Cambrai

Cambrai

Cambrai, town, Nord département, Hauts-de-France région, northern France. It lies along the Escaut River, south of Roubaix.

The town was called Camaracum under the Romans, and its bishops were made counts by the German king Henry I in the 10th century. Cambrai was long a bone of contention among its neighbours—the counties of Flanders and Hainaut, the kingdom of France, and the Holy Roman Empire—and it frequently changed hands. The League of Cambrai was an alliance (1508) against Venice formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII, Ferdinand II of Aragon (and united Spain), and the emperor Maximilian I. The treaty between the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and Francis I of France was signed at Cambrai in 1529. Cambrai eventually was assigned to France by the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678). The town’s former cathedral was destroyed in 1793 after the French Revolution, and the town’s present cathedral of Notre Dame was built in the 19th century.

Before 1914 Cambrai had a prosperous textile economy based on a fine cloth called cambric. Occupied by the Germans during both World Wars and twice ravaged, the town has been revived. Cambrai now serves as a commercial and administrative centre and has a branch of the University of Valenciennes. The town lies amid a farming district rich in sugar beets, flax, grain, cattle feed, cattle, and dairy products. Historic buildings and the Fine Arts Museum have helped develop tourism. Industry includes woodworking, food processing, building, and the manufacture of textiles and construction equipment. Pop. (1999) 33,738; (2014 est.) 32,897.