Laires | |
Native Name: | Laren |
Commune Status: | Commune |
Image Coat Of Arms: | Blason Laires.svg |
Arrondissement: | Saint-Omer |
Canton: | Fruges |
Insee: | 62485 |
Postal Code: | 62960 |
Mayor: | Eric Lagache[1] |
Term: | 2020 - 2026 |
Intercommunality: | Pays de Saint-Omer |
Coordinates: | 50.5411°N 2.2564°W |
Elevation M: | 182 |
Elevation Min M: | 140 |
Elevation Max M: | 190 |
Area Km2: | 8.64 |
Laires (in French pronounced as /lɛʁ/;) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.[2]
A village situated south of Saint-Omer, on the D95 road. It is surrounded by the communes Beaumetz-lès-Aire, Prédefin and Fléchin.
In 734, Laires was called "Wilbert", after its owner. The spelling of the name has changed over the centuries from Larae, Laris, Lares, Laire and Lare, to become Laires by the eighteenth century. In 1115, Baldwin VII, Count of Flanders, made a gift of the village to the abbey of St Saviour at Ham. In January 1478, a band of soldiers from the Burgundian garrison at Renescure terrorized the area around Laires. Instead of helping people to fight the "French enemy" they looted the village. Against the Spanish, the commune suffered again. In 1537 the area was completely devastated. In 1542 and 1543, the village was looted several times and fourteen French houses were burned down.