Nouvelle-Rayenne
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Nouvelle-Rayenne | |
|---|---|
Capital City | |
| Ville de Nouvelle-Rayenne | |
 Clockwise from top left: the Alexandre Docks, Statue of Queen Anne the Financer, Canal Lighthouse, dome of Parliament, full view of Parliament, the Imperial Hotel, and the City Cathedral. | |
| Nickname(s): The City of Maples, La Cap | |
| Motto(s): Semper Leber (Solarian) "Forever Free" | |
| Country | Cassier |
| Province | Monbec |
| Region | National Captial Region |
| Established | 1826 |
| Incorporated | 1855 |
| Amalgamated | 1 January 2001 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Jean Rouchelle |
| • City Council | Council of Nouvelle-Rayenne |
| Population (2016) | 651,006 |
| Website | www.nouvelle-rayenne.ca |
Nouvelle-Rayenne is the capital city of Cassier. It stands on the south bank of the Bouhier River on the north shore of Lake Breloux in the western portion of southern Monbec. Nouvelle-Rayenne borders Coque, Breloux; the two form the core of the N-R-C census metropolitan area and the National Capital Region. As of 2016, Nouvelle-Rayenne had a city population of 651,006 and a metropolitan population of 1,502,205 making it the fourth-largest city and the fifth-largest CMA in Cassier.
Founded in 1826, the city has evolved into the political centre of Cassier. Its original boundaries were expanded through numerous annexations and were ultimately replaced by a new city incorporation and amalgamation in 2001 which significantly increased its land area. The city name Nouvelle-Rayenne was chosen in reference to the city of Rayenne in Gaullica.
Nouvelle-Rayenne has the most educated population among Cassien cities and is home to a number of post-secondary, research, and cultural institutions, including the National Arts Centre, the National Gallery, and numerous national museums. Nouvelle-Rayenne has among the highest standards of living in the nation and the lowest rate of unemployment.
History
Local populations inhabited the area surrounding Nouvelle-Rayenne for over 6500 years before the first Euclean explorers arrived. The Bouhier river valley has numerous archeological sites with arrow heads, pottery, and stone tools crafted by the indigenous peoples who lived there. Three major rivers meet within Nouvelle-Rayenne, making it an important trade and travel area for the period preceeding and proceeding Euclean settlement.
Nathan de Beaumont, widely regarded as the first Euclean to travel up the Bouhier River, passed by Nouvelle-Rayenne in 161X as he explored the upper reaches of the Saint Marcus river watershed into Lake Breloux. Three years later, Alexandre Bouhier wrote about the waterfalls in the area and about his encounters with the local tribe, who had been using the lake and Bouhier River for centuries. Due to the location's importance as a centre of trade Bouhier established a fort in the area on 7 March 161X along with on the north side of the river. The area would remain largely unpopulated until Clovis Lavigne, an Amendist Gaullican, created a Euclean settlement across from the present-day city of Nouvelle-Rayenne in Coque. He, with several other families and labourers, set about to create an Amendist agricultural community called Lavigneville. Lavigne pioneered the Bouhier Valley timber trade by transporting lumber downriver from the Bouiher Valley to Saint Marie and Monbec City. Parville, Nouvelle-Rayenne's original name, was founded as a community in 1826 when land speculators were attracted to the south side of the river when news spread that Gaullican authorities were immediately constructing the northerly end of the Alexandre Canal military project at that location. The canal connected the Saint Marcus and Bouhier Rivers to Lake Breloux, circumventing the rapids and shallows that prevented larger ships from sailing downriver from Andade. The following year the town was named after the city of Gaullican city of Rayenne in order to encourage more Eucleans to settle there. The name was chosen due to the city's similarities to its namesake in Gaullica, with both cities being on the shore of a large inland body of water.
On New Year's Eve 1855 Nouvelle-Rayenne was chosen, as a symbolic and political gesture, as the permanent capital of the Domain of Cassier. In reality, Govenor Henry Lafaille had assigned this selection process to the Executive Branch of the Government, as previous attempts to arrive at a consensus had ended in deadlock. Nouvelle-Rayenne's location was approximately midway between Andade in Upper Cassier and Saint Marie in Lower Cassier. Additionally, despite its relative isolation, it had seasonal water transportation access to Saint Marie down the Bouhier River and to Andade via the Alexandre Canal and Lake Breloux. In 1854 it also had a modern all-season railway that carried passengers, lumber and supplies the distance on the Saint Marcus River and beyond. Nouvelle-Rayenne's small size, it was thought, would also make it less prone to rampaging politically motivated mobs, as had happened in the previous Cassien capitals. The government already owned the land that would eventually become the location for parliament which made the construction of the government buildings easier.
In the 1850s entrepreneurs began to build large sawmills, some of which became some of the largest in the world. Other rail lines built in the 1850s connected the city to areas south and to the developing transcontinental rail network via Coque and Vallee, Monbec in 1886. The original parliament buildings were constructed between 1859 and 1866 using neo-baroque and renaissance revival styles. At the time, this was the largest Asterian construction project ever attempted and its architects were not initially well prepared. The accompanying library and government grounds landscaping would not be completed until 1876. By 1885 Nouvelle-Rayenne was the only city in Cassier whose downtown street lights were powered entirely by electricity. In 1889 the government developed and distributed Baux d'eau or "water leases", which still remain in the present, to mainly local industrialists which gave them permission to generate electricity and operate hydroelectric generators using the Bouhier River. Public transportation began in 1870 with a horsecar system, overtaken in the 1890s by a vast electric streetcar system that lasted until 1959.
Nouvelle-Rayenne's former industrial appearance was vastly altered by the 1929 MacCearnaigh Plan, developed by Caldian architect-planner Niallghus MacCearnaigh to design an urban plan for managing development in the N-R-C region, to make it more esthetically pleasing and more befitting a location for Cassier's political centre before the upcoming 1938 Summer Invictus Games. MacCearnaigh's plan included the creation of the capital greenbelt, parkway, the presidential highway system, the relocation of downtown train station (now the government conference centre) to the suburbs, the removal of the street car system, the decentralization of selected government offices, the relocation of industries and removal of substandard housing from the downtown and the creation of the Alexandre Canal and Bouhier River pathways to name just a few of its recommendations. In 1930 the Commission de la capitale nationale or "National Capital Commission" was established from the passing of the national capital act to implement the MacCearnaigh Plan recommendations-which it accomplished between 1930 to 1938.
In the previous 50 years, other commissions, plans and projects have continued to be to implemented and improve the capital. From the 1960s until the 1980s, the N-R-C experienced a building boom, which was followed by large growth in the high-tech industry during the 1990s and 2000s.