11/21/2023 0 Comments Biscuit books kindle![]() In the Second World War, the Germans maintained a large U-boat submarine base at Brest. German soldiers entering a Soldatenbordell in Brest, France (1940). The base closed shortly after the Armistice of 11 November 1918. The United States Navy established a naval air station on 13 February 1918 to operate seaplanes. Thousands of such men came through the port on their way to the front lines. In 1917, during the First World War, Brest was used as the disembarking port for many of the troops coming from the United States. Gustave Le Gray: la batterie Royale à Brest, 1858 In 1694, an English squadron under Lord Berkeley was soundly defeated in its attack on Brest. These fortifications, and with them the naval importance of the town, were to continue to develop throughout the 18th century. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, finance minister under Louis XIV, rebuilt the wharves in masonry and otherwise improved the harbour. This soon became a base for the French Navy. The advantages of Brest's situation as a seaport town were first recognized by Cardinal Richelieu, who in 1631 constructed a harbour with wooden wharves. : 102 The importance of Brest in medieval times was great enough to give rise to the saying, "He is not the Duke of Brittany who is not the Lord of Brest." With the marriage of Francis I of France to Claude, the daughter of Anne of Brittany, the definitive overlordship of Brest – together with the rest of the duchy – passed to the French crown in 1491. This was strategically important to the English as it helped protect their communication with Gascony. In 1342 John IV, Duke of Brittany surrendered Brest to the English, in whose possession it was to remain until 1397. Nothing definite is known of Brest before about 1240, when Harvey V, Lord of Léon ceded it to John I, Duke of Brittany. ![]() The name of the town is first recorded as Bresta it may derive from * brigs, a Celtic word for "hill". 1700 The Maison de la Fontaine in Recouvrance, one of the oldest houses of Brest (end of the 17th century, beginning of the 18th century) See also: Timeline of Brest, France Brest in c. Every four years, Brest hosts the international festival of the sea, boats and sailors: it is a meeting of old riggings from around the world ( Les Tonnerres de Brest). The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was built there. Brest is also an important research centre, mainly focused on the sea, with among others the largest Ifremer (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) centre, le Cedre (Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution) and the French Polar Institute.īrest's history has since the 17th century been linked to the sea: the Académie de Marine (Naval Academy) was founded in 1752 in this city. Besides a multidisciplinary university, the University of Western Brittany, Brest and its surrounding area possess several prestigious French elite schools such as École Navale (the French Naval Academy), Télécom Bretagne and the Superior National School of Advanced Techniques of Brittany (ENSTA Bretagne, formerly ENSIETA). Nowadays, Brest is an important university town with 23,000 students. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, the deindustrialization of the city was followed by the development of the service sector. Heavily damaged by the Allies' bombing raids during World War II, the city centre was completely rebuilt after the war. Brest grew around its arsenal until the second part of the 20th century. ![]() Then Richelieu made it a military harbour in 1631. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the préfecture (regional capital) of the department is in the much smaller town of Quimper.ĭuring the Middle Ages, the history of Brest was the history of its castle. With 142,722 inhabitants in a 2007 census, Brest forms Western Brittany's largest metropolitan area (with a population of 300,300 in total), ranking third behind only Nantes and Rennes in the whole of historic Brittany, and the 19th most populous city in France moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany. The city is located on the western edge of continental France. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of a peninsula and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon. 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km 2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.īrest ( French pronunciation: i Breton pronunciation: ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany.
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