Nantes   With regard to the flag of Country-of-Nantes, the idea was to leave the old blazon of the County of Nantes, of hermines to the head of mouth.  The head here is replaced by a stake with guiding (vertical tape).  In the leaf a fasce (horizontal tape) appears heavy shower light blue, symbolizing the Loire.  Hermines in top and bottom reppelle that Country of Nantes east as well Breton in north as in the south.  This blazon was created year 1997 per Philippe Rault.
     
Postal code 44 000  
Department Loire-Atlantique  
Area Country of the Loire  
Population 269 000 inhabitants  
Altitude 8 m  
Surface 6519 ha  
     

History and economy

Condivicnum capital of the Gallic tribe of Namnètes, on the road of tin, became a significant administrative and commercial city with the Roman occupation. As of the end of the third, Christianity was introduced by Clair saint, bishop into 275 and two young martyrs, Donatien and Rogatien. With the first invasions, the city is surrounded by ramparts. It undergoes with the fifth the invasions saxonnes, reorganizes with the sixth with the holy bishop Felix. Nominoë is proclaimed king of Breton into 842. As of the following year, the city is taken by the Norman ones and the holy bishop Gohard killed in his cathedral. In 936 only, Alain Bores-Torte will drive out the invaders and will reconstitute the duchy. But its death marks the beginning of the fights between counts de Nantes and Rennes for the sovereignty of Brittany. Pierre de Dreux, known as Mauclerc, duke in 1213, chooses Nantes for capital but must defend himself against Plantagenet Jean Without-Ground of England; he increases the castle built by Guy de Thouars and strengthens the city. After the wars of succession and the victory of Montfort over Charles of Blois, the duchy becomes powerful and the trade of the wearing of Nantes intensifies. Foundation of the university with fifteenth, creation of many schools and construction of the new ducal castle. When Charles VIII wants to annex Brittany, it will encounter a strong resistance of the duke François II But, the Breton army is overcome with Saint-Aubin-of-Cormier in 1488. The duchess Anne, by her marriages with Charles VIII then Louis XII brings Brittany to France, by preserving to him her autonomy of " country of State ". It is with the castle of Nantes that François I, son-in-law of Anne of Brittany, will proclaim the official and final union. The wars of religion will bring disorders little and ended with the Edict of Nantes signed in 1598 with the castle by Henri IV As of sixteenth, and especially with eighteenth, the rise of the city was considerable. The middle-class was represented by the Council of Middle-class man, then a municipality. Nantes became the first commercial port of the kingdom. Its trade with the Indies and Europe then the triangular trade with Africa and the Antilles (or ebony wood traffic) allowed the construction of gigantic fortunes in particular in the armament. The Revolution was animated there than elsewhere with the disasters drownings organized by the representative on mission Carrier. In 1793, the Vendean ones fail in front of Nantes. The General of Charette will be shot in 1796 after being imprisoned with the castle, transformed since the seventeenth into prison of State, then in arsenal. The abolition of slavery, the continental blockade, of new industries brought the decline of the trade. Moreover, with the stranding of the Low Loire, the large ships could not reach it any more. The city associated a port of substitution, Saint-Nazaire, at the same time its competitor. The channel of the maritime Loire was open. As of the nineteenth, starts great urban transformations to improve the circulation : fastening of the Feybeau islands and Gloriette, modification of the course of Erdre. Today Nantes is the seventh town of France. Metropolis of balance, the harbour complex of Donges Saint-Nazaire and others is located at the fourth rank of the French ports. Nantes reserves the importation. The shipbuildings, the metallurgy, the trade of the skins and the food industrys are significant. Its university restored in 1962 fixes a young and active population. The Academy of Nantes covers all the disciplines beside the national schools, such as fisheries, agronomy, marine commercial. Nantes wants to be turned towards the future. Its demography does not cease growing, its surface always extends. However the city preserved its old workings and of testimonys of its past in charge of history. The largest bell of the world ordered by the cathedral of Chicago was molten in Nantes at the beginning of 1999.