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Lorient |
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Lorient
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Location within Brittany region
Lorient
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| Administration | |
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| Country | France |
| Region | Brittany |
| Department | Morbihan |
| Arrondissement | Lorient |
| Intercommunality | Pays de Lorient |
| Mayor | Norbert Métairie (2008—2014) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 0–46 m (0–151 ft) |
| Land area1 | 17.48 km2 (6.75 sq mi) |
| Population2 | 58,135 (2007) |
| - Density | 3,326 /km2 (8,610 /sq mi) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 56121/ 56100 |
| 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. | |
Lorient, or L'Orient, (French pronunciation: [lɔ.ʁjɑ̃]; Breton: An Oriant) is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.
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At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis. They later built additional warehouses across the bay in 1628, at the location which became known as L'Orient (the Orient in French). Later, the French East India Company, founded in 1664 and chartered by King Louis XIV, established shipyards there, thus giving an impetus to the development of the city. In 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession, Britain launched an unsuccessful Raid on Lorient to destroy French shipping.
In attempts to destroy German submarine pens (U-boat bases) and their supply lines, most of this city was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II (see section below). Thus, today's Lorient reflects an architectural style of the 1950s.
Lorient is located on the south coast of Brittany on the Atlantic Ocean. The rivers Blavet and Scorff enter the Atlantic Ocean at Lorient.
With a population of 58,135 (urban area: 186,144) Lorient is the most populous commune in Morbihan, although the capital is the slightly smaller commune of Vannes.
Inhabitants of Lorient are called Lorientais.
The municipality launched a linguistic plan through Ya d'ar brezhoneg on 25 January 2007.
In 2008, 2.71% of the children attended the bilingual schools in primary education.[1]
Lorient has a major fishing port, Port de Pêche (Breton: Porzh Pesketa), at Keroman and the docks area at Kergroise handle large cargo and passenger ships.
Tourism plays an important part in the city's economy and there are several large yachting marinas around the bay. The annual Festival Interceltique de Lorient was founded in Lorient in 1971 and attracts large numbers of tourists to the area every summer (700 000 people came in 2009).
Lorient was a former base of the French Navy but these piers, docks, etc., have now been removed. However, many important former French naval buildings remain around the quayside.
Lorient South Brittany Airport is situated just west of the city at Lann Bihoue, and it has direct flights to several destinations, such as to Paris and Lyon. There are direct connections with Ireland in Summer.
The Gare de Lorient is the railway station, offering connections to Quimper, Nantes, Rennes, Paris (slightly less than 4 hours by TGV) and several regional destinations.
Lorient was the location of a German U-boat base during World War II. Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz decided to construct the base on 28 June 1940. Between February 1941 and January 1942 three gigantic reinforced concrete structures were built on the Keroman peninsula. They are called K1, K2 and K3. In 1944 work began on a fourth structure. The base was capable of sheltering thirty submarines under cover. Although Lorient was heavily damaged by Allied bombing raids, this naval base survived through to the end of the war. Lorient was held until May 1945 by the Nazi German army, even though this city was surrounded by the American Army, since the Germans there refused to surrender.
Since they could not destroy the base and its submarine pens, the Allies had decided to flatten the city and port of Lorient, in order to cut the supply lines to the U-boat bases. Between 14 January 1943 and 17 February 1943, as many as 500 high-explosive aerial bombs and more than 60,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Lorient. The city was almost completely destroyed.
Lorient was the birthplace of: Jean-Baptiste Chaigneau (1769-1832), sailor, adventurer, and Grand Mandarin in VietnamJules Simon (1814-1896), statesman and philosopher; and Marie-Léontine Bordes-Pène (1858-1924), pianist
Lorient is the home of a major Celtic music festival, the Festival Interceltique de Lorient. It is also the home of FC Lorient Bretagne Sud whose stadium, Stade du Moustoir, is in the city centre. In the 2006 Tour de France, Lorient hosted the end of Stage 8.
Lorient is twinned with: