GRAVELINES

Flemish Gravelinghe seaport town of northern France, in the dpartement of Nord and the arrondissement of Dunkirk. It is situated midway between Dunkirk and Calais, near the mouth of the Aa River. The canalization of the Aa by the Count of Flanders in about the mid-12th century led to the foundation of Gravelines (grave-linghe, meaning "count's canal"). It became the site of an important citadel, which was fortified by a double circuit of ramparts and by a tidal moat. There Lamoraal, count of Egmond, who was fighting for Spain, defeated the French in 1558, and the English scattered the Spanish Armada in 1588 offshore from it. The French took Gravelines in 1644, the Austrians in 1652, and the French finally in 1658 by the Treaty of the Pyrenees. Since then it has barely survived as a fishing village and coastal port because of the nearness of Calais and Dunkirk and the silting up of the Aa's channel to the sea. Pop. (1982) 11,077.