Pihen-lès-Guînes

French commune
name= Pihen-lès-Guînes
region=
departement=
arrondissement=
canton= Guînes
insee=62657
cp=62340
maire=Jean-Luc Marot
mandat= 2008-2014
intercomm=Communauté de communes du Sud-Ouest du Calaisis
longitude=1.7875
latitude=50.8722222222
alt moy=51 m
alt mini=23 m
alt maxi=121 m
hectares=925
km²=9,25
sans=470
date-sans=2003
dens=42|

Pihen-lès-Guînes is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais "département" in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.

Geography

A farming village located 7 miles (11km) southwest of Calais, at the junction of the D243 and D244 roads.

History

The name of Pihen appeared for the first time in the founding charter of the abbey of Andres in 1084, in the form of "Pithem", from the Germanic "pit" (wells ) + "Heim" (home, village), which became Pihen in the Calaisis and Boulonnais dialect, but -hem elsewhere.
Pihem (near to Wizernes) is almost the same as Pihen, which led to so many errors with the mail that the commune decided to add ‘lès-Guînes’ to its name in 1923.

There is no doubt that the village is very old. Tombs have been discovered dating back to the medieval period, including shaped sarcophagi and skeletons buried directly in the chalk. Ancient thick, handmade tiles are repeatedly lifted to the surface of fields during ploughing.
Mammoth tusks and the skull of a woolly rhino were uncovered during the construction of a departmental road.

In the early Middle Ages, Pihen was part of the county of Guînes then English from 1347 until 1558, when like all of the Calaisis, it was liberated by Francis, Duke of Guise, in 1558. The tribulations of Pihen were not over, however. At that time, the kings of France and Spain were at war and the territory of Pihen was in the combat zone, the Spaniards from neighbouring Flanders possessed the commune in 1596, lost it, but regained it in 1598. Most of the 13th century church was burnt down during this time.

Population

Places of interest

* The church of the Annonciation dating from the 13th century.
* The 19th century château de La Quennevacherie.

See also

Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department

External links

* [http://www.recensement.insee.fr/RP99/rp99/co_navigation.co_page?nivgeo=C&codgeo=62657&theme=ALL&typeprod=ALL&lang=FR&quelcas=LISTE Pihen-lès-Guînes on the Insee website] fr
* [http://www.quid.fr/communes.html?mode=detail&id=27145&req=Pihen-lès-Guînes Pihen-lès-Guînes on the Quid website] fr

Notes

*"This article is based on the equivalent article from the French Wikipedia, consulted on May 29th 2008."