Leubringhen: Remembrance and Culture

Leubringhen offers a specific reason to stay in the area with a focus on history: Calais Canadian War Cemetery is located in the town. If you would like to include the cemetery in your trip, choosing this destination connects your visit to a named memorial site, with a route from Calais that can be planned using several waypoints. Alongside the historical theme, the statue of Saint Eloi offers an art-related detail.

Remembering 1944

The cemetery is the resting place of 729 men who died in 1944 during the liberation of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais. The number identifies the group commemorated; the year 1944 and the names of the two cities give the historical context definition. It is important to mention Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais together: the men died during the liberation of both cities. The cemetery is located in Leubringhen; despite its name, Calais Canadian War Cemetery should therefore not be confused with a site in Calais. This distinguishes the location of the memorial from the cities named in connection with the deaths, without losing the link between them. If you are interested in this historical focus, the cemetery offers a specific reason to plan your trip around a place of remembrance.

Getting there from Calais

From Calais, the route to the cemetery takes you via motorway exit 9, a motorway bridge, and then an access road of about 250 metres. You can think of this sequence as three stages when planning: first the exit, then the bridge, and finally the access road. The approximate distance refers to the last section, not the entire route from Calais. Check road conditions and signage at the junction again before setting off. This gives you both the key waypoints for the route and the final section to consider separately.

The statue of Saint Eloi

The statue of Saint Eloi offers a different cultural perspective from the cemetery. It is made of carved, polychrome-painted oak. Oak identifies the material; “carved” describes how the form has been worked, and “polychrome-painted” means that several colours have been used. This makes it possible to understand the design in terms of material, workmanship, and colour, rather than speaking only in general terms of a statue. For visitors interested in art, this combination offers a specific point of interest: the focus is on a single work and how it was made. The material, carving, and painting are distinct qualities that together make up the described appearance.

Two different focuses

The distinction is useful when choosing what to focus on during a visit: the cemetery centres on remembrance of 729 men and the historical context of 1944, Boulogne-sur-Mer, and Calais; Saint Eloi is a carved and painted oak work. If you include Leubringhen in your trip, you can decide whether you would rather explore a historic memorial site or an art-related detail. These can be seen as different interests to pursue during a stay, without one needing to replace the other.

Discover more destinations: Marenla, Huby-Saint-Leu, Roussent, Le Quesnoy-En-Artois, Colembert, Hersin-Coupigny, Maresville, Béthune

Back to the regional travel overview: Pas-De-Calais.