Dunkirk
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Dunkirk (Page Module:IPA/styles.css has no content.UK: /dʌnˈkɜːrk/ Script error: No such module "Respell".; Page Module:IPA/styles.css has no content.US: /ˈdʌnkɜːrk/ Script error: No such module "Respell".;[2][3] Template:Langx Script error: No such module "IPA".; Picard: Dunkèke; Template:Langx; Template:Langx or Script error: No such module "Lang".) is a major port city in the department of Nord in northern France.[4] It lies on the North Sea, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the Belgian border. It has the third-largest French harbour. The population of the commune is about 86,000.
Etymology and language use
The name of Dunkirk derives from West Flemish Script error: No such module "Lang". 'dune' or 'dun' and Script error: No such module "Lang". 'church', thus 'church in the dunes'.[5] A smaller town 25 km (15 miles) farther up the Flemish coast originally shared the same name, but it was later renamed Oostduinkerke ('East Dunkirk') in order to avoid confusion.
Until the middle of the 20th century, French Flemish (the local variety of Dutch) was commonly spoken.
History
Middle Ages
A fishing village arose late in the tenth century, in the originally flooded coastal area of the English Channel south of the Western Scheldt, when the area was held by the Counts of Flanders, vassals of the French Crown. About AD 960, Count Baldwin III had a town wall erected in order to protect the settlement against Viking raids. The surrounding wetlands were drained and cultivated by the monks of nearby Bergues Abbey. The name Dunkirka was first mentioned in a tithe privilege of 27 May 1067, issued by Count Baldwin V of Flanders.[citation needed] Count Philip I (1157–1191) brought further large tracts of marshland under cultivation, laid out the first plans to build a Canal from Dunkirk to Bergues and vested the Dunkirkers with market rights.
In the late 13th century, when the Dampierre count Guy of Flanders entered into the Franco-Flemish War against his suzerain King Philippe IV of France, the citizens of Dunkirk sided with the French against their count, who at first was defeated at the 1297 Battle of Furnes, but reached de facto autonomy upon the victorious Battle of the Golden Spurs five years later and exacted vengeance. Guy's son, Count Robert III (1305–1322), nevertheless granted further city rights to Dunkirk; his successor Count Louis I (1322–1346) had to face the Peasant revolt of 1323–1328, which was crushed by King Philippe VI of France at the 1328 Battle of Cassel, whereafter the Dunkirkers again were affected by the repressive measures of the French king.
Count Louis remained a loyal vassal of the French king upon the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War with England in 1337, and prohibited the maritime trade, which led to another revolt by the Dunkirk citizens. After the count had been killed in the 1346 Battle of Crécy, his son and successor Count Louis II of Flanders (1346–1384) signed a truce with the English; the trade again flourished and the port was significantly enlarged. However, in the course of the Western Schism from 1378, English supporters of Pope Urban VI (the Roman claimant) disembarked at Dunkirk, captured the city and flooded the surrounding estates. They were ejected by King Charles VI of France, but left great devastations in and around the town.
Upon the extinction of the Counts of Flanders with the death of Louis II in 1384, Flanders was acquired by the Burgundian, Duke Philip the Bold. The fortifications were again enlarged, including the construction of a belfry daymark (a navigational aid similar to a non-illuminated lighthouse). As a strategic point, Dunkirk has always been exposed to political greed, by Duke Robert I of Bar in 1395, by Louis de Luxembourg in 1435 and finally by the Austrian archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg, who in 1477 married Mary of Burgundy, sole heiress of late Duke Charles the Bold. As Maximilian was the son of Emperor Frederick III, all Flanders was immediately seized by King Louis XI. However, the archduke defeated the French troops in 1479 at the Battle of Guinegate. When Mary died in 1482, Maximilian retained Flanders according to the terms of the 1482 Treaty of Arras. Dunkirk, along with the rest of Flanders, was incorporated into the Habsburg Netherlands and upon the 1581 secession of the Seven United Netherlands, remained part of the Southern Netherlands, which were held by Habsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands) as Imperial fiefs.
Corsair base
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File:Flag of the Low Countries.svg Burgundian Netherlands 1384–1482
File:Flag of Cross of Burgundy.svg Habsburg Netherlands 1482–1556
File:Flag of Cross of Burgundy.svg Spanish Netherlands 1556–1577
File:Statenvlag.svg Dunkirk Rebels 1577–1583
File:Flag of Cross of Burgundy.svg Spanish Netherlands 1583–1646
File:Royal Standard of the King of France.svg France 1646–1652
File:Flag of Cross of Burgundy.svg Spanish Netherlands 1652–1658
File:Flag of England.svgFile:Royal Standard of the King of France.svg England and France 1658–1659
File:Flag of England.svg England 1659–1662
File:Royal Standard of the King of France.svgFile:Flag of France (1794–1815, 1830–1958).svg France 1662–1870
File:Flag of the German Empire.svg Prussian occupation 1870–1873
File:Flag of France.svg France 1873–1940
File:Flag of Germany (1935–1945).svg German occupation 1940–1945
File:Flag of France.svg France 1945–present
The area remained much disputed between Spain, the Netherlands, England and France. At the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, Dunkirk was briefly in the hands of the Dutch rebels, from 1577. Spanish forces under Duke Alexander Farnese of Parma re-established Spanish rule in 1583 and it became a base for the notorious Dunkirkers. The Dunkirkers briefly lost their home port when the city was conquered by the French in 1646 but Spanish forces recaptured the city in 1652. In 1658, as a result of the long war between France and Spain, it was captured after a siege by Franco-English forces following the battle of the Dunes. The city along with Fort-Mardyck was awarded to England in the peace the following year as agreed in the Franco-English alliance against Spain. The English governors were Sir William Lockhart (1658–60), Sir Edward Harley (1660–61) and Lord Rutherford (1661–62).
On 17 October 1662, Dunkirk was sold to France by Charles II of England for £320,000.[6] The French government developed the town as a fortified port. The town's existing defences were adapted to create ten bastions. The port was expanded in the 1670s by the construction of a basin that could hold up to thirty warships with a double lock system to maintain water levels at low tide. The basin was linked to the sea by a channel dug through coastal sandbanks secured by two jetties. This work was completed by 1678. The jetties were defended a few years later by the construction of five forts, Château d'Espérance, Château Vert, Grand Risban, Château Gaillard, and Fort de Revers. An additional fort was built in 1701 called Fort Blanc.
During the reign of Louis XIV, a large number of commerce raiders and pirates once again made their base at Dunkirk, the most famous of whom was Jean Bart. The main character (and possible real prisoner) in the famous novel Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas was arrested at Dunkirk. The eighteenth-century Swedish privateers and pirates Lars Gathenhielm and his wife Ingela Hammar are known to have sold their gains in Dunkirk.
As France and Great Britain became commercial and military rivals, the British grew concerned about Dunkirk being used as an invasion base to cross the English Channel. The jetties, their forts, and the port facilities were demolished in 1713 under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht.[7] The Treaty of Paris of 1763, which concluded the Seven Years' War, included a clause restricting French rights to fortify Dunkirk. This clause was overturned in the subsequent Treaty of Versailles of 1783.[8]
Dunkirk in World War I
Dunkirk's port was used extensively during the war by British forces who brought in dock workers from, among other places, Egypt and China.[9]
From 1915, the city experienced severe bombardment, including from the largest gun in the world in 1917, the German 'Lange Max'. On a regular basis, heavy shells weighing approximately 750 kg (1700 lb) were fired from Koekelare, about 45–50 km (30 miles) away.[10] The bombardment killed nearly 600 people and wounded another 1,100, both civilian and military, while 400 buildings were destroyed and 2,400 damaged. The city's population, which had been 39,000 in 1914, reduced to fewer than 15,000 in July 1916 and 7,000 in the autumn of 1917.[9]
In January 1916, a spy scare took place in Dunkirk. The writer Robert W. Service, then a war correspondent for the Toronto Star, was mistakenly arrested as a spy and narrowly avoided being executed out of hand.[11] On 1 January 1918, the United States Navy established a naval air station to operate seaplanes. The base closed shortly after the Armistice of 11 November 1918.[12]
In October 1917, to mark the gallant behaviour of its inhabitants during the war, the City of Dunkirk was awarded the Script error: No such module "Lang". and, in 1919, the Legion of Honour and the British Distinguished Service Cross.[9][13] These decorations now appear in the city's coat of arms.[14]
Dunkirk in World War II
Evacuation
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During the Second World War 1940 Battle of France, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), while aiding the French and Belgian armies, were forced to retreat in the face of overpowering German Panzer attacks. Fighting in Belgium and France, the BEF and a portion of the French Army became outflanked by the Germans and retreated to the area around the port of Dunkirk. More than 400,000 soldiers were trapped in the pocket as the German Army closed in for the kill. Unexpectedly, the German Panzer attack halted for several days at a critical juncture. For years, it was assumed that Adolf Hitler ordered the German Army to suspend the attack, favouring bombardment by the Luftwaffe. However, according to the Official War Diary of Army Group A, its commander, Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt, ordered the halt to allow maintenance on his tanks, half of which were out of service, and to protect his flanks which were exposed and, he thought, vulnerable.[15] Hitler merely validated the order several hours later.[16] This lull gave the British and French a few days to fortify their defences. The Allied position was complicated by Belgian King Leopold III's surrender on 27 May, which was postponed until 28 May. The gap left by the Belgian Army stretched from Ypres to Dixmude. Nevertheless, a collapse was prevented, making it possible to launch an evacuation by sea, across the English Channel, codenamed Operation Dynamo. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered any ship or boat available, large or small, to collect the stranded soldiers. 338,226 men (including 123,000 French soldiers) were evacuated – the miracle of Dunkirk, as Churchill called it. It took over 900 vessels to evacuate the BEF, with two-thirds of those rescued embarking via the harbour, and over 100,000 taken off the beaches. More than 40,000 vehicles as well as massive amounts of other military equipment and supplies were left behind. Forty thousand Allied soldiers (some who carried on fighting after the official evacuation) were captured or forced to make their own way home through a variety of routes including via neutral Spain. Many wounded who were unable to walk were abandoned.
