Douarnenez

Sister cities

• Murmansk

History

The legendary city of Ys, of Breton folklore, is believed to lie beneath Douarnenez Bay. The port is also associated with the Arthurian medieval story of Tristan, lover of Iseult, for whom Tristan Island is named. The island was originally named St Tutuarn Island after the priory founded there in the 12th century. Douarnenez has several 16th and 17th-century churches, including the Church of Ploaré, which has a Gothic steeple (1548–86), and the chapels of Sainte-Croix, Sainte-Hélène, and Saint-Michel. The written history of Douarnenez begins around 1118 when, according to a charter dated 1126, Robert de Locuvan, Bishop of Cornouaille, donated the Island of St Tutuarn and the lands belonging to it to the Abbey of Marmoutier. As a result, a priory was built on the island. In the 14th century, the island became known as Tristan. The fishing history of Douarnenez goes back at least to Gallo-Roman times when, as archeological finds demonstrate, fish were salted along the cliffs of Plomarc'h. In the late 18th century and the years before the French Revolution, sardines became the driving force for the local economy; the fishing industry was based on their harvest and, later, processing. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were huge fishing and canning activities at the port. The strikes in the 1920s in favour of better working conditions for the factory women or Penn Sardin were the main reason why Douarnenez became one of the first communist municipalities in France. Today, the canning trade continues, although most of the fish are brought in from other ports. Douarnenez is still a centre of boat building and repair work. Douarnenez owes much of its prosperity and expansion to the construction of railways at the end of the 19th century, which provided services…