Saint-Nazaire is a French commune, sub-prefecture of the
Loire-Atlantique department, administratively in the Pays de la
Loire region. Historically, Saint-Nazaire is part of Brittany and
the Nantes region. Located north of the Loire estuary, at the limit
of the Atlantic Ocean, the city originally developed as an outer
port of Nantes, which is about fifty kilometers to the east. Today
the Autonomous Port of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire is the leading French
port on the Atlantic coast. The city was formerly the capital of
French shipyards.
Known for its high-skill shipyards, France
(now Norway), Normandie and Queen Mary II were built there.
It is a city with a working class tradition, which wants to open up
to tourism (Ville-Port), culture (Festival, VIP, LIFE),
residentialization and the tertiary sector (Villes-Gare). It also
has a strong associative and union fabric. Many visits can be made:
the Espadon Submarine, the Chantiers de L'Atlantique (shipyards),
the Airbus shipyards, the Escal'Atlantique museum (visit in the wake
of the old transatlantic ships built in Saint-Nazaire through the
promenade deck , cabins, dining room, performance hall, entrance
hall ...) as well as the Ecomuseum which retraces the history of the
city through models.
It is a town of 70,000 inhabitants,
member of the CARENE (Community of agglomeration of the Nazaire
region and the estuary). Its catchment area, which brings together
nearly 300,000 inhabitants, extends from the Guérande peninsula to
the west (La Baule; Le Croisic; Guérande; La Turballe) to the Sillon
de Bretagne to the east (Savenay; Ponchâteau; Saint-Gildas-des-Bois)
and de la Brière in the North (La Roche-Bernard; Herbignac) in the
Pays de Retz in the South (Saint-Brévin; Pornic; Machecoul).
The center :
City-Port:
Villès-Martin: sandy beach, the lighthouse, beginning of the customs
path to the Villès lighthouse, the fort of Villès (place of
temporary exhibitions);
Little Corporal:
Kerlédé: the Bout du
Monde belvedere, in the Kerlédé square, beautiful view of the
estuary.
Pleasure:
La Berthauderie:
La Chesnais:
The
Bouletterie:
The Immaculate: the tumulus of Dissignac
Saint-Marc-sur-Mer: location of the filming, in 1951, of Jacques
Tati's film Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot. Dominating the main
beach, we can see the statue, by sculptor Emmanuel Debarre,
representing Jacques Tati interpreting the character of Monsieur
Hulot. As for the famous Hôtel de la Plage, featured in the film, it
still exists.
The coast of Saint-Nazaire has
more than 20 beaches from the city center to the limits of
Pornichet. They offer very varied spaces. They are almost all
accessible by the U3 bus line.
from Petit Maroc (Le port) to
Pointe à Villès-Martin, three sandy, urban beaches.
Petit Traict
beach, located very close to the outer harbor jetty, it has a
children's play area
the Grand Traict beach, very sensitive to
tides
the beach of Villès-Martin, more suitable for swimming,
supervised in summer, accessible to disabled people, volleyball
courts.
from Villès-Martin to Pointe de l'Eve: beaches in the
form of rather well sheltered coves.
Kerlédé beach
Kerloupiot
beach
Belle Fontaine beach
Lion Rock beach
Bonne Anse beach
Porcé beach
Trébezy beach
Virechat beach
Port Charlotte
Beach
Fort de L'Ève beach, with a large campsite.
From
Pointe de l'Ève to Pointe de la Lande (limit between Saint-Nazaire
and Pornichet), the coast measures a little more than 3 km. These
are rocky cliffs with many beaches, first oriented to the
south-east:
the beach of Courance (supervised in summer) known
for the practice of bodyboard and skimboard
Saint-Marc beach
known as Monsieur Hulot: supervised in summer, accessible to
disabled people.
Saint-Eugène beach
Grand Traict beach,
renowned among surf enthusiasts for its spots
Géorama beach and
manor
the Petite Vallée beach, partly naturist.
