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Introduction

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Bayeux and its tapestry-Generalities

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Bayeux and its tapestry-Generalities

What the tapestry tells us

Bayeux was very fortunate to be the first liberated city of France on Jun 7 1944, without having suffered major damages and destructions. Call it a spoiled city since this is a rarity in the Normandy of the landing days. The old city is exactly the same as it was before WWII. It’s the capital of the BESSIN region and has to deal each year with hoards of tourists coming especially to visit the famous tapestry. But that's for later. Notice that Bayeux managed also to get preserved from too much modernity, no high rise, and no industry.

If there weren’t automobiles in the streets one could feel itself in the 19th century. A final word before I begin with history: there are other sites to see in Bayeux outside the tapestry, like it’s magnificent cathedral, the old town with its ancient houses and admirable hotels particuliers.
One of the first towns to be colonised by the Vikings. Its highlight period was under the Norman dukes like Odon, half brother of William the Conqueror who invaded good old Albion in 1066. It stayed under English rule during the Hundred Years War and becomes French again in 1450. The British came again but in……1944 to liberate the city from oppression!!
Bayeux has an agreeable nucleus of historic buildings running through the pedestrianised street Rue Saint-Jean. The famous TAPESTRY, you can call the largest and biggest comic strip in the world, is displayed in the CENTRE GUILLAUME LE CONQUERANT, occupying a former  seminary built in 1693. Magnificent example of roman art, this embroidered tapestry of 70 meters long and 450 cm high is not exactly a tapestry since it is not woven but more an embroidery. The Bayeux Tapestry has preserved the history of the Norman Conquest of England, and the saga of Harold of Wessex and Duke William of Normandy for over 900 years. Usually attributed to William's wife Matilda, the Bayeux Tapestry in fact was more likely commissioned by William's half-brother, Bishop Odon of Bayeux (also Earl of Kent), who ordered it from an English atelier in Canterbury (scholars see it like that since the style of the figures sewn in colored wools leads) for display in the Bayeux Cathedral, which was consecrated just eleven years after Hasting. It shows us many scenes of the battle of Hastings (1066) and thus the conquest of Great Britain by William the Conqueror. The Bayeux Tapestry was first mentioned in a 1476 inventory of the Bayeux Cathedral.
In 1792, French revolutionaries used this historical tapestry as a wagon cover until a local lawyer rescued it. Scholars believe two missing panels at the end may have portrayed William on the throne of England.
Today, the tapestry resides like a “Garboesque” recluse, in a dimly lit, bulletproof glassed gallery. A guided commentary is available on headphones, though it is advisable to spend a preliminary hour or so in the Centre’s upper floors, where a cinema and exhibitions set out the background to the tapestry.
Next essay a few anecdotes about the tapestry.

Bibliography

A holiday history of France, by Ronald Hamilton (London-Hogarth press), Region Normandie, ses merveilles, ses cicatrices, by Louis Letellier (ed. Cloison, Rouen 1995), Identity of France, by Fernand Braudel (London, Fontana Press), Odo’s Hanging, by Peter Benson (Hodder and Stoughton, London), The Bayeux Tapestry, by David M. Wilson (Thames and Hudson, London).

Bayeux contents

Cathedral and Commonwealth Cemetery