Saint-Nazaire (Municipality, Loire-Atlantique, France)

Sant-Nazer

Last modified: 2005-03-05 by ivan sache
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by Arnaud Leroy

• Presentation of Saint-Nazaire
• Municipal flag of Saint-Nazaire
• The dispute over the Breton flag in Saint-Nazaire

• France
• Loire-Atlantique (Department, France)

Presentation of Saint-Nazaire

Saint-Nazaire (65,000 inhabitants) is a sous-préfecture of the departement of Loire-Atlantique, located on the mouth of the river Loire (northern bank). It is named after St. Nazaire of Milan, martyrized under Emperor Nero.

In 1850, Saint-Nazaire was a small fishing port of only 800 inhabitants.The outer port of Nantes was established in Saint-Nazaire in 1856, when a 10.5 ha basin was built. This new port was established to recieve ships of large tonnage, which could not sail on the river Loire up to Nantes. The PenhoÎt basin (22 ha), one of the largest in Europe, was built in 1881. The dock-lock (forme-écluse) Louis-Joubert (320 m x 50 m , depth 15 m) was built between 1929 and 1932.

During the First World War, Saint-Nazaire was one of the main ports used by the Allied forces.

During the Second World War, the Germans established in Saint-Nazaire a submarine base of 300 x 125 m. The basis included 14