Liberation
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The city of Dunkirk was again contested in 1944, with the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division attempting to liberate the city in September, as Allied forces surged northeast after their victory in the Battle of Normandy. However, German forces refused to relinquish their control of the city, which had been converted into a fortress. To seize the now strategically insignificant town would consume too many Allied resources which were needed elsewhere. The town was by-passed masking the German garrison with Allied troops, notably the 1st Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade. During the German occupation, Dunkirk was largely destroyed by Allied bombing. The artillery siege of Dunkirk was directed on the final day of the war by pilots from No. 652 Squadron RAF, and No. 665 Squadron RCAF.[citation needed] The fortress, under the command of German Admiral Friedrich Frisius, eventually unconditionally surrendered to the commander of the Czechoslovak forces, Brigade General Alois Liška, on 9 May 1945.[17]
Postwar Dunkirk
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On 14 December 2002, the Norwegian car carrier Template:MV collided with the Bahamian-registered Kariba and sank off Dunkirk Harbour, causing a hazard to navigation in the English Channel.[18]
Population
The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Dunkirk proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Dunkirk absorbed the former commune of Malo-les-Bains in 1969, Rosendaël and Petite-Synthe in 1971, Mardyck in 1979 and Fort-Mardyck and Saint-Pol-sur-Mer in 2010.[19][20]
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<timeline>
Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.3) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.664, 0.664, 0.930) ImageSize = width:400 height:180 PlotArea = left:44 bottom:27 top:20 right:10 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:95000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:10000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:5000 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo TextData = pos:(200,20) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:"year" pos:(185,182) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:"population" BarData= bar:1785 text:1785 bar:1786 bar:1787 bar:1788 bar:1789 bar:1790 bar:1791 bar:1792 bar:1793 bar:1794 bar:1795 bar:1796 bar:1797 bar:1798 bar:1799 bar:1800 bar:1801 bar:1802 bar:1803 bar:1804 bar:1805 bar:1806 bar:1807 bar:1808 bar:1809 bar:1810 bar:1811 bar:1812 bar:1813 bar:1814 bar:1815 bar:1816 bar:1817 bar:1818 bar:1819 bar:1820 text:1820 bar:1821 bar:1822 bar:1823 bar:1824 bar:1825 bar:1826 bar:1827 bar:1828 bar:1829 bar:1830 bar:1831 bar:1832 bar:1833 bar:1834 bar:1835 bar:1836 bar:1837 bar:1838 bar:1839 bar:1840 bar:1841 bar:1842 bar:1843 bar:1844 bar:1845 bar:1846 bar:1847 bar:1848 bar:1849 bar:1850 bar:1851 bar:1852 bar:1853 bar:1854 bar:1855 