The tip of
Chemoulin limits between the estuary of the Loire and the Atlantic
Ocean, carries the fort of Chemoulin, occupied by the French Navy
which manages the Chemoulin semaphore there and ensures the control
of maritime traffic at the entrance of the estuary; the fort also
houses the CROSS.
Beyond Chemoulin, the coast faces south-west:
the beach of the Jaunais cove, sometimes called the Chemoulin cove,
well protected from the wind by high cliffs, is a naturist beach;
the beach of the Jaunais cove, sometimes called the Chemoulin
cove, well protected from the wind by high cliffs, is a naturist
beach;
the Jaunais beach (supervised in summer) is the last beach
in Saint-Marc, on the edge of the town of Pornichet. These last two
beaches share a large free car park and a reception area for camper
vans. The Jaunais campsite was closed a few years ago, and this
sector of the coastal path underwent a major redevelopment in 2008.
The name of the locality is attested in the forms Sanctus Nazarius of
Sinnuario in 1051, Sancto Nazario in 109623.
The origin of the
name would come from the fact that a basilica housing the relics of
Nazarius, martyr of the first century beheaded in Milan under Nero,
would have been built there according to Gregory of Tours.
According to Jacques de Voragine (around 1228-1298), Nazaire comes from
the Nazarene word, which means pure, consecrated.
During the
Revolution, the town bears the name of Port-Nazaire.
Its Breton
name is Sant Nazer in modern Breton. Señ Neñseir in the Breton dialect
of the Loire-Atlantique, see Breton of Batz-sur-Mer. His name in Gallo
is Saint-Nazère or Saint-Nazaer.
Its inhabitants are called the
Nazarenes.
Until the nineteenth century, Saint-Nazaire remained a modest urban area, characterized by both rural and maritime activity. The big city to the west of the Brière is Guérande, since the Middle Ages, and the port of Le Croisic has developed long before that of Saint-Nazaire. The creation of the modern port and city in a few decades at the end of the nineteenth century represented a major change not only locally, but regionally.
The site of Saint-Nazaire has been inhabited at least since the
Neolithic era, as evidenced by the presence of megalithic constructions,
such as the Dissignac mound or the dolmen located in the heart of the
current city. Remains from the Neolithic era and the Bronze Age have
been found in the cove of the town of Halluard or in the nineteenth
century during the construction of the first port basin of Penhoët. The
village is then located on the land bordering the Loire (see also:
dolmen of the Three Stones) on an area difficult to appreciate today,
due to the extension of the city of Saint-Nazaire and the little modern
archaeological research, area going from the Penhoët basin to the outlet
of the Brivet.
In addition to the aforementioned megaliths and
easily accessible to the public, other megaliths still exist in the
town, such as the pseudo cromlech of Pez (or Pe on IGN maps) (in fact it
is a dolmen whose orthostats of the chamber form an approximate circle,
it was still included at the beginning of the nineteenth century in a
tumulus with several megalithic structures, probably comparable to the
megalithic ensemble of Dissignac), the menhir of the white stone in the
marshes at the edge of town on Trignac, or the mound of the Jacquerie in
the marshes of Brière.
Older traces are known, at the boundary
between Pornichet and Saint-Nazaire for example, they are dated from the
Magdalenian to the Mesolithic with microliths.
Saint-Nazaire is
one of the proposed locations for the ancient city of Corbilo, which
would have been, in the second century BC, the largest Gallic city on
the Atlantic coast. The name of Corbilo is mentioned in the second
century BC, by the Greek historian Polybe27 as the largest Gallic port
after Marseille (Massilia), as well as by Pliny the Elder. During the
creation of the Penhoët afloat basin in the nineteenth century, a thick
stratigraphy rich in archaeological remains was described by the chief
engineer of the works on the site of the former outlet of the Brivet.
However, due to the lack of recent data and due to the dispersion of a
large part of the objects collected in private collections, which
prevents any scientific study and dating, the assimilation of Corbilo to
Saint-Nazaire remains hypothetical. Other sites in the Loire estuary are
also proposed: Corsept, Besné in particular.
At the time of the
conquest of Gaul by Caesar, in the first century BC, the site of
Saint-Nazaire is probably part of the territory of the Gallic people of
the Namnetes; the precise delimitation between the Venetians and the
Namnetes is however little assured with regard to the Guérande
peninsula.
According to the chronicler Alain Bouchart (fifteenth century),
mentioning the legendary origins of the Bretons, it was towards
Saint-Nazaire that Brutus, the mythical ancestor of the Bretons, headed
to gain a foothold in his new homeland. At the end of the Roman Empire,
following the serious crisis of the third century, the Bretons from
across the Channel (province of Brittany) settled in Armorica, and
therefore in the Guérande peninsula, the aim being to repopulate
(feoderati) and to protect the coasts against barbarian attacks
(tractusarmoricanus). The maximum extension of the Breton language on
the Loire is a little east of Saint-Nazaire (Donges, oil refinery
today).
In the sixth century, a text by Gregory of Tours mentions
a basilica housing the relics of the martyr Nazarius. In this basilica,
a golden harness as an offering was displayed. It would have aroused the
envy of the Breton chief Waroch, who sent an envoy to seize it. The
latter smashed his skull on the lintel of the door. By this miracle,
Waroch, frightened, showered the church with gifts. The village took the
name of Sanctus Nazarius of Sinuario.
The history of
Saint-Nazaire is then more discreet. It experienced clashes, such as
that of 1380, where Jehan of Ust defended the city in the name of Duke
John IV against the Castilian fleet, during the Hundred Years' War. The
town was the capital of a parish that went from Penhoët to Pornichet,
seat of a castle of the viscountcy of Donges.
The viscountcy of
Saint-Nazaire, was a dismemberment of the viscountcy of Donges. It was
created at the beginning of the fifteenth century, in favor of
Marguerite de Rieux, daughter of the Viscount of Donges, when she
married Charles de Coësmes, lord of Lucé.
Saint-Nazaire was part,
like the whole of Brittany, of the Breton kingdom, then of the Duchy of
Brittany until 1532, year of annexation to France.
In 1624, the
city was threatened by the Calvinists.
In 1756, a fort was built
on the orders of the Duke of Aiguillon to protect the coastline. The
town then had 600 inhabitants.
Until the French Revolution,
Saint-Nazaire was part of the province of Brittany.
28 At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the port is still only
a haven. Saint-Nazaire is then essentially a port of manatees and Loire
pilots, who guide commercial boats in the estuary.
In 1802, it
was decided to build a causeway on the Portcullis, a lighthouse, a pier,
basins and construction holds. The mole, after a long wait, was built
from 1828 to 1835. The city is built on the current location of the
"Little Morocco" district.
Saint-Nazaire was for a long time a
small port and then the terminus of a steam ferry line (pyroscaphe)
which led to Nantes. In the mid-nineteenth century, the parish of
Saint-Nazaire which includes the current territory of Pornichet, has
only 3,216 inhabitants.
A new Saint-Nazaire was created during the reign of Napoleon III, as
an advanced port of Nantes on the Loire, taking advantage of truces in
the wars that had prevented its evolution until then. Since
large-tonnage ships could no longer sail up to Nantes, it was made a
substitute port.
In 1856, the first basin, that of Saint-Nazaire,
was dug by the embankment of the cove of the town Halluard. This dock
allowed the ships to moor and turn around.
In 1857, the Paris to
Orleans Railway Company opened the Saint-Nazaire on the line from Tours
to Saint-Nazaire via Nantes.
