Tournehem-sur-la-Hem
Ideal stop-over on the Route of the Field of Gold, Tournehem-sur-Hem is made up of Tournehem and Guémy. Julius Caesar and King Arthur (in 551) may have stopped here. In 1179, the castle was restored and fortified and a dam built on the Hem.
Granted a charter and council in 1273, it remains the city of Antoine, Great Bastard of Burgundy, natural son of Phillippe the Good and brother of Charles le Téméraire, as shown in the ruins of the collegiate (1502), the entrance door of the castle and the door lintel (sandstone block bearing his motto, emblem and arms without mark of bastardy.) This area was for a long time Spanish, and there remains, on a gable, the arms of Charles Quint, surrounded by the Golden Fleece.
Returned to the French, the area profited from the bee-keeping of the Hem valley, exploitation of the surrounding forests and the mining of chalk in the Artois. |