text:1855 bar:1856 bar:1857 bar:1858 bar:1859 bar:1860 bar:1861 bar:1862 bar:1863 bar:1864 bar:1865 bar:1866 bar:1867 bar:1868 bar:1869 bar:1870 bar:1871 bar:1872 bar:1873 bar:1874 bar:1875 bar:1876 bar:1877 bar:1878 bar:1879 bar:1880 bar:1881 bar:1882 bar:1883 bar:1884 bar:1885 bar:1886 bar:1887 bar:1888 bar:1889 bar:1890 text:1890 bar:1891 bar:1892 bar:1893 bar:1894 bar:1895 bar:1896 bar:1897 bar:1898 bar:1899 bar:1900 bar:1901 bar:1902 bar:1903 bar:1904 bar:1905 bar:1906 bar:1907 bar:1908 bar:1909 bar:1910 bar:1911 bar:1912 bar:1913 bar:1914 bar:1915 bar:1916 bar:1917 bar:1918 bar:1919 bar:1920 bar:1921 bar:1922 bar:1923 bar:1924 bar:1925 text:1925 bar:1926 bar:1927 bar:1928 bar:1929 bar:1930 bar:1931 bar:1932 bar:1933 bar:1934 bar:1935 bar:1936 bar:1937 bar:1938 bar:1939 bar:1940 bar:1941 bar:1942 bar:1943 bar:1944 bar:1945 bar:1946 bar:1947 bar:1948 bar:1949 bar:1950 bar:1951 bar:1952 bar:1953 bar:1954 bar:1955 bar:1956 bar:1957 bar:1958 bar:1959 bar:1960 text:1960 bar:1961 bar:1962 bar:1963 bar:1964 bar:1965 bar:1966 bar:1967 bar:1968 bar:1969 bar:1970 bar:1971 bar:1972 bar:1973 bar:1974 bar:1975 bar:1976 bar:1977 bar:1978 bar:1979 bar:1980 bar:1981 bar:1982 bar:1983 bar:1984 bar:1985 bar:1986 bar:1987 bar:1988 bar:1989 bar:1990 bar:1991 bar:1992 bar:1993 bar:1994 bar:1995 text:1995 bar:1996 bar:1997 bar:1998 bar:1999 bar:2000 bar:2001 bar:2002 bar:2003 bar:2004 bar:2005 bar:2006 bar:2007 bar:2008 bar:2009 bar:2010 bar:2011 bar:2012 bar:2013 bar:2014 bar:2015 bar:2016 bar:2017 bar:2018 bar:2019 bar:2020 bar:2021 bar:2022 bar:2023 bar:2024 bar:2025 bar:2026 bar:2027 bar:2028 bar:2029 bar:2030 text:2030 PlotData= color:barra width:3 align:left bar:1793 from: 0 till:26255 bar:1800 from: 0 till:21158 bar:1806 from: 0 till:24175 bar:1821 from: 0 till:23012 bar:1831 from: 0 till:24937 bar:1836 from: 0 till:23808 bar:1841 from: 0 till:27047 bar:1846 from: 0 till:27355 bar:1851 from: 0 till:29080 bar:1856 from: 0 till:29738 bar:1861 from: 0 till:32113 bar:1866 from: 0 till:33083 bar:1872 from: 0 till:34350 bar:1876 from: 0 till:35071 bar:1881 from: 0 till:37328 bar:1886 from: 0 till:38025 bar:1891 from: 0 till:39498 bar:1896 from: 0 till:39718 bar:1901 from: 0 till:38925 bar:1906 from: 0 till:38287 bar:1911 from: 0 till:38891 bar:1921 from: 0 till:34748 bar:1926 from: 0 till:32945 bar:1931 from: 0 till:31763 bar:1936 from: 0 till:31017 bar:1946 from: 0 till:10575 bar:1954 from: 0 till:21136 bar:1962 from: 0 till:27616 bar:1968 from: 0 till:27504 bar:1975 from: 0 till:73800 bar:1982 from: 0 till:73120 bar:1990 from: 0 till:70331 bar:1999 from: 0 till:70850 bar:2007 from: 0 till:68219 bar:2012 from: 0 till:90995 bar:2017 from: 0 till:87353 bar:2023 from: 0 till:86263</timeline> | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: EHESS (1793-1999)[19] and INSEE (2007-2023)[21][22] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Politics
Dunkirk is part of Nord's 13th constituency, The current Member of Parliament is Christine Decodts of the miscellaneous centre.
