Saint-Brieuc is a French commune located in Brittany, in the west of France. Prefecture of Côtes-d'Armor, it is also the most populous city with a population of almost 45,000 inhabitants (2016) called Briochins and Briochines. With 171,721 inhabitants (2013), the Briochine urban area is the most populous in the department. The city gives its name to the bay of Saint-Brieuc.
The territory of the commune has been occupied since the Neolithic
period. Several underground passages from the second Iron Age have been
discovered there (in 1850 at Rocher Martin, in 1900 at Tertre Aubé). The
undergrounds yielded various shards of pottery. That of the Aubert or
Aubé mound which dominates the Légué and the floating basin, would have
an underground gallery a little more than 5 meters long located at the
bottom of a well.
On the site of the Tour de Cesson, we found in
1832 and 1847 rimmed tiles, fragments of weapons, cement and Roman coins
(Gallien, Claude II, Tétricus, Valérien). To the north of the tower,
towards the end of the point, a vast destroyed trapezoidal enclosure of
420 meters, reinforced by a second entrenchment, has been interpreted as
Roman. The site of the tower has never been fully excavated, despite its
obvious archaeological and historical interest.
Other sites of
Roman origin, with the presence of bricks, tegulae and coins, are
reported in the town (Saint-Jouan, Le Tertre Buet, La Ville-Oger, Ville
Ginglin). On the plateau of Gouédic, it was discovered in 1872 a vast
oval enclosure of 98 × 89 m. Fragments of bricks and Roman pottery have
been found on the site, as well as "granite loaves" having undergone the
action of fire.
There are many other Gallo-Roman sites around the
town. In particular, traces of a Gallo-Roman villa were discovered in
2007 in Ploufragan during road works. It is a residential and
agricultural building, organized in a "U" around a central courtyard.
The villa is an assembly of pavilions connected by covered galleries. It
included a large room in the shape of a semicircle, camped to the west.
The first traces of occupation of the site date back to the Gallic
period. They consist of an enclosure surrounded by several pits,
corresponding to the remains of a habitat made of perishable materials,
wood and earth. These ancient facilities were replaced during the 1st
century AD by a Gallo-Roman farm, evolving over the years to lead to the
creation of the large villa.
We also note the recent rediscovery
of a villa in the helio-marine center of Plérin or the numerous traces
of Roman occupation in the commune of Hillion. A Roman bridge still
remains in the nearby town of Plédran (Pont Chéra), on the Roman road
leading to Vorgium (today Carhaix-Plouguer).
The city takes its name from the monk Brioc, whose hagiography is
based on the Vita Briocii, a story written around 1050 probably at the
Saint-Serge d'Angers abbey, where the relics of the saint were
transferred during the reign of the Breton king Erispoë. .
The
text of the Vita Briocii is unreliable, especially with regard to dates.
It is possible that Brioc, originally from Ceredigion (now Wales)
settled on the heights around 480 and founded a monastery there, near
where the Saint-Brieuc Fountain is today.
The porch of this
fountain was built in 1420 by Marguerite de Clisson, Countess of
Penthièvre.
In 848, the Breton king Nominoë carried out a reorganization of the
bishoprics under his control, after the departure of the Vikings. It was
at this time that the bishopric of Saint-Brieuc was founded.
Dudon having refused to pay homage to the overlord of Guillaume
Long-Sword, the King of the Franks, Raoul, Guillaume invaded the region,
and while he was returning to Rouen, on his rear the Bretons ravaged the
Bessin, again causing the invasion of Brittany to Saint-Brieuc by
Guillaume who settled on these lands. In 937, Alain, who had taken
refuge in England with his father Mathueldoi, Count of Poher, near King
Adelstan who provided vessels for a punitive expedition, with his
brothers landed and surprised the Norman garrison of Saint-Brieuc, after
having surprised in 936 that of Dol.
The relics of Saint Brieuc,
which had been put in safety at the time of the raids carried out by the
Men of the North, returned to the city in 1210. A procession was
organised, followed by a great popular festival.
Guillaume
Pinchon, raised to the episcopate in 1220, was one of the greatest
architects of the construction of the cathedral. He died in 1234 and was
canonized in 1247 (Saint William) by Pope Innocent IV without seeing the
completion of his work by his successor, Philip, in 1248. This is the
first Saint of Armorica canonized by Rome. The cathedral was built from
the 13th to the 18th century.
