Audruicq

Audruicq (Ouderwijk) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.

Geography
A town located 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Calais, at the junction of the D224 with the D309 road.

History
Baldwin II, Count of Flanders named it a city in 1175, rebuilding the castle and converting the surrounding marshland to tillable soil. After continuously changing authority between the 13th century and the 17th century, Audruicq finally became a French town after the Peace of Nijmegen in 1678.

Sights

 * The eighteenth-century church of St. Martin.
 * The eighteenth-century château.

Personalities

 * Gilbert Brazy: Born at Audruicq on 15 February 1902. A pilot, he disappeared, flying a "Latham47" in the Arctic in 1928 with Roald Amundsen.1

International relations
Audruicq is twinned with: Hawkhurst in Kent, England, since 1998.