Presidential elections second round
| Election | Candidate | Party | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| style="background-color: Template:Party color" | | 2022[23] | Emmanuel Macron | En Marche! | 51.35 |
| style="background-color: Template:Party color" | | 2017[23] | Emmanuel Macron | En Marche! | 54.42 |
| style="background-color: Template:Party color" | | 2012 | François Hollande | PS | 55.37 |
| style="background-color: Template:Party color" | | 2007 | Nicolas Sarkozy | UMP | 52.30 |
| style="background-color: Template:Party color" | | 2002 | Jacques Chirac | RPR | 79.16 |
Heraldry
| The arms of Dunkirk are blazoned: Per fess Or and argent, a lion passant sable armed and langued gules, and a dolphin naiant azure crested, barbed, finned and tailed gules. At their base, the arms display the insignia of the four medals awarded to the city: the Legion of Honour, Croix de Guerre and British Distinguished Service Cross for World War I; and a second Croix de Guerre for World War II.[14] The city also has its own flag, made up of six horizontal stripes of alternate white and azure blue.[14] |
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Administration
The commune has grown substantially by absorbing several neighbouring communes:
- 1970: Merger with Malo-les-Bains (which had been created by being detached from Dunkirk in 1881)
- 1972: Fusion with Petite-Synthe and Rosendaël (the latter had been created by being detached from Téteghem in 1856)
- 1980: Fusion-association with Mardyck (which became an associated commune, with a population of 372 in 1999)
- 1980: A large part of Petite-Synthe is detached from Dunkirk and included into Grande-Synthe
- 2010: After a failed fusion-association attempt with Saint-Pol-sur-Mer and Fort-Mardyck in 2003, both successfully become associated communes with Dunkirk in December 2010.
Economy
Dunkirk has the third-largest harbour in France, after those of Le Havre and Marseille.[24] As an industrial city, it depends heavily on the steel, food processing, oil-refining, ship-building and chemical industries.
Cuisine
The cuisine of Dunkirk closely resembles Flemish cuisine; perhaps one of the best known dishes is coq à la bière – chicken in a creamy beer sauce.
Prototype metre
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In June 1792 the French astronomers Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre and Pierre François André Méchain set out to measure the meridian arc distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona, two cities lying on approximately the same longitude as each other and also the longitude through Paris. The belfry was chosen as the reference point in Dunkirk.
Using this measurement and the latitudes of the two cities they could calculate the distance between the North Pole and the Equator in classical French units of length and hence produce the first prototype metre which was defined as being one ten millionth of that distance.[25] The definitive metre bar, manufactured from platinum, was presented to the French legislative assembly on 22 June 1799.
Dunkirk was the most easterly cross-channel measuring point for the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790), which used triangulation to calculate the precise distance between the Paris Observatory and the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Sightings were made of signal lights at Dover Castle from the Dunkirk Belfry, and vice versa.
Tourist attractions
Two belfries in Dunkirk (the belfry near the Church of Saint-Éloi and the one at the Hôtel de Ville) are part of a group of belfries of Belgium and France, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005 in recognition of their civic architecture and importance in the rise of municipal power in Europe.[26]
The 63-meter-high Dunkirk Lighthouse, also known as the Risban Light, was built between 1838 and 1843 as part of early efforts to place lights around the coast of France. At the time of its construction it was one of only two first order lighthouses (the other being Calais) to be set up in a port. Automated since 1985, the light can be seen 28 nautical miles (48 km) away. In 2010 it was listed as an historical monument.
Two museums in Dunkirk include:
- The Musée Portuaire, which displays exhibits of images about the history and presence of the port.
- The Musée des Beaux-Arts, which has a large collection of Flemish, Italian and French paintings and sculptures.
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The Tour du Leughenaer (Liar's Tower)
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The Hôtel de Ville
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Carnival in Dunkirk
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Malo-les-Bains beach front
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Dunkirk Beach
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The remains of the East Mole of Dunkirk harbour, pictured in 2009
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Léon Germain Pelouse, La Vallée de Cernay, 1873, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Transport
Dunkirk has a ferry route to Dover that is run by DFDS, which serves as an alternative to the route to the service to nearby Calais. The Dover-Dunkirk ferry route takes two hours compared to Dover-Calais' 1 hour 30 minutes, is run by three vessels and runs every two hours from Dunkirk. Another DFDS route connects Dunkirk to Rosslare Europort in the Republic of Ireland and carries truck freight as well as a limited number of private car passengers. The Dunkirk-Rosslare route take 24 hours and is run by the MF Regina Seaways.
The city is served by Calais–Dunkerque Airport. However, there are no schedule flights and to and from the airport. The nearest airports are Ostend-Bruges International Airport, located 54 km (34 mi) east, Lille Airport, located 83 km (52 mi) south and Brussels Airport, located 167 km (104 mi) north east of Dunkrik.
