It is a little-known part of the past of the city that never sleeps: before being called New York, the megalopolis was called New Angoulême. Florent Gaillard, director of the Angoulême municipal archives, takes us back into this crazy epic, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of this “discovery”.
Settle for second place? Unthinkable. At the beginning of the 16th century, Francis I was overtaken by the Portuguese and Spanish kingdoms in the conquest of new lands. The stakes are high: the first to find a route to the Indies will ensure total economic and maritime power. The king of France decided to entrust this heavy task to the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano.
On board of The Dauphine, the adventurer and fifty men cast off towards the New World. A few months later, they disembarked in a calm and sheltered bay: in homage to the sovereign, the Baptist expedition leader of this island, New Angoulême (François is also Count of Angoulême). This is the future city of New York.
This Wednesday, April 17, 2024, the city of Angoulême, in Charente, will celebrate the 500th anniversary of this “discovery”. A story that remained for a long time in the boxes of a private fund, and resurrected by a man: Jacques Habert. “Jacques Habert was a teacher at the French high school in New York in the 1940srelates Florent Gaillard, director of the Angoulême municipal archives. There he heard about this relationship between the two cities and immersed himself in the history.”
The man of letters first wrote a thesis, carried out at Columbia University, in Nouvelle-Angoulême. “When Verrazzano returned empty-handed from the Americas, he wrote an expedition report, in which he recounts his voyagecontinues the curator. The original was never found and the few copies that reached us were in very poor condition.
The Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano was sailing aboard La Dauphine, with fifty men, when he docked in the future Hudson Bay. • © Leemage – AFP
All except one: that of the American financier Jack Pierpont Morgan Junior, known as JP Morgan Jr., and exhibited in his very private collection, in the Morgan Library and Museum. “Jacques Habert was able to consult this precious document and prove that New York had been called New Angoulême, before becoming Dutch in the 17th century, English until the 18th, then American.”
The French researcher, passionate about maritime explorations of the modern era, was initially little considered. “Verrazzano has long been mistaken for a corsair. It was surprising to name a town after the title of a king, and not after a saint, as was customary.”
In 1952, the mayor of Angoulême Roger Baudrin was invited by the mayor of New York to inaugurate the Verrazzano statue in Battery Park. • © RENAUD JOUBERT – Angoulême municipal archives
He ended up receiving support from New York learned societies, and more. “The mayor of New York at the time, Vincent Richard Impellitteri, got involved. To inaugurate a statue of Verrazzano in Battery Park in 1952, he invited the then city councilor of Angoulême, Roger Baudrin, by writing to him: “You are the mayor of old Angoulême, I am the mayor of the new one”.”
During the ceremony, Roger Baudrin, received with great pomp, was able to slip a shovelful of Angoulême earth under the sculpture. “It was a wonderful trip, which he recounted on his return during a conference which lasted an entire evening”, indicates Florent Gaillard. For his part, Jacques Habert also shares his research, during meetings with the public, in the United States and in France.
Map of the statue of Giovanni da Verrazzano in Battery Park, New York (United States)
It was during one of them that the director of the archives of the Charente city met the professor. “He was a passionate and exciting man. Making this relationship between Angoulême and New York known and recognized was the great fight of his life. He talked about it all the time and to everyone!”
Final gift offered by the specialist in memory of this event: the erection of the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge, supported by Senator Rockerfeller. In 2019, the French director Marie-France Brière devoted a documentary to this story taken from the forgotten places, entitled What if New York was called Angoulême? Florent Gaillard plays a leading role. “She helped to shed light on this little-known part of the history of New York City, it was exciting to participate in her project.”
In her documentary “What if New York was called Angoulême?”, Marie-France Brière puts the spotlight on Florent Gaillard, who left for New York in the footsteps of Jacques Habert. • © Florent Gaillard
In the city archives, the person responsible for the place keeps a number of documents which attest to the correspondence exchanged between the city councilors, but also planispheres bearing the mention Nouvelle-Angoulême, at the location of New York. “Between 1524 and the beginning of the 16th century, globes and maps indicated Angoulême. It’s extraordinary!”
Even today, the Charente town retains traces of this special link. Kennedy Square, named in tribute to the president assassinated in 1953. The New York alleys, soon to be decorated with a plaque recounting Verrazzano’s journey. But also a large fresco, “facing the station, created by Nicolas de Crécy, and which represents New-York-sur-Charente”an imaginary city, inspired by the two cities.
Opposite the Angoulême SNCF station, a fresco created by Nicolas de Crécy represents the imaginary city of New-York-sur-Charente. • © NICOLAS THIBAUT / PHOTONONSTOP via AFP
The 500th anniversary of Verrazzano’s arrival in New York will be celebrated for several months. Conferences, exhibitions, school workshops and many other activities must pay tribute “the oldest link between France and the United States”smiles Florent Gaillard.
2024-03-31 07:05:01
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