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Nantes is a city on the river Loire in the Loire-Atlantique region. With around one million inhabitants in the urban area, it is the largest city in northwestern France. Nantes’ strategic location has made it a port city for the area throughout recent history.
The Dukes of Brittany resided in the city for many centuries, and their castle is today one of the great sights of Nantes. After the union between Brittany and France in 1532, it was the French monarchs who used the castle as a residence, and you can see a beautiful statue of Louis XVI in the city today.
There are many things to see in Nantes, where Jules Verne was born in 1828. You can follow in the footsteps of the famous author or take other walks along the Loire, to some of the city’s great churches or to the city’s museums where the Musée d’Arts is an excellent art museum.
From Nantes there are many opportunities for good excursions. A trip to the Atlantic coast is always exciting, and here you can visit cities such as Saint-Nazaire, La Rochelle and Brest, all of which offer sights and a maritime atmosphere. You can also enjoy the countryside along the Loire or go to Rennes, the area’s second largest city.
Château des ducs de Bretagne is the large and beautiful residence castle of the dukes of Brittany, which has been the political center of the region over time. The dukes of Brittany lived here through the 13th and 16th centuries, and then the place was the seat of the French monarchs in the city. It was Guy de Thouars who founded the castle in 1207 at the foot of the Gallo-Roman city wall, which surrounded the historic city centre.
In the 14th century, the castle was expanded with new facilities such as the old core tower, which can still be seen as the only significant part from this period. In 1466, François II decided to build a new fortified castle that would also withstand the royal power. Thereby the walls and the solid towers of slate and granite were built, and these still today give a good impression of the mighty construction.
After the Duke’s death in 1488, his daughter Anne de Bretagne, who later became Queen of France, continued the work. She strengthened the fortifications with, among other things, an artillery bastion. In 1514, her daughter Claude inherited the castle, and she was to marry the French king the following year. To accommodate the court, she built a Renaissance building, the Logis du Roy, which is now called the Petit Gouvernement.
In 1532, the castle became royal property on the occasion of Brittany’s union with France, and thereafter the complex was the residence of the French kings in Brittany. On 30 April 1598, King Henrik IV stayed at the castle to sign the Edict of Nantes. After a fire in 1670, it was rebuilt in baroque style by order of King Louis XIV. In 1915, the plant was sold by the state to the city of Nantes.
Today, the Château des ducs de Bretagne is set up as a historical museum for the city of Nantes. On a visit, you naturally experience the castle and thereby the beautiful setting, and in the exhibitions you go on a journey through the city’s highlights. Among the themes are the importance of the castle, the maritime history of Nantes, the city during the French Revolution, the industrial development and a look at the creation of modern Nantes.
The Musée d’Arts de Nantes is an art museum that ranks among the finest in France. The museum was founded under Napoléon Bonaparte and its collections were established with works of art that the museum received from the French state. However, it was a purchase and donation from the Cacault brothers in 1810 that really put the museum on the French art map. At the time, the collection was considered the finest outside of Paris.
In 1891, the city council decided to build a museum building for the eventually large exhibition, and an architectural competition was announced for the new museum. The winner was Clement-Marie Josso with a design in eclectic architecture, which was inspired by museums in Lille and Amiens, among others.
At the Musée d’Arts de Nantes, one can enjoy excellent collections with a wide representation of works of art. You can see older paintings by, among others, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens and Tintoretto. There is also a large collection of paintings and sculptures from the 1800s and 1900s, with works by e.g. Pablo Picasso, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet and Vasilij Kandinsky.
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul is Nantes’ Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral. It was built from 1434, which was at a time when Nantes and Brittany were flourishing, and thus it was possible to plan and initiate a large prestigious building such as the great church. It was John VI of Brittany and Bishop Jean de Malestroit who laid the foundation stone.
It ended with the cathedral only being completed in 1891 after 457 years. Along the way, there were several phases in the construction. From 1434 to 1470, the west facade was built, among other things, and after that they received blows after blows, before there were long breaks from the 1520s and hundreds of years onwards. After the middle of the 17th century, the cathedral was only completed in the last phase, which lasted from 1840 to 1891.
The cathedral is typical of Gothic architecture with impressive lines and skyward columns in the inner dimensions. The height of the towers is 63 meters and they dominate the distinctive facade, which has a rose window in the middle. Duke Francis II of Brittany is buried in the cathedral, and you can also see a cenotaph for General de Lamoricière.
Les Machines de l’Île is the name of several amazing mechanical constructions that you can experience on the central island, Île de Nantes. They stand in La Galerie des Machines, which is housed in some of the city’s old covered shipyard halls. It was François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice who founded the place, which opened in 2007. Les Machines de l’Île is inspired by Jules Verne, Leonardo da Vinci and the industrial history of Nantes.
The machines have been built since 1991 by engineers, craftsmen and artists, and the constructions include a mechanical elephant 12 meters high, 8 meters wide and weighing 45 tonnes. The elephant, like many other machines, is built of wood and steel, and it can take passengers on a walk. You can also see a large carousel and other fascinating machines.
Passage Pommeraye is a beautiful shopping center that the builder Louis Pommeraye built in Nantes in the years 1840-1843. The center still functions as a shopping arcade and is located between Rue Santeuil and Rue de la Fosse.
There is a height difference of 9.40 meters between the streets that Passage Pommeraye connects. That is why there is a central staircase in the center with staggered shop floors. It was the architects Jean-Baptiste Buron and Hippolyte Durand Gasselin who designed the passage with the almost lavish decoration, including columns and statues.
Maison de naissance Jules Verne is the house where the writer Jules Verne was born. Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, and it happened on the island of L’île Feydeau, which was in the Loire River. Today, the former island has grown together with central Nantes after filling in parts of the Loire river course through the city.
Jules Verne is one of Nantes’ famous city children. His birth home is at the address Cours Olivier de Clisson 4, located in the cozy rows of houses that made up the residence on L’île Feydeau. There is no access to the house, but you can see a commemorative plaque above the entrance door.
Église Sainte-Croix is a church that was built in classicism in the years 1669-1685 and then rebuilt in the 19th century in a more flamboyant style, which can be clearly seen on the church tower from the 1860s. The tower contains dials and a lantern which houses the bell called La Bouffay, which was cast in 1663. The lantern is decorated with allegorical angels blowing trumpets.
The church room is also worth seeing, and it is worth noting that it was here that Jules Verne was baptized in 1828. You can see various things, such as the altar in the right nave, which is the only preserved altar from the 17th century. The Louis XV-style pulpit was made of solid mahogany, while the main altar in white marble and gilded wood is the work of the sculptor Thomas Louis. The original stained glass windows in the chancel were destroyed during the bombing on 16 September 1943, but they were rebuilt in 1947.
Musée Jules Verne is a museum dedicated to the life and works of the author Jules Verne. The museum opened in 1978 to mark the 150th anniversary of Verne’s birth. The museum is housed in a building from the late 1800s overlooking the Loire River. Jules Verne never lived in the building, but the surroundings nicely reflect the atmosphere that inspired him and thereby his works.
At the museum you can see a large collection of effects, memorabilia, replicas of his inventions and more, and the place is divided into several themes such as Jules Verne’s living room and different porcelain. Naturally, the museum also deals with Verne’s works, which have made him famous with titles such as Journey to the Interior of the Earth, A World Tour under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days.
Place Maréchal-Foch is one of Nantes’ central squares. It was laid out in the 18th century and built in contemporary style. In the beginning, the square was called Place d’Armes, before it was later renamed Place Louis-XVI. The current name was given to the place in 1929 following a decision by the Nantes city council. They happened after the death of Marshal Ferdinand Foch in the same year. Foch was commander-in-chief of the allied forces on the Western Front during the First World War.
In the middle of the square, you can see the monument Colonne Louis-XVI, which shows King Louis XVI on top of a 28-meter high column that was erected in 1790. The monument is one of the few remaining statues of the king in France, and the statue was created by Dominique Molknecht and inaugurated in 1823. Around the square you can see the Hôtel Montaudouin, designed by the Nantes architect Mathurin Crucy, and the Hôtel d’Aux, built by the architect Jean-Baptiste Ceineray in 1770-1772.
The Hôtel d’Aux was the place where Napoleon I and Joséphine stayed during their visit to the city in 1808. The beautiful building was set up as the headquarters of the 11th Army Corps during the Third French Republic, and the site became the seat of the Field Command during the Second World War. The Hôtel de Charette building from 1824 also became the headquarters of the local branch of the German Sicherheitsdienst during the Second World War.
The Palais de la Bourse is a building that was built in the years around 1800 as Nantes’ stock exchange. The decision to establish a trade exchange was made in 1641, and the first exchange was built thereafter. The town’s traders did not initially take the new institution to heart, but trading took off, and a new and larger stock exchange had to be built in the 1720s.
The third stock exchange was built from the end of the 18th century and completed after Napoleon’s visit to Nantes in 1808. This time the city’s chamber of commerce moved into the building after being founded in 1803. The stock exchange has two facades, and on the one facing the Place du Commerce you can see statues of Jean Bart, René Duguay-Trouin, Abraham Duquesne and Jacques Cassard, who were famous sailors.
Théâtre Graslin is a theater building where both plays and opera performances are performed. It was the French architect and urban planner Mathurin Crucy who designed the theater in neoclassical architecture, and it was named after Jean-Louis Graslin, who owned the plot of land where the theater was built.
The Théâtre Graslin was inaugurated on 23 March 1788, but it unfortunately burned down in 1796, after which it had to be reconstructed. It did not happen immediately, and it took until 1811 before the theater was reopened. It happened in turn in connection with a visit to the city by Napoleon. The theater’s auditorium currently holds approximately 800 spectators.
Basilique Saint-Nicolas is a beautiful basilica that was built between 1844 and 1869 in neo-Gothic style, using not least granite from the region around Nantes. The construction of the three-nave cross basilica took place on a small piece of land, and the church was built in a north-south direction and not the traditional east-west direction.
The Basilique Saint-Nicolas was elevated to the status of basilica minor by Pope Leo XIII in 1882 and, along with the Basilique Saint-Donatien-et-Saint-Rogatien, are the only basilicas in Nantes. In 1943, the church was destroyed by Allied bombing, and it had to be rebuilt after the war. Today you can see a nice and bright church room and many nice details in the decoration of the church room, which is clearly neo-gothic in style.
Basilique Saint-Donatien-et-Saint-Rogatien is one of Nantes’ two basilicas, the Basilique Saint-Nicolas being the other. The first church on this site, which marks the burial place of the brothers and Nantes saints Donatian and Rogatian, is believed to have been built as early as the 4th century. The current basilica is the fourth church on the site.
The current church was built from 1872 with consecration in 1889. The church was designed by Émile Perrin in neo-Romanesque style and is a three-aisled cruciform basilica with a beautiful double tower facade. In the basilica you can see the marble sarcophagus of the martyrs Donatian and Rogatian, and you can also notice the carillon from 1902, which plays identically to the bells of Westminster in London.
The Église de Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port is a domed church that stands as a distinctive feature of Nantes’ skyline. It was the architects Seheult and Joseph-Fleury Chenantais who designed the church, and the large dome was designed with inspiration from the Dôme in Paris, and an archangel representing Gabriel adorns the top.
Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port was built during the 19th century expansion of Nantes to the west with, among other things, the transformation of the areas by the port. In this connection, a church had been built in 1827, but it quickly became too small, and therefore from 1843 the construction of the new and current Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port was planned.
An architectural inspiration from the Baroque and the Counter-Reformation era was chosen for the church, which was inaugurated in 1858. However, other styles also influenced the design and the result. After the inauguration, work continued with the decoration, and the wall paintings, for example, were not completed until the beginning of the 20th century.
The church’s 30 meter high facade consists of a lower Doric level and an upper Corinthian level. The Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary as a symbol of the protection of sailors. In the center of the pediment, the Virgin is seen in glory assisted by two angels, one of whom blesses the departing sailors, while the other welcomes them on their return. Above you can see the 60 meter high dome.
Inside you can see a beautifully decorated church room with many works of art by, among others, Henri-Pierre Picou, the painting couple Henry Leray and Laure Martin and Alphonse Le Hénaff, who in the years 1858-1860 painted a large dome frieze with the Immaculate Virgin with seven groups of characters from The Old Testament and the New Testament. Later in the century, the church’s chapels were further decorated.
Musée Dobrée is a museum where you can see a large collection of art and effects that Thomas Dobrée collected in the 19th century. Wealthy at a young age, he devoted most of his life to buying works of art. The collection reached over 10,000 effects, and they required more and more space.
