Arras is a historic city, famous for its fabrics and tapestries in the past. Magnificent baroque squares with buildings have been preserved here, in which you can see the Flemish influences.
The origins of the city date back to the times of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century, this center was destroyed by the Huns and only reborn several centuries later. From the end of the 11th century, it was the seat of bishops. The period of the greatest development of the city fell in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when it became a weaving center and a center for the production of tapestries. This is where the name of these decorative fabrics, tapestries, popular in Europe, was derived from. Although the memory of weaving traditions is still present, Arras does not have any larger collection of these fabrics.
The town's urban layout has been preserved in the Baroque period. The center consists of two squares, Grand-Place and Petite-Place, surrounded by tenement houses with facades modeled on buildings from Flanders. The center's pride is the late Renaissance town hall with the bell tower of the Beffroi town hall. Such towers can be found in many cities on the border of France, Belgium and the Netherlands. From the bell tower you can admire the wonderful panorama of the city. Other historic attractions in Arras include the baroque Notre Dame Cathedral, the Benedictine Monastery of Saint-Vaas, which houses the Museum of Fine Arts, the House of Robespierre, where he lived during his stay in the city, and the 17th-century citadel built to a design by Vauban.