Destroyed in a fire in 1355, the
choir of the cathedral was rebuilt in two years under the episcopates of
Guy de Montfort and Hugues de Montrelais.
In 1375, Saint-Brieuc
was besieged for fifteen days by the Duke of Brittany Jean de Montfort
and the barons and knights of England, the miners ended up entering the
city after having knocked down a section of the ramparts.
In the
Middle Ages, in the absence of sewers, streets were intended for the
disposal of waste and waste water in the open air, the ingoguets. Their
flows mixed with those of the streams and rivers also called
“merderons”, such as the Jouallan, the Grenouillère and the ru de
Saint-Gouëno. The lack of thoughtful and respected town planning is also
evident in the parasitic constructions leaning against the cathedral,
encouraging fires. The construction methods favored fires: this ranges
from the most widespread method of covering, roz or dried reeds, to the
use of wooden panels, which are abundant, and whose thermal and
aesthetic insulation qualities (especially when they are carved) were
sought after.
In 1592, the Saint-Michel plain to the north of the town became the
site of the first pitched battle of the League wars in Brittany (the
battle of Craon in the spring of 1592 having taken place in Mayenne). It
opposes a League army commanded by Saint-Laurent d'Avaugour to the
troops of René de Rieux, Sieur de Sourdéac. The leaguers who besieged
the tower of Cesson are defeated there. Some of them, entrenched in the
cathedral, destroyed the archives then held there.
In 1598,
following the Wars of Religion, the decision to destroy the stronghold
of the Tour de Cesson was taken. Its ruins still dominate the bay of
Saint-Brieuc. The municipal administration is set up at the end of this
century.
In the 18th century the seigneury of Berrien belonged to
the Le Nepvou de Kerfort family (for example Jacques Le Nepvou, squire,
born in 1674 in Saint-Brieuc, died in 1731 in Saint-Brieuc, was lord of
Berrien and Kerfort).
In 1790, under the French Revolution, Saint-Brieuc became the capital
of the Côtes-du-Nord department (renamed Côtes-d'Armor on March 8,
1990). Among the notable political figures of the time, we can note
Palasne de Champeaux and Poulain de Corbion who were elected deputies of
the Third Estate in 1789.
During this period, the town
temporarily bore the name of Port-Brieuc.
In 1793, during the
Terror, the civil war between the Chouans and the Blues raged. On the
night of 5 Brumaire Year VIII (October 25, 1799), a troop of Chouans
freed royalist prisoners sentenced to death from the city prison. The
prosecutor Poulain de Corbion, former mayor of the city (1779-1789), was
killed during this night of the fight of Saint-Brieuc.
1819: Development of the port of Légué and its quays with a new
bridge and new warehouses. Creation of a chamber of commerce in
Saint-Brieuc.
1863: Arrival of the railway (Paris-Brest line).
Twenty-five soldiers from Saint-Brieuc died during the war of 1870.
WWI
Saint-Brieuc was then a garrison town (the 71st infantry
regiment was based there).
The Saint-Brieuc war memorial bears
the names of 685 soldiers who died for France during the First World
War59. Among them, the three brothers Henri, Paul and Élie Le Goff, all
three sculptors60.
Henri Cren, born in 1890 in Saint-Brieuc,
soldier in the 2nd infantry regiment, was shot as an example on October
1, 1915 in Vienne-le-Château (Marne) for “abandoning his post”.
The 71st Infantry Regiment, based in Saint-Brieuc, had 2,427 Breton
deaths during World War I, not counting the deaths of its reserve
regiment, the 271st Infantry Regiment; the 74th territorial infantry
regiment, also based in Saint-Brieuc, counted 599.
The Second World War
On June 18, 1940, the Wehrmacht (German army
of the Third Reich) entered the city of Rennes, then on June 19 it was
the turn of Saint-Brieuc and Guingamp; Lannion will be June 22. The
German military administration settles quietly: the prefecture is
replaced by the Feldkommandantur; for the sub-prefectures of the
department, they are exchanged by the Kreiskommandanturen (Dinan,
Lannion and Guingamp).
The Saint-Brieuc war memorial bears the
names of 247 people who died for France during the Second World War.
Among the soldiers from Saint-Brieuc killed during the Second World
War, the name of Captain Frédéric Aubert was given to a stadium in
Saint-Brieuc; Robert Lefebvre was killed on May 22, 1940 in Oost Kapelle
(Netherlands).
