Concarneau (in Breton Konk-Kerne) is a commune in the department
of Finistère in the Brittany region of France. It is a third
municipality of Finistère by its population, capital of a canton and
an agglomeration community, Concarneau, which includes the former
municipalities of Beuzec-Conq and Lanriec, is a town located on the
Cornish coast in the bay of The forest.
The city was formed
in the Middle Ages from the walled city located in the Moros
estuary. This natural shelter has enabled the development of the
seventh largest French fishing port in landed tonnage and major
shipyards.
Its location on the coast and its historical
heritage make it today a leading Breton tourist destination.
The town of Concarneau is built around the Walled City. Suburbs
have developed on the continent around this "island-city". It was
only recently in the history of Concarneau that the city emerged
from its ramparts.
Prehistory and Gallo-Roman period
The
first traces of civilization in Concarneau were not found in the
Walled City but around the bay. The density of the habitat and the
profound alterations of the soil created by the various
constructions can explain this absence of artefacts.
Around
Concarneau, megaliths attest to the presence of civilization in the
Neolithic period, such as the dolmen of Keristin-Beuzec (or
Keristin-ar-Hoat-Milieu), a V-shaped burial site from the 4th
millennium BC. This monument, representing the transition between
the passage dolmens and the covered alleys, has retained all its
pillars but no table. Its eastern part is overgrown with vegetation.
An Iron Age tunnel was discovered at Stang-Vihan (between Sables
Blancs beach and Saint-Laurent cove) in 1966; it is made up of four
rectangular rooms, the sides measure between 1.4 and 1.8 meters,
only one of which has retained its vault. The height of the rooms is
about 1.5 meters; one reached it by two wells, discovered entirely
filled. Pottery, millstones and various objects, including many
shards, have been discovered there.
A small Gallo-Roman
thermal establishment was brought to light in the years 1964-1965,
near the place called Questel.
City foundation
The oldest
act, in which mention of Concarneau is the cartulary of the abbey of
Landévennec. This act, written around 1050, does not directly quote
Concarneau (or any other name designating Concarneau), it reads: Ego
Gradlonus do sanclo Uuingualeo, locum sancli Uuingualet in Buduc, V
villas Translated into Me, Gradhlon, I give to Saint -Guénolé, the
place of Saint-Guénolé, in the parish of Beuzec, five houses.
Saint Guénolé (461-532) is the founder of the Landévennec abbey.
At the time, the parish of Beuzec included the current district of
Beuzec and the islet of Conq. The houses referred to were set up as
a priory on the highest part of the island. Today we can locate this
place on the place Saint-Guénolé. The monks of Landévennec will
therefore build their priory, and help the development of the city.
According to other sources, Concarneau would have been founded
by Concar son of Urbien and grandson of king Judicaël. He would have
driven out the Picts present and would therefore have settled on the
rocky islet of Concarneau. Concar baptized in 692 the city
Concar-Keroneos or Conkerneos which would be translated by Concar,
son of Urbien. Concar died in 725. Concarneau was taken by the
Franks in 799, but taken over by the Bretons in 80928.
The
rocky islet of Conq, now a Walled City, depended on the parish of
Beuzec. It is possible that it was defended by deep ditches with
earthen entrenchments surmounted by strong palisades in tree trunks
surrounding a castle mound bearing the castle, but no archaeological
traces were found during excavations carried out in 1997 The base of
a 13th century tower and a 14th century wall found near the Fer à
Cheval tower confirm the existence of a medieval wall.
The
Middle Age
The Fouesnant - Concarneau region formed in the early
Middle Ages the Konk pagus, a historic country, it was a pagus, that
is to say an administrative subdivision of Cornouaille.
The
10th and 11th centuries
The population has grown a lot. A church
was built, the priory chapel having become too small, this church
still being in the parish of Beuzec. Conc is the capital of a ducal
chatellenie.
From the 12th century to the 15th century
Duke John II had an auditorium built for the ducal court and it was
probably he who would have had the first stone wall enclosure built
around the islet, even if it is not possible to date it with
precision, but the 13th century or early 14th century period is most
likely. In the twelfth century, only five towns in Brittany (Rennes,
Nantes, Vannes, Aleth and Dinan) were surrounded by a stone wall,
most of the time it was Gallo-Roman fortifications. At that time
there is a seneschal and the ordinary officers of a court,
prosecutors, sergeants, notaries, etc. A community made up of
bourgeois, merchants and fishermen lives in the city, protected it
seems by a keep or a fortified tower.
The fortified islet (current Ville Close) was then classified as
the fourth stronghold in Brittany. Bastion placed in vanguard for
the defense of the duchy then of the kingdom, the city became the
stake of many fights and rivalries between the English and the
French, in particular during the War of Succession of Brittany
during which the English, came to the aid of Jean de Montfort,
invested the city. In 1373, after thirty years of English
occupation, the Constable Du Guesclin, with the help of the troops
of the Dukes of Rohan, Maury, Beaumanoir and the Sire de
Vaucouleurs, took the city on behalf of the King of France Charles V
, support of Jeanne de Penthièvre. All the English were passed to
the edge of the sword, with the exception of the chief to whom "the
constable granted mercy".
