Cherbourg << SHAIR boorg >> is an industrial city and seaport on the northern coast of France. In 2000, Cherbourg merged with Octeville, and the area officially became known as Cherbourg-Octeville. The population of Cherbourg-Octeville is 36,121. The city sits at the tip of the Cotentin Peninsula in the Manche department (administrative district) of the Normandie (Normandy) region. La Manche is the French name for the English Channel. Cherbourg’s harbor, formed by an artificial barrier called a breakwater, provides a protective dock for transatlantic ships. Cherbourg’s attractions include an aquarium and maritime museum called La Cité de la Mer (City of the Sea), an art museum, and a botanical garden filled with exotic plant life. The city has both a commercial port and a naval port. Its major industries include fishing, shipping, textile production, and the manufacture of electrical equipment and nuclear submarines.
Roman soldiers established a settlement on the site of Cherbourg in the A.D. 300’s. In the 1700’s, King Louis XVI of France began the construction of the breakwater that forms Cherbourg’s harbor. In June 1864, during the American Civil War (1861-1865), the United States warship Kearsarge sank the Confederate warship Alabama in a battle just beyond Cherbourg harbor. In June 1940, during World War II (1939-1945), German armed forces captured the city and used it as a military base. Allied armies freed Cherbourg in June 1944. The city’s Liberation Museum commemorates the wartime occupation, resistance, and liberation of Cherbourg.
See also Alabama; English Channel; Normandy; Normandy, Battle of.
