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Brest |
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| Brest Collage.jpg | ||
| From top left: Recouvrance bridge, the steeple of Saint-Louis church of Brest, Saint-Malo street, the Abeille Bourbon, the american memorial on the Court Dajot, panorama from the Recouvrance bridge of the castle of Brest, the Tanguy tower, Saint-Sauveur church of Recouvrance, Dialogues book shop and the place de la Liberté. | ||
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| City logo | City coat of arms | |
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Brest
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Location within Brittany region
Brest
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| Administration | ||
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| Country | France | |
| Region | Brittany | |
| Department | Finistère | |
| Arrondissement | Brest | |
| Intercommunality | Brest Métropole Océane | |
| Mayor | François Cuillandre (PS) (2008–2014) |
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| Statistics | ||
| Elevation | 0–103 m (0–338 ft) (avg. 34 m/112 ft) |
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| Land area1 | 49.51 km2 (19.12 sq mi) | |
| Population2 | 142,097 (2008) | |
| - Density | 2,870 /km2 (7,400 /sq mi) | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 29019/ 29200 | |
| Website | Official website | |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | ||
| 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | ||
Brest (French pronunciation: [bʁɛst]; Breton: [brest]) is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon. The city is located at one of the occidental edges of continental Europe, hence the expression « Europe from Brest to Brest[1] ». Counting 142,722 inhabitants, Brestois and Brestoises (2007 sensur), Brest is the main metropolitan area (reaching 300,300 inhabitants) of Western Brittany, only third behind Nantes and Rennes in the whole Brittany, and the 22nd populous city of France; moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany [2]. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the préfecture (regional capital) of the department, Quimper, is much smaller.
During the Middle Ages, the history of Brest was the history of its castle. Then Richelieu made it a military harbour. Brest grew around its arsenal, until the second part of the 20th century. Profoundly marked by the Allies bombing raids during World War II, the city centre was completely rebuilt after the war. 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. Nowadays, Brest is an important university town with 23,000 students.[3] 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). 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.
Brest’s history has always been linked to the sea: the Académie de Marine (Naval Academy) was founded in 1752 in this city as well as the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle was built there. 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.
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Nothing definite is known of Brest before about 1240 , when a count of Léon ceded it to John I, the Duke of Brittany. In 1342, John de Montfort surrendered Brest to the English, in whose possession it was to remain until 1397. 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 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.
The advantages of Brest's situation as a seaport town were first recognized by Cardinal Richelieu, who in 1631 constructed a harbor with wooden wharves. This soon became a base for the French Navy. Jean-Baptiste Colbert - the finance minister under Louis XIV - rebuilt the wharves in masonry and otherwise improved the base. Fortifications by Vauban (1633–1707) followed in 1680-1688. These fortifications, and with them the naval importance of the town, were to continue to develop throughout the 18th century.
In 1694, an English squadron under John Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley of Stratton, was soundly defeated in its attack on Brest.
During World War I Brest France was used as the disembarking port for many of the USA troops coming from America in 1917. Thousands of United States troops came through this port on their way to the front lines.
In World War II, the Germans maintained a large U-boat (submarine) base at Brest. The city was totally destroyed during the Battle for Brest in 1944 after the Allied invasion of Normandy, with barely more than three buildings left standing. After the war, the West German government paid several billion deutschemarks in reparations to the homeless and destitute civilians of Brest in compensation for the destruction of their home city during the course of the war. Large parts of today's rebuilt city consist of utilitarian granite and concrete buildings. The French naval base now houses the Brest Naval Training Centre.
In 1972, the French Navy opened its nuclear weapon-submarine (deterrence) base at Île Longue in the Rade de Brest (Brest roadstead). This continues to be an important base for the French nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines.
The meaning of the coat of arms of Brest is half France (the three fleurs-de-lis of the former kingdom of France), half Brittany (semé d'hermine of Brittany). It is in a register of deliberations of the city council dated the 15th July 1683 that this coat of arms was used for the first time.[4]
| Year | 1793 | 1800 | 1806 | 1821 | 1831 | 1836 | 1841 | 1846 | 1851 | 1856 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 24,180 | 25,865 | 22,130 | 26,361 | 29,860 | 29,773 | 48,225 | 55,820 | 61,160 | 54,665 |
| Year | 1861 | 1866 | 1872 | 1876 | 1881 | 1886 | 1891 | 1896 | 1901 | 1906 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 67,833 | 79,847 | 66,270 | 66,828 | 69,110 | 70,778 | 75,854 | 74,538 | 84,284 | 85,294 |
| Year | 1911 | 1921 | 1926 | 1931 | 1936 | 1946 | 1954 | 1962 | 1968 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 90,540 | 73,960 | 67,861 | 69,841 | 79,342 | 74,991 | 110,713 | 136,104 | 154,023 |
| Year | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 166,826 | 156,060 | 147,956 | 149,634 | 142,097 |
Brest is best known for its Pont de Recouvrance (Recouvrance Bridge, a massive drawbridge 64 m/210 ft high), the military arsenal and the rue de Siam (Siam Street). The castle and the Tanguy tower are the oldest monuments of Brest.
