Cherbourg-Octevilleis a city and formercommunesituated at the northern end of theCotentin peninsulain the northwestern FrenchdepartmentofManche.Due to its union, it is the most populated city in its department with 37,121 inhabitantsmaking it the first city of the department before theSaint-Lôprefectureand the second in the region afterCaen.
Cherbourg-en-Cotentin is protected byCherbourg Harbour, betweenLa HagueandVal de Saire, and the city has been a strategic position over the centuries, disputed between the English and French. Cited as one of the "keys to the kingdom" byVauban, it became, by colossal maritime development work, a first-rate military port under the leadership ofLouis XVIandNapoleon, and holds anarsenalof theFrench Navy. A stopping point for prestigious transatlantic liners in the first half of the 20th century, Cherbourg was theprimary goalof US troops during theinvasion of Normandyin 1944.
Along with its use as a military, fishing and yachting port, it is also across-Channelferry port, with routes to the English ports ofPooleandPortsmouth, the Irish port ofRosslare HarbourandSt HelieronJersey. Limited by its geographical isolation from being a great commercial port, it is nonetheless an important shipbuilding centre, and a working-class city with a rural hinterland.
