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Brest, France

Subprefecture and commune in Brittany, France

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Le château de Brest vu depuis le pont de Recouvrance.
Thesupermat · CC BY-SA 3.0

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The history of Brest during the Middle Ages is the history of its castle. By the early modern period, however, Brest had become a military harbour, which Richelieu established in 1631. Brest subsequently grew around its arsenal until the second part of the 20th century. Heavily damaged by Allied 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. 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 since the 17th century has been linked to the sea: the Académie de Marine (Naval Academy) was founded in 1752 in this city. 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 (Les Tonnerres de Brest).

History

In the 4th century AD, Brest was known as Osismis, as attested in the Notitia Dignitatum. Breton Latin sources of the early Middle Ages also refer to the settlement as urbs Ocismorum, using the old name of the tribe of the Osismii. The city is then recorded as Bresta in 856 AD. The etymology is uncertain, but it may be related to bre ('hill').

Brest's fortress appears to have remained underdeveloped in the early 11th century. It was thereafter gradually strengthened by the Breton dukes, and became a key defensive and political stronghold. In 1196, it sheltered the young Arthur of Brittany. In the 13th century, Brest became fully integrated into ducal control, when Duke John I purchased the castle, town, and port.

In 1240, Harvey V, Lord of Léon ceded it to John I, Duke of Brittany. In 1342, John IV, Duke of Brittany surrendered Brest to the English, in whose possession it was to remain until 1397. This was strategically important to the English as it helped protect their communication with Gascony. 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 1514

Starting in 1534 Brest and the rest of Brittany become fully part of France as the Province of Brittany. 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. This soon became a base for the French Navy. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, finance minister under Louis XIV, rebuilt the wharves in masonry and otherwise improved the harbour. 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 Anglo-Dutch squadron under Lord Berkeley was soundly defeated in its attack on Brest.

During the repression of January and February 1894, the gendarmes conducted raids targeting the anarchists living there, without much success. They notably surrounded the house of Régis Meunier with their bayonnets fixed.

In 1917, during the First World War, Brest was used as the disembarking port for many of the troops coming from the United States. Thousands of such men came through the port on their way to the front lines. The United States Navy established a naval air station on 13 February 1918 to operate seaplanes. This port also became a hot spot where the U.S. Navy and the French Navy engaged in underwater combat with German submarines. The base closed shortly after the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

In the Second World War, the Germans maintained a large U-boat submarine base at Brest. Despite being within range of RAF bombers, it was also a base for some of the German surface fleet, giving repair facilities and direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. For much of 1941, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen were under repair in the dockyards. The repair yard facilities for both submarines and surface vessels were staffed by both German and French workers, with the latter forming the major part of the workforce; huge reliance was made on this French component.

In 1944, after the Allied invasion of Normandy, the city was almost totally destroyed during the Battle for Brest, with only a tiny number of buildings left standing. After the war, the West German government paid several billion Deutschmarks in reparations to the homeless and destitute civilians of Brest in compensation for the destruction of their city. 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.

During the postwar Nuremberg Trials, a memorandum of German admiral and Seekriegsleitung chief of staff Kurt Fricke from 1940 was given in evidence which suggested that the town should serve as a German enclave after the war.

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.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Brest is divided in two: to the left, there's the three fleurs-de-lis of the former kingdom of France, and to the right it has the ermines of the Duchy of Brittany. These arms were used for the first time in a register of deliberations of the city council dated the 15 July 1683. Additionally, it looks visually identical to the coat of arms of Bourg-la-Reine.

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