Cambrai has been part of the national network of Cities and Regions of Art and History since 1992. The city’s cultural heritage includes around thirty buildings listed or classified as historic monuments.
Anyone planning a stay in Cambrai may wish to rent a holiday apartment.
Culture
The CambraiScope at the Labo is a free permanent exhibition featuring models, plans, current and historical photographs, and videos. It also presents a faithful reconstruction of the model of Cambrai under Louis XIV and a virtual tour of the Château de Selles.
The Musée de Cambrai is housed in the Hôtel de Francqueville and displays collections ranging from prehistory to the 21st century. It comprises the departments of archaeology, Cambrai heritage, fine arts, and geometric abstraction. The collections extend across four levels in a permanent chronological tour.
The Jesuit Chapel features numerous high and low reliefs in the choir and nave, as well as paintings by Arnoult de Vuez depicting scenes from the life of Christ. It was rebuilt between 1678 and 1694 according to the principles of the Counter-Reformation, based on a bequest from Monseigneur Vanderburch and plans by the architect Jean du Blocq.
Cambrai’s Notre-Dame Cathedral preserves trompe-l’œil paintings from 1745 by Martin Geeraerts of Antwerp, as well as the Notre-Dame de Grâce icon, which has been venerated in Cambrai since 1492.
History
The Église Saint-Géry is the oldest church in Cambrai; its present building combines Dutch Baroque with French Classicism. The Church of Saint-Sépulcre was designated as the new cathedral of Cambrai in 1804 after the Gothic cathedral was destroyed during the Revolution.
The Citadel of Cambrai was built in 1543 on the city’s highest point, Mont-des-Bœufs, at the request of Charles Quint.
Cityscape
The Port de Cantimpré lies at the confluence of the canalized Escaut and the Canal de Saint-Quentin. The Mail Saint-Martin is a tree-lined area dedicated to strolling that opens onto the Beffroi of Cambrai. The Jardins publics of Cambrai contain a bandstand built by André de Baralle in 1867.
The Tour Saint-Martin, also known as the Beffroi of Cambrai, is protected as a historic monument.
The tour “Visite de la Citadelle de Cambrai et ses souterrains” is led by a tour guide and lasts one hour and fifteen minutes. The tour “Cambrai, la cathédrale et son quartier” explores the cathedral district along a 1.5-kilometre route.
Other destinations: Ferrière-la-Grande, Somain, Sémeries, Louvignies-Quesnoy, Masnières, Wattignies, Steenbecque, Gruson
