Orléans,
France
The city we have been twinned with the longest is the city of Orléans, France.
This friendship began on August 16, 1944 when soldiers from Wichita helped to liberate Orléans from German occupation. Since then we have had an annual exchange of Mayors, City council members, teachers, city workers, students and more. With each official visit we teach and learn and we continue the dream of President Eisenhower for friendship, goodwill and a better world for all.
The first liberation of Orléans, France was by Joan of Arc in 1429. Otherwise known as the Maid of Orléans, Joan of Arc battled hard to liberate Orléans from English occupation. She claimed that her direction came from the voices of saints and of God that had spoken to her since the young age of 12. She was executed at the age of 19, and was canonized as a saint on May 16, 1920, 511 years after her death.
Annually, our sister city of Orléans holds a week long Joan of Arc Festival during the first week of May. The first day of the Wichita River Festival, we celebrate Joan of Arc and our sister city with a short program in Joan of Arc Plaza, which is located at the Central Library on Main Street. This commemoration is just one of the many ways we continue to share the dream of the only President from Kansas, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who began the idea of a sister city program in 1957, with his "People to People" program.
For this commemoration, we have included veterans of WWII, who helped in the liberation of Orléans.
For Wichita's Centennial, Orléans presented a reproduction of a Joan of Arc sculpture, unveiled by Orléans Mayor on July 18, 1970. In 1975, a reproduction of Blackbear Bosin's Keeper of the Plains was presented to Orléans.