Nantes
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Postal
code |
44
000 |
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Department
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Loire-Atlantique
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Area |
Country
of the Loire |
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Population
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269
000 inhabitants |
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Altitude
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8
m |
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Surface
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6519
ha |
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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.