Brest is a French commune, capital of the arrondissement of the
Finistère department in the Brittany region. It is an important
port, the second military port in France after Toulon, located at
the western end of Brittany.
With its 140,064 inhabitants
(2017), Brest is the 25th most populous municipality in France. With
a metropolis of 209,722 inhabitants (2017), it represents the first
agglomeration in western Brittany and the second in the Brittany
region after Rennes. Although Brest, also called the city of Ponant,
is the most populous city in Finistère, the department prefecture is
Quimper.
In the Middle Ages, the history of Brest merges with
the history of its castle. Then Richelieu made it a military port.
Brest will develop around its arsenal, until the second half of the
twentieth century. Strongly marked by bombardments during the Second
World War, Brest saw its historic center almost entirely renewed
during Reconstruction. At the end of the twentieth and the beginning
of the twenty-first century, the deindustrialisation of the city was
accompanied by the development of the tertiary sector. Brest is
labeled City of Art and History.
Brest is today a major
university town with more than 29,000 students. Its university is
multidisciplinary and notably includes a faculty of medicine. In
addition, Brest and its country have several grandes écoles:
engineering schools (ESIAB, IMT Atlantique, ENSTA Bretagne, ENIB and
ISEN), the Brest Business School, the EURO-Institut d'Actuariat
EURIA, Brest is also an important research center, focused on the
sea, and notably hosts the head office and the largest of the
Ifremer centers, CEDRE, SHOM as well as the European University
Institute of the Sea and the French Polar Institute. The Technopôle
Brest-Iroise facilitates the implementation of these scientific and
technical skills in the economic and industrial field.
Brest
has always been very marked by its maritime past: the Marine Academy
was founded there in 1752, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier
was built there, and every four years, in July, Brest hosts the
great international celebration of the sea, boats and sailors. Brest
also hosts the Maistrance school (initial training school for petty
officers), the foam school at the Naval Instruction Center, and
numerous nautical businesses within the Breton Sailing Valley.
Buildings and museums
See also: List of monuments historiques in
Brest (Finistère)
The Brest Fortress (French Château de Brest)
above the Penfeld estuary offers a good overview of the roadstead and
the naval port. One of the towers houses the Musée de la Marine (a
branch of the Musée national de la Marine) with a collection on the
history of the port and the Navy.
Océanopolis since 1990, an
ocean-themed theme park with 42 seawater display aquariums of different
sizes and a focus on the flora and fauna of the Brittany coast.
Various vestiges of Vauban's fortifications
In a medieval tower, the
Tour Tanguy, on the right bank of the Penfeld Estuary, there is a small
museum with models and historical documents on the appearance of the
city of Brest before the Second World War.
The 1954 Pont de
Recouvrance lift bridge over the Penfeld.
The submarine bunker built
by the German occupiers between 1940 and 1944, which offered space for a
total of 13 submarines.
The Musée des Beaux-Arts presents a small
collection of European paintings from the 16th-21st. century from.
Church of St-Louis, originally from the 18th century, rebuilt between
1953 and 1958 after being destroyed in the war.
Since 1992, the Fêtes maritimes de Brest has been held every four
years in July, an international festival of the sea and sailors (Brest
92, Brest 96, Brest 2000, Brest 2004, etc.), including a show of
international tall ships. In 2012, 715,000 people attended the event in
and around the Rade de Brest.
The city's stage, Le Quartz, is known
beyond the department's borders.
The short film festival Festival
européen du film court de Brest takes place every autumn.
For several
years now, the Astropolis festival has been attracting French and
international electronic music stars to Brest (usually at the beginning
of August).
Since 1891, Brest has been the turning point of the
Paris-Brest-Paris cycle race (Brevet), held every four years, and the
Paris-Brest-Paris cycle race (Audax), held every five years
By plane
Brest Airport - Aéroport Brest-Bretagne (IATA: BES) - is
the main airport in Brittany. There are Air France flights several times
a day from the two Paris airports of Orly (ORY) and Charles-de-Gaulle
(CDG). Other connections within France are offered by Chalair (Bordeaux
several times a day, Caen once a day), Hop! (Lyon several times a day,
Lille once a day) and Ryanair (Marseille daily). TUIfly flies from/to
holiday areas on the Mediterranean (Malaga, Mallorca) and Marrakech.
From the German-speaking countries you need a transfer connection,
usually via Paris. The small airline Finist'air flies twice a day with a
turboprop aircraft (Cessna 208) from Brest to the island of Ouessant and
back.
The airport is about 11 km northeast of the city center. A
shuttle bus (Navette) runs 1-2 times per hour from the airport to the
Porte de Guipavas bus stop (journey time 10 minutes). There you can
change to tram line A, which goes to the city center (including Place de
Strasbourg and Liberté). The ticket costs €1.50 and entitles you to
transfer to the tram and other bus routes (valid for one hour).
By train
The TGV high-speed train runs from Paris Montparnasse
station to Brest (via Rennes) every 1-2 hours. The journey takes around
3½ hours. Coming from Germany or Switzerland, you have to change trains
in Paris and also change the train station (from Gare du Nord or Est to
Gare Montparnasse).
Rennes to Brest takes around 2 hours by TGV
(not high-speed line) or 2h15-2h20 by Regional Express (TER; only during
morning and afternoon/evening rush hours). Trains stop at St-Brieuc en
route , partly also in Lamballe, Guingamp and Morlaix. There are seven
TER trains a day from Quimper to Brest (journey time 1 hour 15 minutes),
otherwise buses. Connections between Brest and Roscoff always require a
change in Morlaix and take between 1:15 and 2 hours.
