ARRAS (the ancient .2ticnietacum), a fortified t. and capital of the department of Pas-de-Calais, as it was formerly of the province of Artois, in France. It is situated on the banks of the Scarpe, partly on an eminence, and partly on a plain, and consists of four divisions—the city, upper town, lower town, and citadel. It is a principal sta tion on the French Northern railway, distant from Paris by this route 134 m., and from Brussels, 97. The pop. in 1872 was 21,447. The houses are of hewn stone, and in the lower town they arc handsomely built and uniform; the streets straight and wide, set off with several fine squares and many beautiful public buildings. Among the principal edifices are the cathedral of Notre Dame, the residence of the prefect, the town-hall, the theater, and the public library.
A. ranks as a fortified town of the third class, its fortifications being the first that were constructed by the celebrated Vauban, according to his own system. It has been the seat of a bishop since 390 A.D., and two ecclesiastical councils have been held here —one in 1025, the other in 1490.
The corn-market of A. is the most important in the n. of France. Its principal manufactures arc iron-ware, woolen and cotton goods, hosiery, lace, pottery, and leather. Its trade, which is considerable, is in corn and flour, oil, wine, and brandy, with the industrial products of the city.
It appears from the writings of .Jerome that A. was remarkable for its woolen manu factures in his time; and afterwards, during the middle ages, it was famed for its tapes try; indeed, the name of the town was transferred to this article of manufacture, and arras was the name given in England to the richly-figured hangings that adorned the halls of the kings and the barons.
In 1482, A. with Artois was ceded by the states of the Netherlands to Louis XI. of France; but the inhabitants having revolted, the king laid siege to the town, stormed it, and slew or expelled the people, whom he replaced by others brought from all parts of his dominions, ordering the city to be thenceforward called Franclise, to obliterate the very name of A. Soon afterwards (1493) it was ceded to Maximilian of Austria, and was possessed by the Spanish branch of the house of Hapsburg till 1640, when Louis XIII. of France took it after a long siege. By the treaty of the Pyrenees, it was finally coded to France. A. suffered much in the time of the first French revolution, especially in the year 1793. Robespierre, the terrorist, was a native of the town.