Le Havre

Sister cities

• San Francisco de Campeche
• Magdeburg
• Saint Petersburg
• Trieste
• Port of Amsterdam
• Überherrn
• Pointe-Noire
• Aydın
• Southampton
• Dalian

History

When founded in 1517, the city was named Franciscopolis after Francis I of France. It was subsequently named Le Havre-de-Grâce ("Harbor of Grace"; hence Havre de Grace, Maryland). Its construction was ordered to replace the ancient harbours of Honfleur and Harfleur whose utility had decreased due to silting. The history of the city is inextricably linked to its harbour. In the 18th century, as trade from the West Indies was added to that of France and Europe, Le Havre began to grow. On 19 November 1793, the city changed its name to Hâvre de Marat and later Hâvre-Marat in honor of the recently deceased Jean-Paul Marat, who was seen as a martyr of the French Revolution. By early 1795, however, Marat's memory had become somewhat tarnished, and on 13 January 1795, Hâvre-Marat changed its name once more to simply Le Havre, its modern name. During the 19th century, Le Havre became an industrial center. In the early 19th century it was the most important port for cotton, supplying France, Switzerland, and Germany with cotton imports. Jules Siegfried was member of a Le Havre cotton printers family. Jules Lecesne was a renowned Le Havre cotton importer. At the end of World War I Le Havre had a major role as the transit port used to wind up affairs after the war. The city was devastated during the Battle of Normandy when 5,000 people were killed and 12,000 homes were totally destroyed before its capture in Operation Astonia. Between 1945 and the 1960s, the center was extensively rebuilt to designs of a modernist style by Auguste Perret. {|class="wikitable" |align="center" width="10%"| | width="20%"|Current arms of Le Havre. The salamander is the badge of Francis I; the lion is from the Belgian coat of arms; it replaced a fleur-de-lis in 1926 to remember the Belgian…

Geography

Le Havre is located west of Rouen on the shore of the English Channel and at the mouth of the Seine. Numerous roads link to Le Havre with the main access roads being the A29 autoroute from Amiens and the A13 autoroute from Paris linking to the A131 autoroute. Administratively, Le Havre is a commune in the Normandy region in the west of the department of Seine-Maritime. The urban area of Le Havre corresponds roughly to the territory of the Agglomeration community of Le Havre (CODAH) which includes 17 communes and 250,000 people. It occupies the south-western tip of the natural region of Pays de Caux where it is the largest city. Le Havre is sandwiched between the coast of the Channel from south-west to north-west and the estuary of the Seine to the south. Le Havre belongs to the Paris Basin which was formed in the Mesozoic period. The Paris Basin consists of sedimentary rocks. The commune of Le Havre consists of two areas separated by a natural cliff edge: one part in the lower part of the town to the south including the harbour, the city centre and the suburbs. It was built on former marshland and mudflats that were drained in the 16th century. The soil consists of several metres of alluvium or silt deposited by the Seine. The upper town to the north, is part of the cauchois plateau: the neighbourhood of Dollemard is its highest point (between above sea level). The plateau is covered with a layer of flinty clay and a fertile silt. The bedrock consists of a large thickness of chalk measuring up to deep. Because of the slope the coast is affected by the risk of landslides. Due to its location on the coast of the Channel, the climate of Le Havre is temperate oceanic. Days without wind are rare. There are maritime influences throughout the year. According to the…