Through Louis Lesueur
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“My city with a hundred spiers” … In its title “In my city we drag”, from the album The party is over (2017), Orelsan evokes Caen (Calvados), the city that marked his adolescence. The periphrase used by the rapper is one of the qualifiers of the Norman city. Where does this nickname come from?
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We must first of all define what a steeple is. It is a tower that houses one or more bells. They are most often religious buildings, but this is not always the case.
About twenty churches
According to Jean Rémy, from the heritage center of the Caen la mer tourist office, “there must be around twenty churches”. He explains: “it is striking from the top of the castle ramparts to observe all these bell towers. Those of the city center are numerous between the abbey for men, Saint-Pierre, Saint-Sauveur, la Miséricorde. Some are eccentric like, Saint-Michel, or Saint-Gerbold. Others date from the Reconstruction, but do not offer the traditional form of the bell tower, as at La Guérinière or the Saint-Julien church. The use of some has changed: Saint-Nicolas, la Gloriette. The Saint-Georges church has lost its… ”
The figure of 100 seems distant, but the religious heritage is very present.
The diocese counts 20 active churches in Caen, but this count does not take into account the chapels.
A nickname given all over the world
The nickname “city of a hundred spiers” is a hyperbole to describe cities with many churches, visible in the distance by their steeples. The first use of this periphrase would go to Victor Hugo to describe Rouen (Seine-Maritime) in 1831 in Autumn leaves in the poem “To my friends L. B and S. B”. The author describes the city as follows: “Friends!” it is therefore Rouen, the city with the old streets, / With the old towers, debris of the extinct races, / The city with a hundred bell towers ringing in the air […] ».
The two Norman cities are not the only ones to be named thus. In France, Arras (Pas-de-Calais), Dijon (Côte d’Or), Poitiers (Vienne), Reims (Marne) and Troyes (Aube) also have this appellation, just like around the globe, Bratislava (Slovakia), Liège (Belgium), Prague (Czech Republic) and Montreal (Canada). On the other hand, not all are “the city of a hundred spiers” of Orelsan.
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