From 1862, Thomas Dobrée began with the plans for the construction of the Palais Dobrée, which was to be his residence and also a place where he could exhibit his collection. Palais Dobrée was built in neo-Romanesque style, and the builder invested a lot of money in the construction, which was not completed until after Thomas Dobrée’s death. He bequeathed the house and collection to the Département de Loire-Inférieure region.
Today, you can see many art objects and effects from Thomas Dobrée’s collections at the Musée Dobrée. However, the museum has also expanded the collections continuously over the years, so that today you can experience varied exhibitions with, among other things, Egyptian, Etruscan and Greek archaeological objects.
Le Lieu Unique is an interesting center for contemporary art housed in the company Lefèvre-Utile’s old biscuit factory. Today, the place is known for its many cultural activities, and every year Le Lieu Unique presents many performances in, among other things, theatre, dance, circus and music.
The center is also known for the setting of the old factory with the beautiful tower, which was built in 1909. It started in 1895, when the biscuit manufacturers with the famous petit beurre cookies built a new factory. The construction was done in concrete and metal, and the factory tower makes the site one of Nantes’ most iconic buildings. The factory moved its production from 1986, and a few years later cultural activities started to flourish here.
The Jardin des Plantes is a botanical garden with many beautiful plants where you can enjoy old plating. The first botanical garden in the city was laid out in 1688 as a garden with medicinal plants, but the current garden is somewhat more recent and was founded in 1806 under the direction of Jean Alexandre Hectot.
Today, the garden contains over 10,000 species, laid out in a garden with lakes, paths and established landscapes. You can also see statues, fountains, greenhouses and the garden’s palm house. Among the species here is an excellent collection of camellias, over 200-year-old specimens of magnolia grandiflora and other special plants. In the indoor facilities, there is a collection of epiphytes such as orchids, and there are plants from tropical America.
La Rochelle is a port city on the French Atlantic coast. Over the centuries, the city has been an important city where ship traffic dominated. La Rochelle gained the status of a free port in 1130, and in the 1150s trade opened to English ports through the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to the English king. The presence of the Knights Templar was a third factor that made the city one of the most important ports along the coast.
Unlike other cities in western France, La Rochelle’s location did not allow access by river to the interior of the country. Nevertheless, the city maintained its importance as a port city with a large fishery in the western Atlantic and a lot of trade with America. In the years around the Napoleonic era, La Rochelle experienced a decline in trade and economy, which was not least due to the fewer French colonies in North America.
Saint-Nazaire is a city located at the mouth of the Loire River in the Atlantic Ocean, and the sea and the maritime have over time characterized the city and its development. For centuries Saint-Nazaire was a small town, but with the industrial revolution the railway came to the town and the port was expanded. Over the years, Saint-Nazaire became the most important port at the mouth of the Loire, replacing Nantes a little further up the river.
With its good location, Saint-Nazaire became a natural fishing port, and the tradition of shipbuilding also led to larger and larger constructions from the city’s shipyards; for example by the ships SS Normandie, SS France and RMS Queen Mary 2. The maritime continued during World War II, where the German Kriegsmarine established a submarine base. Saint-Nazaire was destroyed by Allied bombing from 1942-1945.
The port is still a major asset in Saint-Nazaire, and you can take an interesting walk along the centrally located harbor basins. Here you can see, among other things, the Base sous-marine de Saint-Nazaire, which is the German base from the war. Close to this are the piers at the entrance to the harbor and Le Vieux Môle to the east, where the city’s well-known lighthouse sits at the end. To the west, you can visit the city’s sandy beach, which lies outside the modern center of Saint-Nazaire.
Due to the great destruction during the Second World War, there are not many old buildings left in the city. The old town by the harbor was destroyed, as were the areas around the former Place Marceau. Today you can see the city’s preserved old railway station building, which today houses a theatre. The church Église Saint-Nazaire is another attraction. It was built in 1888 and also had to be partially rebuilt after bombardments in 1943.
Rennes is a city in northwestern France, where it is the capital of the Brittany region. Historically, it was known as Condate in the Roman Empire, and it was fortified in the year 275 due to many tensions and battles in the region. Over many centuries, the dominion over the city and Brittany changed. In the 13th century, Rennes was subject to France for a transition, but the peace was not over, and it came to a war of succession in Brittany in the mid-1400s.