The Duke of Brittany Pierre II had
the wall rebuilt and the work continued by his successors Arthur III
and François II.
In 1488, the Walled City, after the defeat
of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, passed into the hands of the King of
France Charles VIII, before being taken over by the Bretons. “At
this time, this fortified place was only a retreat for thieves and
rope-people, as it is clear from experience that if someone had
murdered his neighbor or made some theft, or ravished some girl or
woman, Concarneau was his retreat, ”writes Canon Moreau. In 1489,
the Viscount of Rohan, helped by Jean IV de Rieux, besieged the
city, which soon succumbed, temporarily coming back under French
control. The Duchess Anne, trying to prevent the subjugation of the
Duchy of Brittany to the Kingdom of France appealed to the English
who occupied the city until 1495.
Modern era
The wars of
the League
During the wars of the League, January 17, 1576,
thirty gentlemen of the country, commanded by Messrs de Kermassouet
and Baud de Vigne-la-Houlle, who professed the Reformed religion,
took the city by cunning. The garrison was put to death and Louis de
Lézonnet, the governor of the city, had to flee. The Reformed then
appealed to the Rochellois who dispatched a squadron commanded by Du
Vigean. The inhabitants of the neighboring parishes, commanded by de
Pratmaria and Jean de Tyvarlen, assemble at the sound of the tocsin
and move towards Concarneau. It would be difficult to force them
without Charles Le Bris, a merchant from Concarneau, who stabbed the
Sieurs de Kermassouet and Baud de Vigne-la-Houlle in their beds,
seized the keys he had around his arms, and left. open the city
gates. The Calvinists were all slaughtered. Du Vigean's ships,
arriving too late, fled on hearing of the fall of the place.
Louis de Lézonnet took over the government of Concarneau; like most
of the Breton nobility, he first sided with the Ligueurs, and was
one of the first Breton nobles to join the Duke of Mercœur who
entrusted him with the defense of Concarneau, but later the
conversion of King Henry IV to Catholicism in 1593, the latter left
him the governorate of Concarneau. Louis de Lézonnet died in 1595 as
a result of an injury received "during an enterprise against the
city of Quimper (...) leaving for successor in the command of the
place de Concarneau a minor son under the tutelage of Jean de Jegado
his cousin ". Concarneau became a royal jurisdiction with the right
of provost and was one of the 42 towns of Brittany which henceforth
deputed to the States of the province.
On May 5, 1597, Jean
Jegado, Lord of Kerollain, then governor of Concarneau on behalf of
his nephew Lézonnet, an orphan in infancy, went to Quimper in the
company of seven or eight armed soldiers, as he used to do, at the
very moment when brigands led by La Fontenelle attack the city. He
helped the Quimpérois to push them back.
The seventeenth
century and eighteenth century
In July 1619, King Louis XIII,
dissatisfied with the actions of the governor of Concarneau, the
Sieur de Lézonnet, ordered the governor of Brittany, then César de
Vendôme, to go and take control of the city, which necessitated the
lifting of an army consisting “of three hundred horses from the
companies of ordinance and three hundred Swiss and some cannons
which descended along the Loire and were led by sea; in six twenty
soldiers drawn from the companies of the guards that the King gave
to lead to the Sieur de la Besne, one of the captains of the guards
of HM [His Majesty] and in a few companies of the regiments of
Picardy, Navarre and Beaumont ”, which embarked in Tours on July 29,
1619 to descend the Loire, then arrived by land as far as Quimperlé
where César de Vendôme joined them to undertake the siege of the
city, establishing his headquarters in Chef-du-Bois. The Sieur de
Lézonnet eventually capitulated and surrendered, the governorate of
the city was then assigned to the Sieur de l'Isle Rouhé.
The town of Concarneau is located in the south of the
Finistère department in the west of the Brittany region. It is the
third municipality of the department by its population and the main
one of the urban area of Concarneau which brings together two
municipalities and 27,031 inhabitants in 2007. Its urban unit
includes the municipalities of Concarneau and Trégunc. Concarneau is
located 19 km from Quimper, 44 km from Lorient, 71 km from Brest,
169 km from Rennes and 475 km from Paris.
Bordering
municipalities
The city was born in the old fortified island,
attached to the mainland by a fortified bridge, called "Ville close"
and located in the Moros estuary where the port developed, mainly on
the right bank, even if urban extensions exist on the left bank (Le
Passage-Lanriec, Le Cabellou). The seafront located further west,
along the Atlantic Ocean, made up of several beaches (Plage des
Dames, Plage des Sables blancs, etc.), is essentially seaside all
along the corniche.