The installation of transatlantic
postal lines to Central America in 1862 as well as the opening of the
first shipyards initiated the industrialization of the city and the
modernization of its port facilities, in particular with the Scott
shipyards. In 1865, the Méan district located near the Penhoët shipyards
was detached from the municipality of Montoir-de-Bretagne to integrate
that of Saint-Nazaire29. It is the first French shipyard to launch
modern ships with metal hulls. In 1866, the Scott Shipyards went
bankrupt.
In 1868, Saint-Nazaire becomes sub-prefecture instead
of Savenay, its district will then continue to gain importance.
In 1879, the Saint-Nazaire Chamber of Commerce was founded.
In
1881, the inauguration of the second basin, that of Penhoët, allows the
stopover of a larger number of ships. He ensures with his team the
training of the workforce of the Nazaire shipyard. This traffic is then
governed by the postal convention which provides that the ships operated
by the concessionaire of the line must be half built in France. An
access lock is also built. The old Saint-Nazaire, is thus cut by this
lock, thus creating an artificial island called Petit Maroc.
During this period, the population of Saint-Nazaire experienced a
considerable growth, which earned it the nickname of "little Breton
California", in allusion to the gold rush in California, or even of
"Liverpool of the west"; the contribution of population was mainly
local: (Brière), Lower Brittany (from Morbihan to South Finistère), and
secondarily from other French regions.
Saint-Nazaire will then experience a founding episode of its identity as a red City: the strike of the Forges of Trignac in 1894 (located at the time in the town of Montoir-de-Bretagne, today town of Trignac), which has a national repercussions. It starts in opposition to a reduction in staffing in the pudding workshops. Immediately, on March 30, the workers went on strike overwhelmingly. The strike, of little importance, seems to have to be brief. But it follows other events (the shooting of Fourmies). The socialists are flocking, defending the arrested strikers, organizing a significant media hype. The strike serves as a national voice for them. This is a demonstration of strength, which, however, will not lead to the generalization of the conflict or social progress.
In 1900, the town of Pornichet was created by dismemberment of Saint-Nazaire. Special deputy at the town hall of Saint-Nazaire — on which the neighborhoods of Sainte-Marguerite and Saint-Sébastien then depended - Charles Mercier became the first mayor of Pornichet when it was created in 1900 by separating land from Saint-Nazaire and Escoublac-La Baule. The first municipal council was constituted on May 13, 1900.
The city is the most important landing port for American troops. It
is in Saint-Nazaire that the first contingents of soldiers disembark.
The installation of these new fighters imposes important works and
developments in the region, in particular several ponds in the town of
Immaculée, north-west of the city, in order to constitute sufficient
reserves of drinking water. On the port, a refrigerated warehouse, one
of the first in France, is built.
In memory of these soldiers,
the American Monument, known as The Sammy or The Soldier of Freedom, was
inaugurated in 1926. The work of the sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt
Whitney, installed on the edge of the waterfront, it figures an American
soldier with a sword and standing on an eagle, in bronze. In 1941, the
Germans destroyed it. A Franco-American subscription allows its
reconstruction in 1989. In 2019, a replica is made by the students of
the Brossaud-Blancho high school and installed on the edge of the
Bois-Joalland pond, an artificial lake built in 1918 by the American
army.
In 1926, the abolition of the borough of Paimbœuf in favor of that of
Saint-Nazaire, further increases the administrative influence of the
city south of the Loire estuary.
The aeronautical construction
makes its appearance since 1922 on the site of the shipyards which, to
diversify its production, builds seaplanes. In 1936, the company was
nationalized, and military programs ensured the development of the
activity.
Between 1931 and 1932, the Joubert lock-form was
completed, a transformation necessary to be able to accommodate the
construction of the new flagship of the Compagnie générale
transatlantique, the Normandie liner.
In 1932, the bankrupt
Saint-Nazaire casino was sold to the Bishopric of Nantes, which partly
razed it and built a private school.
In 1935, the first part of
the current Saint-Louis High School was built instead of the casino.
In June 1936, the general strike greatly affected the city, the
shipyards were paralyzed.
