HONFLEUR, seaport of France, in the department of Cal vados, 57 m. N.E. of Caen by rail, on the Seine estuary, opposite Havre, with which it communicates by steamboat. Pop. (1931) 8,031. Honfleur dates from the IIth century and is 500 years older than Havre, which supplanted it in the 18th century. During the Hundred Years' War it was frequently taken and re-taken, the last English occupation ending in 1440. In 1562 the Protestants took it after a siege of the suburb of St. Leonard; and though Henry IV. captured it in 1590 he had again to invest it in after the rest of Normandy had submitted to his arms. Early in the I 7th century Honfleur was a centre for exploration, its colo nists founded Quebec, and Honfleur traders established factories in Java and Sumatra and a fishing establishment in Newfoundland.
The most noteworthy building is the timber church of St. Cath erine. The church tower stands on the other side of a street. St. Leonard's dates from the 17th century, with the exception of its ogival portal and rose-window of the 16th, and its 18th century octagonal tower. The ruins of a 16th-century castle, called Lieu tenance, and houses of the same period are also of interest. Above the town is the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Grace, a shrine resorted to by pilgrim sailors, founded in 1034 by Robert the Magnificent of Normandy and rebuilt in 1606. The town has a tribunal and a chamber of commerce. The port consists of the tidal harbour and four floating basins. A reservoir affords the means of sluic ing the channel and supplying the basins. The harbour was begun by Duquesne in 1668. Honfleur has regular steamship service for passengers to Havre, Southampton and London and bus service with Trouville. Honfleur exports mainly to England and trades in poultry, butter, eggs, cheese, chocolate, baskets, shell work, vegetables, fruit, seeds and purple ore. Timber from Scandinavia, English coal and artificial manures are imported. There are im portant saw-mills, as well as shipbuilding yards, manufactories of chemical manures, oil, shoes and iron foundries.