Lessay

Lessay is a commune in the Manche department in north-western France. On 1 January 2016, the former commune of Angoville-sur-Ay was merged into Lessay.[2]

Lessay
Commune
Town square
Location of Lessay
Lessay
Lessay
Coordinates: 49°13′05″N 1°31′46″W
CountryFrance
RegionNormandy
DepartmentManche
ArrondissementCoutances
CantonCréances
Area
1
28.95 km2 (11.18 sq mi)
Population
 (2017-01-01)[1]
2,245
 • Density78/km2 (200/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
50267 /50430
Elevation5–42 m (16–138 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.

Geography

Lessay is a small town in the centre of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy.

History

It was founded as a monastery but a town grew up around it over the years. The 10th-century Lessay Abbey is one of the greatest examples of Romanesque architecture in Normandy. It was largely destroyed by fighting in the town during July–August 1944, but has been rebuilt.

Heraldry
Arms of Lessay
 The arms of Lessay are blazoned :
Sable, a woodsman's axe palewise Or, blade to sinister.

Points of interest
  • LORAN-C transmitter Lessay
  • La Foire: the Sainte Croix fair of Lessay is a trade fair established in the 11th century in order to develop commercial activity in the village. For three days in the second week of September, 42 acres (170,000 m2) of Lessay is transformed into a marketplace, attracting over 400,000 visitors. The fair offers demonstrations of old and new trades, thousands of stalls selling a range of products from household equipment to animals, food, cars and garden and agricultural tools.[3]
  • Lessay was the location for the studio for English language commercial radio station Contact 94 which was aimed at the Channel Islands before they had commercial radio of their own. The station launched on 5 September 1988 and closed in 1991.

See also

References
  1. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. Arrêté préfectoral 28 September 2015 (in French)
  3. Lessay et son canton à travers les siècles by Michel Pinel
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.