Cherbourg [ a ] is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 February , [ 5 ] which was merged into the new commune of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin on 1 January Cherbourg is protected by Cherbourg Harbour , between La Hague and Val de Saire , and the city has been a strategic position over the centuries, disputed between the English and French.
Cited as one of the "keys to the kingdom" by Vauban , it became, by colossal maritime development work, a first-rate military port under the leadership of Napoleon I , and holds an arsenal of the French Navy. A stopping point for prestigious transatlantic liners in the first half of the 20th century, Cherbourg was the primary goal of US troops during the invasion of Normandy in Along with its use as a military, fishing and yachting port, it is also a cross-Channel ferry port, with routes to the English ports of Poole and Portsmouth , the Irish ports of Rosslare Harbour and Dublin , and St Helier on Jersey.
Limited by its geographical isolation from being a great commercial port, it is nonetheless an important shipbuilding centre, and a working-class city with a rural hinterland. Cherbourg is located at the northern tip of the Cotentin Peninsula , in the department of Manche , of which it is a subprefecture. At the time of the census the city of Cherbourg had an area of 6. The largest city in the Department of Manche, it is the result of the merger of the communes of Cherbourg and Octeville.
The amalgamated city today has an area of Cherbourg and Octeville-sur-Cherbourg once belonged to the deanery of La Hague, delimited by the Divette. In , a part of Equeurdreville joined Cherbourg, during the construction of the port, and then in , a portion of Octeville. Since , the " mielles " [dunes] of Tourlaville, commune of the deanery of Saire , are integrated into the Cherbourg territory known as the quarter of Val-de-Saire where the Pasteur Hospital [ fr ] and the Saint-Clement Church [ 7 ] were built.
Like all Chantereyne and the area of the Mielles, the Cherbourg territory was reclaimed from the sea. Octeville is a former rural municipality, composed of hamlets, whose settlement extended from the 19th century and whose territory is highly urbanised since , especially around the ZUP [ fr ] of the provinces and the university campus.
