Bavay

the Australian biologist

Bavay (bavɛ) is a commune in the Nord department in the Hauts de France region of northern France. The town was the seat of the former canton of Bavay.

The birth of Bavay after the conquest was the result of the reorganization of the territory by Augustus (probably between 16BC and 13BC). The parts of Gaul conquered by Caesar were then divided into three provinces. The region between the Seine and the Rhine was Gallia Belgica and its capital was at Reims. It was divided into "cities" (civitates)—administrative districts which were headed by a chief town. Living in this district were some of the fiercest people of Northern Gaul and they occupied a vast area between the Scheldt, the Sambre, and the Meuse: the Nervii. The town became the capital for the Nervii under the name of Bagacum or Bavacum and, under the Roman Empire, it was an important junction of seven roads, the meeting place of which was marked by a milestone, destroyed in the 17th century and replaced in the 19th century by a column. As the centre of the road junction, Bavay was an obligatory passage between Germania and the naval port of Boulogne sur Mer, a bridgehead to Britain. Other routes, seven in total, connected the capital city of the Nervii to the capital cities of neighbouring peoples (Amiens via Arras, Tongeren, Cassel, Trier in the east and Reims in the south). Its position was evidently strategic, but soon these military routes (the future emperor Tiberius transited at Bavay with his armies around 4 AD) were used for commercial purposes. Bavay is mentioned as Baca Conervio on the Tabula Peutingeriana. From the Claudian period and especially under the Flavians in the late 1st century the city grew. Large monuments were built: a forum, thermal baths fed by an aqueduct bringing water from a fountain near Floursies located twenty kilometres away, and other buildings with a seemingly official nature adorned the city.

Excavations in the Roman Forum resulted in the discovery of ceramics from the 9th and 10th centuries. The history of the town during this period is unclear and reference is necessary to the larger lines of history of the County of Hainaut. It is likely that the Roman Forum was built as part of a defensive system as some later documents referred to viel castel. In the 12th century the region of Bavay became part of the County of Hainaut and the city was the capital of a Prévôt. In the 13th and 14th centuries the city was fortified with a medieval design for the enclosure and its major levee is still visible today.

In 1433 the county of Hainaut of which Bavay was part became part of the prosperous Burgundian Netherlands. In 1519, the Burgundian Netherlands became part of the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V also in a very prosperous period. In 1555 Charles V divided his empire and gave the Netherlands to which Bavay belonged to his son Philip II, King of Spain. Bavay then remained part of the Spanish Netherlands until 1678 when, after numerous battles of conquest by Louis XIV, a large part of the southern Spanish Netherlands was united with the kingdom of France. The confirmation of the unification of Bavay with the kingdom of France came in 1678 with the (Treaty of Nijmegen). Louvignies Bavay merged with Bavay in 1946.

In 2010, the median fiscal revenue per household was €23,634.

The commune has a large number of sites that are registered as historical monuments. Below is an abridged summary of the most important sites.

The Carrière des Nerviens Regional Nature Reserve is mostly located in the communal territory just 1 km west of the town centre.

Jean de Haynin was a famous chronicler known for using for the first time the term "Walloon" in his writings. Born on 14 October 1427 and died 12 May 1495 in his castle at Hainin (Belgium), he was an author, knight, Lord of Hainin, Louvignies at Bavay (where a street has been named after him
Jean Lemaire de Belges, born at Belges—today called Bavay—in 1473. Jean Goudezki was born and died in Louvignies, Bavay (1866–1934). Author, poet, singer at the famous cabaret Le Chat noir in Paris. Maxime Lecomte, a politician, MP, and senator, was born in Bavay in 1846. He was "Parliamentary Reporter" for the 1905 law separating church and state in the senate.