The English were eventually expelled from the region, and a separate parliament functioned in Rennes. In 1491, however, Brittany was submitted to the French crown, and Rennes and the region formally became part of France in 1532. Rennes then grew as a trade town. In 1720, a fire destroyed large parts of the city, and today’s city plan is partly the result of a subsequent reconstruction.
Angers is a city in the department of Maine-et-Loire in northwestern France. It is an old city and military settlement, but it was in the 13th and 15th centuries that Angers really grew, and it was also at the beginning of this period that the city walls were most recently extended. After this, however, it took until the 19th century before Angers grew beyond the medieval city.
In 1791 the Place du Ralliement was established as the new central square in Angers. It happened on one spot where, before the French Revolution, there had been three churches. Boulevards were laid out around the city center instead of the medieval walls, when they were torn down, and thereby the city could grow harmoniously from the old part.
Brest is a city in Brittany in northwestern France on the Atlantic coast. Little is known about Brest’s early history, but the city is known from around the year 1240, when Hervé V de Léon handed over the area to Jean Ier de Bretagne, and in the years 1342-1397, Brittany and thereby also Brest came under English rule.
In 1631, the statesman Cardinal Richelieu took advantage of Brest’s strategic location by building a port, which was quickly expanded and fortified in the 1680s. The city had also become the home port of the French navy. In the 1900s, Brest became an important port in both world wars. During World War II, Germany used the site as a shipyard and submarine base, and in 1944 large parts of the city were laid in ruins during the Battle of Brest.
Boulevard Salvador Allende
atlantis-nantes.com
Boulevard Général de Gaulle
beaulieu.klepierre.fr
10 Route de Paris
paradis.fr
Passage Pommeraye
passagepommeraye.fr
Rue Crébillon, Rue de la Fosse, Rue Decré, Rue de la Marne, Rue de la Barillerie
Marché de Talensac, Place de Talensac
Aquarium La Rochelle
Quai Louis Prunier, La Rochelle
aquarium-larochelle.com
Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle
Rue Voltaire 12
museum.nantesmetropole.fr
Les Machines de l’Île
Parc des Chantiers, Boulevard Léon Bureau
lesmachines-nantes.fr
Planète Sauvage
La Chevalerie, Port-Saint-Père
planetesauvage.com
Nantes, France[/caption]
Overview of Nantes
Nantes is a city on the river Loire in the Loire-Atlantique region. With around one million inhabitants in the urban area, it is the largest city in northwestern France. Nantes’ strategic location has made it a port city for the area throughout recent history.
The Dukes of Brittany resided in the city for many centuries, and their castle is today one of the great sights of Nantes. After the union between Brittany and France in 1532, it was the French monarchs who used the castle as a residence, and you can see a beautiful statue of Louis XVI in the city today.
There are many things to see in Nantes, where Jules Verne was born in 1828. You can follow in the footsteps of the famous author or take other walks along the Loire, to some of the city’s great churches or to the city’s museums where the Musée d’Arts is an excellent art museum.
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Passage Pommeraye is a beautiful shopping center that the builder Louis Pommeraye built in Nantes in the years 1840-1843. The center still functions as a shopping arcade and is located between Rue Santeuil and Rue de la Fosse.
There is a height difference of 9.40 meters between the streets that Passage Pommeraye connects. That is why there is a central staircase in the center with staggered shop floors. It was the architects Jean-Baptiste Buron and Hippolyte Durand Gasselin who designed the passage with the almost lavish decoration, including columns and statues.
Maison de naissance Jules Verne is the house where the writer Jules Verne was born. Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, and it happened on the island of L’île Feydeau, which was in the Loire River. Today, the former island has grown together with central Nantes after filling in parts of the Loire river course through the city.
Jules Verne is one of Nantes’ famous city children. His birth home is at the address Cours Olivier de Clisson 4, located in the cozy rows of houses that made up the residence on L’île Feydeau. There is no access to the house, but you can see a commemorative plaque above the entrance door.
