Tag: Verdun

Verdun (French pronunciation: [vɛʁ.dœ̃]; medieval German: Wirten, official name before 1970 Verdun-sur-Meuse) is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital of the department is the slightly smaller city of Bar-le-Duc.
Verdun (Latin: Verodunum, meaning “strong fort”) was founded by the Gauls (as its Celtic name shows; “Dunum” is the Latinized version of a Celtic word meaning oppidum). It has been the seat of the bishop of Verdun since the 4th century AD, with interruptions. In the Treaty of Verdun in AD 843, the empire of Charlemagne was divided into three parts.
At around this time Verdun was the centre of a Europe-wide thriving trade selling young boys to be enslaved eunuchs to the Islamic emirates of Iberia. Less controversially, the city has been famous for Dragées or sugared almonds from 1200 onwards; they were distributed at the baptism of French princes….