The Cateau Cambrésis
Situated in the Selle valley, the Cateau-Cambresis town occupies a privileged position between the plains of the Cambresis and meadows of the Avesnois. This position of crossroads marked its millennium history and the two belfries which dominate the town are the witnesses the most emblematic.
The formation of the Cateau goes back to the year 1000 from the union of two villages on both sides of the Selle. The town developed itself under The Cambrai archbishop sovereignty who had the right to fortify the Castle, to strike coins, to have a market and to perceive taxes by the Otton III Emperor in 1001. The Cteau became an important commercial place but its delicate position of frontier town had been devastated several times in particular by French troops. However, its neutrality turned the Cateau-Cambresis into a diplomatic place: it welcomed in 1559, plenipotentiaries came to negotiate the famous Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. This treaty was signed on the one hand between France and Spain, on the other hand between France and England to balance the great European powers.
After the unification with the French crown by the Nimegue Treaty of 1678, the Cateau and its lordship belonged to the archbishop of Cambrai and kept certain privileges until the Revolution. The XIX century and the Industrial Revolution were a turning point in the history of the city. The arrival of numerous industries provoked an enormous demographic boom, the number of inhabitants was to double in 50 years. This period was marked by the paternalist domination of the Seydoux’s family who made of the Cateau, one of the most important wool centre of the North of France. The First World War and bloodies fights of August 1914 and of October 1918, devastated the town. Even if, textile industry decline affected the town in the 70s, the Cateau-Cambresis found a new vitality thanks to tourism. Indeed, it preserves a monumental patrimony of quality, the Saint Andre abbey-church, the religious architecture masterpiece of the XVII century, the Town Hall and its belfry of the XVI and the XVIII centuries, the Lefebvre brewery, fascinating exemple of the industrial architecture. Above all, the Fenelon Palace which shelters an exceptional museum: the Henri Matisse departmental museum. In 1952, the painter gave an important collection to his town where he was born and it enriched as time goes by with other paintings of the artist. Set up since 1982 in the former residence of Cambrai archbishop, built in XVIII century and renovated recently, the Matisse Museum insures beyond regional frontiers, the reputation of this 7500 inhabitants’ city.