Many Briochins took part in the Resistance: among
them, the resistants of the Anatole-Le-Braz high school arrested on
December 10, 1943, Father Eugène Fleury, alias "Victor", tortured by the
Gestapo, then shot on July 10, 1944 in the Malaunay wood near Guingamp,
Mireille Chrisostome, Yves Salaün, Pierre Le Gorrec, etc. Others were
deported and many died in deportation like Léon Sinais, Yvette Le
Quéinec, Simone Jezequel, Auguste Régent, pastor Yves Crespin, etc.
Twenty-six railway workers from Saint-Brieuc were killed by acts of war,
shot or died in deportation. Marie and Elisa Josse protect and hide a
Jew in Saint-Brieuc, they are recognized as Righteous among the Nations.
The Liberation of Saint-Brieuc by the American troops of General
George Patton occurred on August 6, 1944. Fighting took place between
the Germans (in particular with the White Russians of the Vlassov army)
and the FFI since August 4, causing the death that day of 5 resistance
fighters (Joseph François, Alexandre Le Couédic, Yves Le Roy, Jean
Poilpot, Massimo Tognon) and another the next day (Maurice Chambrin).
After World War II
Four soldiers from Saint-Brieuc died during
the war in Indochina, twenty people during the war in Algeria and two in
Lebanon: Henri Perrot and Vincent Daubé.
On March 13, 1972, the
workers of the Joint Français factory began a strike which ended, 8
weeks later, on May 8, 1972. This Joint Français strike had a national
echo in public opinion;
1974: 1st edition of the Foulées Briochines;
1979: opening of the new Beauchée hospital, which was renamed Yves-Le
Foll hospital shortly after the latter's death;
1980: the deviation
of the axis Rennes - Brest is opened;
1983: 1st edition of the Art
Rock festival;
1992:
creation of the Pays de Saint-Brieuc
district. The future urban community of Saint-Brieuc (CABRI) at the time
had 10 municipalities and 90,000 inhabitants;
Launching of the Grand
Léjon, traditional rigging rebuilt identically to working luggers
sailing in the bay of Saint-Brieuc;
Fire at Place du Chai, of
voluntary origin, ravaging four businesses;
1994: opening of the
IUT;
1995:
Inauguration of the Steredenn space, intended to host
sporting and cultural events;
Saint-Brieuc hosts the evening start of
the 82nd edition of the Tour de France cyclist;
Destruction of the
Souzain viaduct.
2002: opening of the Aquabaie aquatic complex.
2004: 100,000
people present in Saint-Brieuc to see the arrival of the Tour de France
cyclist.
2007: organization of several matches of the 2007 Women's
World Handball Championship.
2009:
organization of the French Road
Cycling Championships;
inauguration of the new “Les Champs” shopping
center in the city center of Saint-Brieuc, an avatar of the revival of
the centrality of the municipality of Saint-Brieuc. The public
authorities encouraged its construction after the city center saw a
reduction in the number of its functions and activities.
2010:
inauguration of the Hermione (conference and performance hall) and the
City of Music and Dance in a renovated former convent.
2012:
demolition of the Croix-Lambert towers.
2013 - today: construction of
the TEO line.
2016: redevelopment of the Promenades park.
2017:
construction of the new SNCF station footbridge.
2018: redevelopment
of the forecourt of the SNCF station.
2021: demolition of the Balzac
bars.
Saint-Brieuc is currently almost exclusively French-speaking. However
with 3% of Breton speakers, the country of Saint-Brieuc is the country
of Upper Brittany where the use of the Breton language is most frequent.
Place of markets and episcopal city, Saint-Brieuc was indeed for
seven centuries a meeting place of populations originating from the
French-speaking and Breton countryside. Gallo-Romance probably
supplanted Breton in the region of Saint Brieuc from the 11th or 12th
century. The bishops and nobles of Penthièvre were probably already
French-speaking at the end of the 13th century, as were the dukes of
Brittany.
In 1545, a sailor from La Rochelle, Jean Fontenaud
described Breton Brittany in his cosmography as leaving Saint-Brieuc and
arriving at Le Croisic (44): “From Croisil to Saint-Brieuc, Lower
Brittany is a nation of people on its own and have no friendship with
other nations. They are people of great penne and work. ".