The train
station (Gare de Brest) is at the east end of the city centre. Here you
can change to the city bus lines 1, 3, 4 and 5. There are no luggage
lockers in the train station.
By bus
The bus station (Gare
routiére) is located in front of the station.
In the street
The national roads N12 (from Rennes/St Bieuc) and N165 (from
Nantes/Lorient), which have been developed as expressways, end in Brest.
For example, you can park for free at the Parc à chaines.
By boat
The cruise port is not far from the city center, you can reach it on
foot or with a free shuttle bus.
The public transport system of the city of Brest is called Bibus and
is operated by Keolis Brest. It consists of a modern tram (tramway) with
so far one line (A), which was inaugurated in 2012, a cable car
(téléphérique, line C) and 29 bus lines, which are designated by
numbers.
The Brest region can be reached by using the Penn-ar-Bed
(Viaoo29) regional buses.
The climate of Brest is a temperate maritime climate influenced by
the Gulf Stream. This climate is characterized by cool summers and mild
winters. Frost is rare, while wind is almost constant. The city belongs
to a climate zone of the Cfb type (according to Köppen and Geiger): warm
temperate rainy climate (C), fully humid (f), warmest month below 22 °C,
at least four months above 10 °C (b).
The annual mean temperature
is 10.9 °C; January is the coldest month at 6.3 °C and August is the
warmest at 16.3 °C. Annual rainfall is 1,109.4 mm; July is the driest
month at 46.3 mm, while December has the highest rainfall at 140.2 mm.
At the site of today's Brest, from the end of the 3rd century, in
Roman times, there was a fortified base that served to protect the coast
and was called Gesocribate. In the 5th century, British tribes
immigrated from England, after whom the country was named Brittany.
Later a fort was built here to protect against Norman attacks. Along
with Brittany, Brest also came under English suzerainty in the 12th
century, but returned to French feudal rule in 1202.
With the
beginning of modern times, the city experienced an upswing due to
overseas trade. In 1593, Brest received city rights from King Henry IV.
In 1631, Cardinal Richelieu made Brest a military port and had the naval
arsenal for the Fleet du Ponant built there. In 1683 Vauban expanded the
complex into a fortress. On June 18, 1686, a delegation from Siam
arrived here to travel to Versailles to see King Louis XIV, an event
that to this day is commemorated by the name of the city's main street,
Rue de Siam. In 1749 the Brest "Bagno" (penitentiary) was set up, a
labor camp on the site of the naval arsenal. It could accommodate up to
3700 convicts and existed until 1858. The main building of the Bagno,
built in 1750/51 by the master builder Choquet de Lindu, with a façade
254 m long, was one of the characteristic buildings of old Brest before
the Second World War. The inmates made up around 10% of the city's
population and played a major role in Brest life. In addition to
shipbuilding work, the prisoners also carried out earthworks in the
harbor basin and on the canal from Nantes to Brest. In 1752 a naval
academy was established in Brest. The naval arsenal was also known for
its powerful cannon, which announced the opening and closing of the
arsenal grounds daily – according to a controversial theory, this is
where the French phrase tonnerre de Brest (mighty thunderstorm) derives
from.
In 1789, the people of Brest were initially enthusiastic
about the French Revolution. However, her sympathies were then
increasingly with the Girondins and a federal state structure, which
earned her the displeasure of the Jacobins, who sent 70 citizens to the
guillotine. After the fall of Robespierre, the city was again
administered by Girondins. However, the port soon lost its importance
due to the continental blockade, trade lay idle and the result was an
economic crisis that set the city back. Under Napoleon, the construction
of the navigable Canal de Nantes à Brest was started, with which the
naval blockade should be bypassed. With the industrialization one found
again connection to the economic development, for example through the
construction of the bridge over the Penfeld in 1856 or the construction
of the Brest train station in 1865; the city was then 18 hours by train
from Paris. The penitentiary was abandoned in 1858, and instead the
inmates were shipped directly from Bordeaux to convict islands overseas.
During World War I, Brest was an important supply port for US troops
in Europe in 1917/1918. In the post-war period, the port was constantly
expanded, in 1930 the facilities of Plougastel were added. During the
Second World War, the German Wehrmacht took Brest on June 19, 1940 and
made it one of the most important bases on the Atlantic Wall, where the
1st U-Flotilla and a naval hospital were also stationed. In 1941/1942
the two battleships of the Scharnhorst class and the cruiser Prinz Eugen
were also based here. A sea rescue squadron was also set up in Brest. To
protect the submarines, a submarine bunker was built immediately in
front of the former Ecole Navale, whose building now served as the
headquarters of the submarine flotilla. It was 192 m wide, 333 m long
and 17 m high. The ceiling thickness was 6.20 m.
In January 1944, Hitler designated all the important port cities in
the West - including Brest - as "fortresses", which was primarily of a
symbolic nature. In February 1944 OKW orders for the defense of
fortresses ordered to fight "to the last man" and under no circumstances
to surrender. After the Normandy landings, Brest was besieged by the
Allies for 43 days in the Battle of Brittany (making it one of the
longest besieged places) before the commander, Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke,
surrendered.
The city was severely damaged by Allied fighting and
bombing and had to be rebuilt from scratch according to the plans of
Jean-Baptiste Mathon. In 1961 the reconstruction was essentially
complete. Since little remains of the historic building fabric, Brest
today gives the impression of a largely faceless planned city with
concrete buildings. Economically one had to reorient oneself, since the
importance as a naval port declined; instead, the service sector and
modern industries as well as marine research experienced an upswing. The
founding of the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in 1960 also
contributed to its importance as an educational center.