Colombey-les-Deux-Églises

Colombey-les-Deux-Églises

Colombey-les-Deux-Églises

Commune in Grand Est, France

Colombey-les-Deux-Églises (French pronunciation: [kɔlɔ̃bɛ le dø.z‿eɡliz] ⓘ) is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France. It is best known as the home of Charles de Gaulle.

Quick Facts Country, Region ...

The municipality of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises was created administratively in 1793, and it became part of the district of Chaumont and the canton of Blaise. In 1801, under the name Colombey, it passed to the canton Juzennecourt. In 1972, it absorbed the communes Argentolles, Biernes, Blaise, Champcourt, Harricourt, Pratz and Lavilleneuve-aux-Fresnes.[2] On 1 January 2017, the former commune of Lamothe-en-Blaisy was merged into Colombey-les-Deux-Églises.[3]

Colombey's name means "cemetery", from the Latin colombarium. The "two churches" referenced in the name are the parish church, Notre-Dame-en-son-Assomption, and the pre-revolutionary Cluniac priory of Saint-Jean-Baptiste.[4][5]

Charles de Gaulle

La Boisserie, the home of Charles de Gaulle at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises

Colombey achieved fame as the home and burial site of the 20th-century soldier and statesman Charles de Gaulle, who acquired a substantial property on the southwestern edge of the village in 1934. De Gaulle withdrew repeatedly to Colombey when his political fortunes waned, first on the establishment of the Fourth Republic in 1946, and then between 1953 and 1958, before he became president again at the height of the Algerian Crisis. His final withdrawal to Colombey came in 1969 and he died there the following year. "Colombey" became widely used as a political metaphor for a statesman's temporary withdrawal from political life until his country came calling for him again.

The church of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises

De Gaulle is buried in the cemetery in Colombey, in a humble grave with the inscription "Charles de Gaulle 1890-1970". In addition, a 145 ft (44.3 m) high Cross of Lorraine was built at the western exit of the village, commemorating his distinguished wartime role as commander of the Free French Forces. A memorial museum was inaugurated in October 2008 by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. This joint Franco-German act marked the fiftieth anniversary of talks in Colombey on 14 September 1958 between Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, as part of the process of post-war reconciliation.

Geography

The River Blaise flows through the commune.

History

On September 14, 1958, Charles de Gaulle received Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on a private visit to La Boisserie.

In May 2023, the commune welcomed 32 families fleeing the war in Ukraine, helping more than 80 people.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
  2. [2]
    Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, EHESS (in French).
  3. [3]
    Arrêté préfectoral 30 November 2016 (in French)
  4. [4]
    "Recherches sur les origines médiévales de l'histoire de Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises" (PDF) (in French). Fondation Charles de Gaulle. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  5. [5]
    Roserot, Alphonse (1903). Dictionnaire Topographique du Département de la Haute-Marne (in French). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. p. 49.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Colombey les Deux Églises.


Stub icon

This geography Haute-Marne article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.