Église Sainte-Croix is a church that was built in classicism in the years 1669-1685 and then rebuilt in the 19th century in a more flamboyant style, which can be clearly seen on the church tower from the 1860s. The tower contains dials and a lantern which houses the bell called La Bouffay, which was cast in 1663. The lantern is decorated with allegorical angels blowing trumpets.
The church room is also worth seeing, and it is worth noting that it was here that Jules Verne was baptized in 1828. You can see various things, such as the altar in the right nave, which is the only preserved altar from the 17th century. The Louis XV-style pulpit was made of solid mahogany, while the main altar in white marble and gilded wood is the work of the sculptor Thomas Louis. The original stained glass windows in the chancel were destroyed during the bombing on 16 September 1943, but they were rebuilt in 1947.
Musée Jules Verne is a museum dedicated to the life and works of the author Jules Verne. The museum opened in 1978 to mark the 150th anniversary of Verne’s birth. The museum is housed in a building from the late 1800s overlooking the Loire River. Jules Verne never lived in the building, but the surroundings nicely reflect the atmosphere that inspired him and thereby his works.
At the museum you can see a large collection of effects, memorabilia, replicas of his inventions and more, and the place is divided into several themes such as Jules Verne’s living room and different porcelain. Naturally, the museum also deals with Verne’s works, which have made him famous with titles such as Journey to the Interior of the Earth, A World Tour under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days.
Place Maréchal-Foch is one of Nantes’ central squares. It was laid out in the 18th century and built in contemporary style. In the beginning, the square was called Place d’Armes, before it was later renamed Place Louis-XVI. The current name was given to the place in 1929 following a decision by the Nantes city council. They happened after the death of Marshal Ferdinand Foch in the same year. Foch was commander-in-chief of the allied forces on the Western Front during the First World War.
In the middle of the square, you can see the monument Colonne Louis-XVI, which shows King Louis XVI on top of a 28-meter high column that was erected in 1790. The monument is one of the few remaining statues of the king in France, and the statue was created by Dominique Molknecht and inaugurated in 1823. Around the square you can see the Hôtel Montaudouin, designed by the Nantes architect Mathurin Crucy, and the Hôtel d’Aux, built by the architect Jean-Baptiste Ceineray in 1770-1772.
The Hôtel d’Aux was the place where Napoleon I and Joséphine stayed during their visit to the city in 1808. The beautiful building was set up as the headquarters of the 11th Army Corps during the Third French Republic, and the site became the seat of the Field Command during the Second World War. The Hôtel de Charette building from 1824 also became the headquarters of the local branch of the German Sicherheitsdienst during the Second World War.
The Palais de la Bourse is a building that was built in the years around 1800 as Nantes’ stock exchange. The decision to establish a trade exchange was made in 1641, and the first exchange was built thereafter. The town’s traders did not initially take the new institution to heart, but trading took off, and a new and larger stock exchange had to be built in the 1720s.
The third stock exchange was built from the end of the 18th century and completed after Napoleon’s visit to Nantes in 1808. This time the city’s chamber of commerce moved into the building after being founded in 1803. The stock exchange has two facades, and on the one facing the Place du Commerce you can see statues of Jean Bart, René Duguay-Trouin, Abraham Duquesne and Jacques Cassard, who were famous sailors.
Théâtre Graslin is a theater building where both plays and opera performances are performed. It was the French architect and urban planner Mathurin Crucy who designed the theater in neoclassical architecture, and it was named after Jean-Louis Graslin, who owned the plot of land where the theater was built.
The Théâtre Graslin was inaugurated on 23 March 1788, but it unfortunately burned down in 1796, after which it had to be reconstructed. It did not happen immediately, and it took until 1811 before the theater was reopened. It happened in turn in connection with a visit to the city by Napoleon. The theater’s auditorium currently holds approximately 800 spectators.
Basilique Saint-Nicolas is a beautiful basilica that was built between 1844 and 1869 in neo-Gothic style, using not least granite from the region around Nantes. The construction of the three-nave cross basilica took place on a small piece of land, and the church was built in a north-south direction and not the traditional east-west direction.
The Basilique Saint-Nicolas was elevated to the status of basilica minor by Pope Leo XIII in 1882 and, along with the Basilique Saint-Donatien-et-Saint-Rogatien, are the only basilicas in Nantes. In 1943, the church was destroyed by Allied bombing, and it had to be rebuilt after the war. Today you can see a nice and bright church room and many nice details in the decoration of the church room, which is clearly neo-gothic in style.
