1914: 422 inhabitants, school, church, town hall, 13 tradesmen, 10 landholding farmers), which was destroyed in 1916.<ref name="histname"/>
Massacre of the Athis fort
In 1047, Duke William of Normandy (later William the Conqueror), helped by Henry I, king of France, put an end to a revolt of Norman barons at the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes, close to the villages of Chicheboville, Secqueville, Vimont and Bourguébus.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Little is known about this battle, but it seems to have been a purely cavalry contest, with neither infantry nor archers playing a significant role.
After a series of disorderly cavalry skirmishes, the rebellious barons fled. They were slaughtered as they tried to cross the Orne, at the Athis fort close to Fleury-sur-Orne. Carried downstream en masse, the bodies of the massacred knights blocked the mill of Barbillon on the level of current Ile Enchantée.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The victory allowed William to remain Duke of Normandy, thus setting the stage for his later brilliant battles and statecraft.
Population
Template:Historical populations
Points of Interest
National heritage sites
The commune has two sites listed as a Monument historique.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Église Notre-Dame d'Allemagne-la-Basse - an eleventh centaury church registered as a monument in 1913.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- house - a private dwelling built in 1717 registered as a monument in 2009.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Personalities
- Nicole Oresme (1325 – 1382), also known as Nicolas Oresme, Nicholas Oresme, or Nicolas d'Oresme, a philosopher of the later Middle Ages, was born here.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Twin towns – sister cities
Template:See also Fleury-sur-Orne is twinned with:<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:Flagicon Ouonck, senegal. Since 1992
- Template:Flagicon Waldbüttelbrunn, Germany. Since 1994
- Template:Flagicon Karpoš, North Macedonia. Since 2012
- Template:Flagicon Mar del Plata, Argentina. Since 2016