In
1588, a map describes the limit between Breton language and French in
Binic. It seems that the Briochin sailors have retained the use of the
Breton language, unlike the rest of the population, or that Saint Brieuc
was a Breton enclave in a French-speaking countryside.
In 1636,
François-Nicolas Baudot Dubuisson-Aubenay indicated in his Itinerary of
Brittany that half of the inhabitants knew the Breton language in
addition to French: “In the city we speak half Breton; but everyone
knows François”. From the 1800s, many Bretons emigrated to the town,
capital of the department, helping to maintain the use of Breton in the
city.
In 1843, in their additions to the Historical and
Geographical Dictionary of the Province of Brittany, the successors of
Jean-Baptiste Ogée indicated that in Saint-Brieuc in the middle of the
19th century if "we speak French", "Breton is familiar to the working
classes”.
A survey carried out in 1988 indicated the presence of
around 7,000 Bretons in the Briochine agglomeration.
Saint-Brieuc was studied by the geographer Iwan Le Clec'h as part of his doctoral thesis on the modification of the commercial apparatus under the influence of peri-urbanization. This thesis was the subject of a review article in the journal Géoconfluences. The author shows the recomposition of the commercial offer under the effect of the automobile mobility Saint-Brieuc was studied by the geographer Iwan Le Clec'h as part of his doctoral thesis on the modification of the commercial apparatus under the influence of periurbanisation. This thesis was the subject of a summary article in the journal Géoconfluences. The author shows the recomposition of the commercial offer under the effect of automobile mobility of the inhabitants of the urban area of Saint-Brieuc.
The city is located on the edge of the English Channel, at the bottom
of a bay to which it gives its name (bay of Saint-Brieuc).
144
kilometers from Brest and 99 from Rennes, the town is crossed by the
national road 12, at kilometer 416.
Saint-Brieuc is crossed by
two valleys where the Gouët and Gouédic rivers flow. The relief of the
city (maximum altitude of 134 m at the Berrien reservoir), with its two
deep valleys, led to the construction of several bridges, in particular
the two viaducts of the national 12 inaugurated in 1980.
Saint-Brieuc is served by train (TER and TGV) on the line from Paris to
Brest. The city is on average 2 h 10 min by train from the French
capital.
Saint-Brieuc is located in the middle part of the North Armorican
domain, a geological unit of the Armorican Massif which is the result of
three successive mountain chains. The geological site of Saint-Brieuc is
located more precisely in an essentially Brioverian sedimentary basin
(consisting of volcano-sedimentary formations) limited to the northeast
by a large Cadomian granite massif, the Trégor batholith, and to the
southwest the pluton of Lanhélin which are part of a larger whole, the
Mancellian batholith.
The geological history of the region is
marked by the Cadomian cycle (between 750 and 540 Ma) which results in
the uplift of the Cadomian chain which was to culminate at approximately
4,000 m. At the end of the Upper Precambrian, the surrounding Brioverian
sediments are strongly deformed, folded and metamorphosed by the
Cadomian orogeny, forming essentially schists and gneisses. The granitic
massifs of the Mancellian seal the end of the ductile deformation of the
Cadomian orogeny.
The Saint-Brieuc unit thus comprises, above a
granitic basement (750-650 Ma), a thick volcanic and sedimentary
sequence (600 Ma), itself intruded by numerous gabbro-dioritic plutons
(580 Ma ) contemporaneous with the deformation. This unit corresponds to
the subduction of an oceanic domain to the north with the northern
margin of Gondwana, having formed either an intra-arc basin or a thrust
zone, the two hypotheses remaining debated.
These volcanic rocks
are clearly visible in Yffiniac, at the level of the Yffiniac cove
(puddingstones north of the Hôtellerie in Hillion, schistose tuffs on
the Hillion peninsula) and the Vaugas quarry where leptynites outcrop
acids, high metamorphic garnet amphibolites, alternating with dioritic
gneisses, gabbros and some ultrabasic cumulates. “This quarry gives a
good image of the metamorphic and plutonic complex which constitutes the
bottom of the bay of Saint-Brieuc. »
Touristically, the main
aspects of the geology of this coastal strip can be approached during
geological walks which allow you to observe in a small space rocks of
different ages and natures, geological structures (shear, fault, fold,
schistosity ) witnesses of major geological phenomena (magmatism,
tectogenesis, metamorphism, erosion, etc.).
