Kaldenbourg
Type: City
Date of foundation: May 3rd 1135
Current extent: 12,84 km
2
Population: 11.293.203 inhabitants in decline
Location: Frogne : Ardennes-Capitale
Past possessions: Holy Roman Empire (1135 - 1790), French Republic (1790 - 1794), Ecological Republic of Frogne (1794 - 1877 and 1881 - Present) and Frognois Communist Union (1877 - 1881)
Protected by: Government
Description:
Records dating back to 1135 written in Latin prove that Count Conrad II Kalden of Luxembourg erected a city named Kaldenurbs in Latin and Kaldenstadt in German, literally "city of Kalden".
However, no trace of prehistory exists apart from a menhir located just in front of the town hall and which has become a memorial to the bombings of 1915-1917.
In 1151, Henry V Kalden was the first count crowned in the cathedral of Kaldenburg built the same year and one year after the declaration of protection of the city by Pope Eugene III.
The city became the capital of the Ardennes region in 1154 and its city center that we know today was completed in 1157.
The last earl of the Kalden dynasty died in 1767.
The 17th and 18th centuries were the best period in the history of the city.
The municipal territory was tripled in 1661, all the streets were paved from 1663, the Palais Charles Quint (theatre), the Hôtel Roi-Soleil and the Constansia Square were erected the following year and finally, Kaldenbourg welcomed artists from all over Europe between 1668 and 1789, notably Molière in 1668, Jean de La Fontaine in 1671, Jerzy Siemiginowski-Eleuter in 1675, Stanislas Solski in 1677, John Sebastian Bach in 1701 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1789.
In 1790, Revolutionary France seized the city without damaging it and it was the famous Napoleon Bonaparte who was at the head of the Belgian states until their independence in 1794, the year of the creation of the current Frogne.
From 1796, a large Polish minority was present in the city following the third partition of their country a year earlier and is still present today.
During the war against the Kingdom of France in 1823, Kaldenbourg was called a "hero city" for having stopped and repelled the French.
The 1860s were the "Haussmann period" with the first limestone and slate buildings to be built in the country which sprang up en masse.
During the communist era, an underground state took Kaldenbourg as its capital to break the tyranny of Anders Hitine.
In 1915 and 1917, in addition to bombardments, the Germans tried to enter the city in vain.
In 1940, to protect the national borders, the Curtain of the Plains was built in Kaldenbourg.
In 1973, the city needed to accommodate more residents and its population soared to 9.5 million.
Today, it is the capital of Frogne and many tourists from all over the world come every day to visit Kaldenbourg, rich in 900 years of history.
The Constansia Square
- 280px-Chartres_cathedral.jpg (15.62 KiB) Viewed 761 times
The Cathedral of Kaldenbourg
The current territory of the city