Basilique Saint-Donatien-et-Saint-Rogatien is one of Nantes’ two basilicas, the Basilique Saint-Nicolas being the other. The first church on this site, which marks the burial place of the brothers and Nantes saints Donatian and Rogatian, is believed to have been built as early as the 4th century. The current basilica is the fourth church on the site.
The current church was built from 1872 with consecration in 1889. The church was designed by Émile Perrin in neo-Romanesque style and is a three-aisled cruciform basilica with a beautiful double tower facade. In the basilica you can see the marble sarcophagus of the martyrs Donatian and Rogatian, and you can also notice the carillon from 1902, which plays identically to the bells of Westminster in London.
The Église de Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port is a domed church that stands as a distinctive feature of Nantes’ skyline. It was the architects Seheult and Joseph-Fleury Chenantais who designed the church, and the large dome was designed with inspiration from the Dôme in Paris, and an archangel representing Gabriel adorns the top.
Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port was built during the 19th century expansion of Nantes to the west with, among other things, the transformation of the areas by the port. In this connection, a church had been built in 1827, but it quickly became too small, and therefore from 1843 the construction of the new and current Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port was planned.
An architectural inspiration from the Baroque and the Counter-Reformation era was chosen for the church, which was inaugurated in 1858. However, other styles also influenced the design and the result. After the inauguration, work continued with the decoration, and the wall paintings, for example, were not completed until the beginning of the 20th century.
The church’s 30 meter high facade consists of a lower Doric level and an upper Corinthian level. The Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary as a symbol of the protection of sailors. In the center of the pediment, the Virgin is seen in glory assisted by two angels, one of whom blesses the departing sailors, while the other welcomes them on their return. Above you can see the 60 meter high dome.
Inside you can see a beautifully decorated church room with many works of art by, among others, Henri-Pierre Picou, the painting couple Henry Leray and Laure Martin and Alphonse Le Hénaff, who in the years 1858-1860 painted a large dome frieze with the Immaculate Virgin with seven groups of characters from The Old Testament and the New Testament. Later in the century, the church’s chapels were further decorated.
Musée Dobrée is a museum where you can see a large collection of art and effects that Thomas Dobrée collected in the 19th century. Wealthy at a young age, he devoted most of his life to buying works of art. The collection reached over 10,000 effects, and they required more and more space.
From 1862, Thomas Dobrée began with the plans for the construction of the Palais Dobrée, which was to be his residence and also a place where he could exhibit his collection. Palais Dobrée was built in neo-Romanesque style, and the builder invested a lot of money in the construction, which was not completed until after Thomas Dobrée’s death. He bequeathed the house and collection to the Département de Loire-Inférieure region.
Today, you can see many art objects and effects from Thomas Dobrée’s collections at the Musée Dobrée. However, the museum has also expanded the collections continuously over the years, so that today you can experience varied exhibitions with, among other things, Egyptian, Etruscan and Greek archaeological objects.
Le Lieu Unique is an interesting center for contemporary art housed in the company Lefèvre-Utile’s old biscuit factory. Today, the place is known for its many cultural activities, and every year Le Lieu Unique presents many performances in, among other things, theatre, dance, circus and music.
The center is also known for the setting of the old factory with the beautiful tower, which was built in 1909. It started in 1895, when the biscuit manufacturers with the famous petit beurre cookies built a new factory. The construction was done in concrete and metal, and the factory tower makes the site one of Nantes’ most iconic buildings. The factory moved its production from 1986, and a few years later cultural activities started to flourish here.
The Jardin des Plantes is a botanical garden with many beautiful plants where you can enjoy old plating. The first botanical garden in the city was laid out in 1688 as a garden with medicinal plants, but the current garden is somewhat more recent and was founded in 1806 under the direction of Jean Alexandre Hectot.
Today, the garden contains over 10,000 species, laid out in a garden with lakes, paths and established landscapes. You can also see statues, fountains, greenhouses and the garden’s palm house. Among the species here is an excellent collection of camellias, over 200-year-old specimens of magnolia grandiflora and other special plants. In the indoor facilities, there is a collection of epiphytes such as orchids, and there are plants from tropical America.
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