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Neufchâtel-Hardelot is a French commune located in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region. The municipal territory is divided into two geographically distant and very different socio-economic areas: the village of Neufchâtel and the “upscale” seaside resort of Hardelot-Plage. Until 1954, the town bore the name of Neufchâtel, Hardelot was only a station attached to the village.
A secondary Roman road linking Boulogne-sur-Mer to
Étaples passed through Neufchâtel-Hardelot, to the hamlet of the
path, coming from Condette through the Hardelot forest and going
towards Dannes. According to some sources, this hamlet also ended
(there is discussion on the subject), the
Lillebonne-Boulogne-sur-Mer route.
At the end of the 7th
century, the warrens of Neufchâtel, known as “Mont Saint-Frieux”,
housed a village at an altitude of 153 meters. Legend has it that
two hermit brothers lived there, Judoc and Férioc.
The
latter's French name is Saint Férieux, which would have given its
name to Saint-Frieux. Judoc is honored to him under the name of
Saint Josse. On the site of their hermitage would have been built a
chapel. In the church of Saint-Pierre de Neufchâtel, four
stained-glass windows still retrace the life of these two brothers
today: on the right side in the chapel of the Sacred Heart, that of
Saint Frieux, on the left side in the chapel of the Rosary, that of
Saint Josse.
After 1237, the holder of the seigneury of the
Maréchallerie in Neufchâtel, was one of the four hereditary peers
(peerage) of the county of Boulogne, he bears the title of marshal.
The Duke of Burgundy Philippe le Bold, (Philippe II of
Burgundy), was present in Neufchâtel in March 1392 ː he sent letters
from the village in favor of the city of Arras.
In 1664,
Neufchâtel presented the remains of a camp considered to be a former
Roman camp.
The commune of Neufchâtel, between Dannes and
Condette, was between 1790 and 1801 a village of 821 inhabitants
living on an area of 2,088 hectares. It belonged to the bailliage
of Choquel and Bellefontaine. The name of Neufchâtel would have its
origin in a fortified castle, the castle of Bellefontaine, which was
swallowed up by quicksand. Was this the “Novum Castellum” which
would have given its name to Neufchâtel. Many historians say so.
Still, we find for the first time the name of Neufchâtel in 1173 and
in 1199 in the charter of Samer.
During storms or mists,
strandings sometimes occur. Wrecks are refloated or the remains are
sold in the hinterland. For example, on October 8, 1813, an English
ship, the Doubt loaded with iron and coal, broke entirely "by taking
land on the coast of the commune of Neufchatel"; its cargo was
entirely lost and 5 of the 8 crew members perished.
During
the nineteenth century and this essentially under the Second Empire
and the Third Republic, a major campaign, subsidized by the State,
was launched to plant marigolds and to control and stabilize the
dunes. Neufchâtel was then confronted with the advance of these and
one feared to see the hamlet of the Chemin swallowed up by the
advance of the sand.
In the first half of the twentieth
century, in 1905, Hardelot-Plage was strongly developed, in
particular thanks to its founder John Whitley, an English patron,
who wanted to make Hardelot the new fashionable seaside resort and
the social center of sports . The name of Hardelot comes from that
of an old fortified castle in the town of Condette, the latter was
at the time the property of John Whitley.
The addition of
Hardelot to the name of the town was made in 1954.