The climatic parameters used to establish the 2010 typology include
six variables for temperature and eight for precipitation, whose values
correspond to the 1971-2000 normal. The seven main variables
characterizing the municipality are presented in the box below.
Municipal climatic parameters over the period 1971-200020
Average
annual temperature: 11.2°C
Number of days with temperature below
−5°C: 1.1 d
Number of days with temperature above 30°C: 0.5 d
Annual thermal amplitude: 10.6°C
Annual precipitation totals: 803 mm
Number of days of precipitation in January: 12.3 days
Number of days
of precipitation in July: 6.8 days
With climate change, these
variables have evolved. A study carried out in 2014 by the General
Directorate for Energy and Climate, supplemented by regional studies,
predicts that the average temperature should rise and the average
rainfall fall, with, however, strong regional variations. The
Météo-France meteorological station installed in the town and
commissioned in 1997 provides information on the evolution of
meteorological indicators. The detailed table for the period 1981-2010
is presented below.
On June 17, 2022, a heat record took place in
Saint-Brieuc for the month of June, with a maximum temperature of
34.9°C. The last temperature record in June was recorded in 2015, with
33.6°C. On July 19, 2022, a new record was reached, with 39.7°C, which
is currently the highest temperature recorded.
The city of Saint-Brieuc is subject to a mild climate (average
temperature of 11°C), of the oceanic type, characterized by an
attenuation of extreme temperatures and great instability of the types
of weather. The ridge line which corresponds to the watershed line, not
far from the coast, is also a climatic limit (rainfall and temperature).
The maritime influence reduces the daily and annual thermal amplitudes
(the maximum of the average temperature rises to 14.4°C; its minimum to
7.6°C). The average minimum temperatures are reached in February (2.3°C)
and the average maximum in August (20.1°C). Frost days are rare and
temperatures below −7°C are brief and exceptional (Plant Hardiness Zone
9).
The bay of Saint-Brieuc is one of the least watered regions
of Brittany with an average annual rainfall of 697 mm. The rains
decrease from February to June to reach their minimum in July (28 mm).
The months of December and January are the wettest (83 and 76.3 mm),
these averages hiding a great variability. The rains are not abundant
and the storms are rare, the snow is exceptional.
The prevailing winds are mainly from the west sector and secondarily
from the east - northeast sector. The seasonal distribution of winds is
such that the frequency of strong westerly winds is distributed over the
year following the order: winter, autumn, spring, summer. For the
eastern sector, the seasons are ordered differently: winter, spring,
autumn, summer. Gales (speed greater than 25 m/s or 90 km/h) in the
western sector occur mainly in winter and autumn, while those in the
eastern sector occur in winter and spring. Due to the configuration of
the bay, there is a reinforcement of the winds from the meridian
direction (north-south) to the detriment of the winds from the west and
east.
The swell results from the action of the offshore wind and
depends mainly on the bottom topography. Due to its morphology, the bay
of Saint-Brieuc is very exposed to the swell. However, the damping of
the swells is almost total when they reach the bottom of the bay. It is
only in stormy weather that the bottom of the bay is affected by the
swells. In this case, it can be reached by waves of exceptional height,
especially on the eastern coast.
In the subtidal zone (always submerged), the monthly average bottom water temperature is minimum in February-March (8.7°C according to Lehay, 1989). The water mass is destratified vertically in winter, but has a horizontal temperature gradient increasing from east to west by 0.5 to 1°C. The spring warming of the waters results in the formation of a thermocline in May-June. The thermal maximum (close to 17.5°C) is reached in August. The bay of Saint-Brieuc is characterized, like the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, by warmer waters in summer and colder in winter than the rest of the Channel. At the bottom of the bay (intertitial zone), the temperature varies from 5.7 to 20.9°C (data recorded in 2005-2006 at Pointe des Guettes, in Hillion). On the surface, the temperature can reach 24°C in July (data measured on the surface, in Saint-Guimont, in the commune of Hillion in 2005-2007).
On September 16, 1929, a storm of rare violence hit the town of Saint-Brieuc hard. All the watersheds converged on the Place de la Grille. Torrents of water ravaging the rue des Trois-Frères-Le Goff and the old coast of Gouët as they pass, carrying stones and rubble to the Gouët bridge. Rue du Port-Favigo suffers the same fate.