The Gare de Dunkerque railway station offers connections to Gare de Calais-Ville, Gare de Lille Flandres, Arras and Paris, and several regional destinations in France. The railway line from Dunkirk to De Panne and Adinkerke, Belgium, is closed and has been dismantled in places.
In September 2018, Dunkirk's public transit service introduced free public transport, thereby becoming the largest city in Europe to do so. Several weeks after the scheme had been introduced, the city's mayor, Patrice Vergriete, reported that there had been 50% increase in passenger numbers on some routes, and up to 85% on others. As part of the transition towards offering free bus services, the city's fleet was expanded from 100 to 140 buses, including new vehicles which run on natural gas. The Dunkirk free public transport initiative, initially lauded for its bold ambition, saw a significant decline in ridership after the initial surge. While the first three months post-launch demonstrated a dramatic increase in usage, with some lines experiencing up to 120% higher demand on weekends, the system faced substantial challenges. By the end of the first three months, ridership plummeted by 73% from its peak, eventually stabilizing at only 12% more than pre-pandemic levels (2019-2020). This decline was primarily due to the inability of the public transport infrastructure to handle the overwhelming demand, leading to overcrowding, delays, and reduced service quality. Despite these issues, Dunkirk’s free transport program remains operational, albeit limited to weekends, a marked reduction from its original full-time service. This scaling back underscores the difficulties in maintaining such an ambitious project, with financial constraints and logistical inefficiencies contributing to its partial rollback. While the program succeeded in increasing mobility for low-income residents and reducing car usage initially, its long-term sustainability has been questioned, casting doubt on its viability as a model for other cities. (https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/after-becoming-largest-european-city-to-offer-free-public-transit-theyre-enjoying-a-revolution-from-their-buses/), [1], [2])
[27] As of August 2019, approximately 5% of 2000 people surveyed had used the free bus service to completely replace their cars.[28]
Sports
- USL Dunkerque, French football club, currently playing in Ligue 2.
- The Four Days of Dunkirk (or Quatre Jours de Dunkerque) is an important elite professional road bicycle racing event.
- Stage 2 of the 2007 Tour de France departed from Dunkirk.
Notable residents
- Jean Bart (1650—1702), naval commander and privateer
- Eugène Chigot, 19th-century post impressionist painter
- Marvin Gakpa (born 1993), footballer
- Louise Lavoye (1823—1897), 19th-century soprano
- Robert Malm (born 1973), footballer
- Jean-Paul Rouve (born 1967), actor
- François Rozenthal (born 1975), ice hockey player
- Maurice Rozenthal (born 1975), ice hockey player
- Djoumin Sangaré (born 1983), footballer
- Tancrède Vallerey (born 1892, date of death unknown), writer
International relations
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Twin towns – sister cities
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- Template:Flagicon Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany since 15 June 1974
- Template:Flagicon Middlesbrough, England, United Kingdom since 12 April 1976
- Template:Flagicon Gaza, Palestine since 2 April 1996
- Template:Flagicon Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany since 9 April 2000
- Template:Flagicon Ramat HaSharon, Israel since 15 September 1997
- Template:Flagicon Qinhuangdao, Hebei, China since 25–26 September 2000
Friendship links
Dunkirk has co-operation agreements with:
- Dartford, Kent, England, United Kingdom since March 1988[30]
- Thanet, Kent, England, United Kingdom since 18 June 1993[30]
Climate
Dunkirk has an oceanic climate, with cool winters and warm summers. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Dunkirk has a marine west coast climate, abbreviated "Cfb" on climate maps.[31] Summer high temperatures average around 20 to 21 °C (68 to 70 °F), being significantly influenced by the marine currents.
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See also
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- Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine
- Dunkirkers
- French Flanders
- French Flemish
- Hortense Clémentine Tanvet
- Liberation of France
- Treaty of Dunkirk
- Flanders bank
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in français). 5 May 2026.
- ^ Template:Cite LPD
- ^ Template:Cite EPD
- ^ Commune de Dunkerque (59183), INSEE
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Pul, Paul Van (2007). In Flanders Flooded Fields: Before Ypres There Was Yser. Pen and Sword. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-4738-1431-8.
The French name of Script error: No such module "Lang". in fact is derived from the Flemish Script error: No such module "Lang"., which means 'church in the dunes'!
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Correspondence and papers of the first Duke of Ormonde, chiefly on Irish and English public affairs: ref. MS. Carte 218, fol(s). 5 – date: 26 December 1662" (Description of contents of carte papers). Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts: Carte Papers. 2006. Retrieved 17 October 2007.[permanent dead link]
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External links
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