The Musée de la Tour Tanguy, in the Tanguy tower, houses a collection of dioramas that depict the city of Brest on the eve of World War II. The Musée national de la Marine de Brest, housed in the ancient castle, contains exhibits which outline Brest's maritime tradition, as well as an aquarium, the Océanopolis marine centre. The city also has a notable botanical garden specializing in endangered species, the Conservatoire botanique national de Brest, as well as the Jardin botanique de l'Hôpital d'Instruction des Armées Clermont-Tonnerre.
The city of Brest does not have much remaining historical architecture, apart from a few select monuments such as the castle and the Tanguy tower. This is due to heavy bombing by the Allies during World War II, in an attempt to destroy the submarine base the Germans had built in the harbour. In the 1950s, the town was hastily rebuilt using a large amount of concrete. In Recouvrance, the west bank of the town, there remains an authentic street of the 17th century, Saint-Malo Street.
A few kilometres out of town, there are more impressive landscapes, from sandy beaches to grottos to tall granite cliffs. Sunbathing, windsurfing, yachting and fishing are enjoyed in the area. Brest was an important warship-producing port during the Napoleonic wars. The naval port, which is in great part excavated in the rock, extends along both banks of the Penfeld river.
Brest is located amidst a dramatic landscape near the entrance of the natural rade de Brest (Brest roadstead), at the west end of Brittany.
It is situated to the north of a magnificent landlocked bay, and occupies the slopes of two hills divided by the river Penfeld. The part of the town on the left bank is regarded as Brest proper, while the part on the right is known as Recouvrance. There are also extensive suburbs to the east of the town. The hillsides are in some places so steep that the ascent from the lower to the upper town has to be effected by flights of steps and the second or third storey of one house is often on a level with the ground storey of the next.
| Climate data for Brest | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 9.1 (48.4) |
9.4 (48.9) |
11.0 (51.8) |
12.5 (54.5) |
15.6 (60.1) |
18.1 (64.6) |
20.4 (68.7) |
20.6 (69.1) |
18.7 (65.7) |
15.3 (59.5) |
11.9 (53.4) |
10.0 (50.0) |
14.38 (57.89) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 4.2 (39.6) |
4.2 (39.6) |
5.1 (41.2) |
5.8 (42.4) |
8.5 (47.3) |
10.8 (51.4) |
12.8 (55.0) |
13.0 (55.4) |
11.4 (52.5) |
9.3 (48.7) |
6.5 (43.7) |
5.2 (41.4) |
8.07 (46.52) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 138.4 (5.449) |
115.8 (4.559) |
97.5 (3.839) |
81.8 (3.22) |
72.6 (2.858) |
56.4 (2.22) |
50.9 (2.004) |
60.4 (2.378) |
89.2 (3.512) |
119.1 (4.689) |
121.0 (4.764) |
141.6 (5.575) |
1,144.7 (45.067) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 18 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 157 |
| Sunshine hours | 65.1 | 87.6 | 127.1 | 174.0 | 210.8 | 216.0 | 229.4 | 207.7 | 168.0 | 124.0 | 81.0 | 62.0 | 1,752.7 |
| Source no. 1: World Meteorological Organisation (UN) [6] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: [7] | |||||||||||||
Due to its location, Brest is regarded as the first French port that can be accessed from the Americas. Shipping is big business, although Nantes and Saint-Nazaire offer much larger docks and attract more of the larger vessels. The protected location of Brest means that its harbor is ideal to receive any type of ship, from the smallest dinghy to the biggest aircraft-carrier (the USS Nimitz has visited a few times).
Despite its image of an industrialised city whose activity depends mainly on military order, the service sector represents 75% of the economic activity.[10] The importance of service sector is still increasing while the industrialised activity decaying, explaining the unchanged rate of working-class in Brest. Brest also hosts headquarters for many subsidiaries like the banking group Arkéa... Brest has the 9th French commercial harbour including ship repairs and maintenance. Research and conception is taking an increasing importance. Brest claims to be the largest European centre for sciences and techniques linked to the sea: 60% of the French research in the maritime field is based in Brest.[11]
The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R91) was built by Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN) in Brest.
The municipality launched a linguistic plan to revive Breton as a language through Ya d'ar brezhoneg on 16 June 2006. In 2008 1.94% of primary-school children attended bilingual schools.[12]
Breton is not commonly spoken in the city of Brest and is not an official language of France (like other French minority languages). It is being taught in some schools and universities. The association Sked[1] federates all Breton cultural activities.
Brest was the only French-speaking city in western Brittany before the 1789 French Revolution.
The city is host to several events to celebrate its long maritime history. The largest is held every four years, when the town organises a tall ship meeting. The last such tall ship event was "Brest 2008".
Brest also hosts an annual Short Film Festival called "Festival Européen du Film Court de Brest". The city was the setting for the 1982 art film Querelle, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Brittany's most famous local delicacy, the Breton crêpe, is the main culinary feature apart from seafood. There are many crêpe restaurants (called crêperies). Breton apple cider is often featured.
Traditional biscuits include Traou Mad, which is a full-fat butter biscuit, similar to Scottish shortbread.
Since 1901 Brest has served as the midpoint for the epic 1,200 km (750 mi) bicycle endurance event, Paris–Brest–Paris. Brest is home to Stade Brestois 29, a football team in Ligue 1.
The 2008 Tour de France, a multi-day bicycle race, started in Brest.
Primarily research centre of western Brittany, Brest and its surrounding area is the home of several research and elite educational establishments:
Brest was the birthplace of:
Brest has an official friendly relationship (protocole d'amitié) with:[15]