In 1940, after the evacuation in June of the allied forces during Operation Ariel, marked by the tragedy of the RMS Lancastria, the port was quickly occupied by units of the Kriegsmarine. In December, the engineers of the Todt organization inspect the port and its facilities. The site of the former turning dock of the liners of the Compagnie générale transatlantique is retained for the construction of a shelter for submarines, UBB for the Germans, that is to say U-Boat Bunker. The first three cells were inaugurated on June 30, 1941 after barely four months of work, by Admiral Dönitz himself and Fritz Todt. The shelter will be constantly expanded to reach fourteen cells in 1943. The roof, initially three and sixty meters thick, will also be reinforced by a second slab of about thirty centimeters of very hard concrete containing granite aggregates. Then a third slab of one meter seventy on average will cover most of the roof except at the back of the base and on the cells numbered 12, 13 and 14 where the work was underway in June 1944. The strategic importance of the base led the Germans to fortify the outskirts of the city, both on the land side (helped to the north by the presence of the Brière, a vast expanse of marshes) and on the coast. The Loire estuary cuts the defense sector into two parts. Numerous and efficient DCA batteries, the Flak, ensure, in concentric circles, the defense against air raids. Many points of resistance are established along the coast.
Faced with the impossibility of destroying the base, the Allies
decide to "make it impossible" for the Germans to live by destroying the
city and all civil or military infrastructure. Massive destruction raids
both day and night will annihilate the city to more than 80%. These
bombings will cause many civilian casualties, but will hardly bother the
occupier who has moved the majority of its services and accommodation to
La Baule. In 1943, the city of Saint-Nazaire was evacuated after new
deadly raids.
In March 1942, Operation Chariot allowed a British
commando to damage the Joubert shape so as to prevent the German
battleships from being able to be repaired there. The sluice gate
closing the basin was destroyed during the raid - thanks to the ship HMS
Campbeltown which served as a ram ship — and will not be repaired until
after the war. This year will see 19 bombings take place, with 389
civilian casualties.
The year 1943 saw nine bombings, including
January 3 (bombing of the submarine base under construction), February
28 (explosive and incendiary bombs creating 600 foci of fires) and May
29, which destroyed 60% of homes and shops, including the town hall. The
apprenticeship school of the Penhoët Shipyards was hit by the bombing of
November 9, 1942, resulting in the death of 134 apprentices aged 14 to
17 years out of a total of more than 180 dead and more than 100 injured.
During the weeks following the Normandy landings, German troops
retreated into the region and created a resistance zone where the
fighting continued, called the Saint-Nazaire pocket. It was liberated
three days after the Nazi surrender, that is to say on May 11, 1945.
Thus, Saint-Nazaire is the last city liberated from the Nazi yoke in
Europe.
Saint-Nazaire is rebuilt around the axis of the Avenue de la
République, turning its back to the sea.
This past of war, and
especially of reconstruction, is still widely visible along the beaches,
with bunkers witnessing past battles. Contrary to what is stated, it
does not owe its Hippodamian plan — this urbanism with perpendicular
streets — to the reconstruction, but to the first creation of the new
city (nineteenth century). Notable elements are the ponds of the
landscaped Park or the Joalland Wood at the Immaculate (created by the
Americans during the First World War), which were dug to meet the city's
water needs (cf. First World War). The reconstruction of the city was
entrusted in 1943 to the Rome Prize-winning architect Noël Le
Maresquier. Appointed by the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urban
Planning, the latter opted for a modern, minimalist and functional
architecture.
For several years, the municipality has been trying
to refocus the city towards the port, in particular with the
redevelopment of the approaches to the submarine base which now welcome
leisure facilities with, for example, the Cinéville multiplex, shops
(including the Blue Ribbon shopping center) as well as several sites of
visits (Escal'Atlantic on the history of the liners, the Ecomuseum or
the Swordfish submarine). The whole forms an urban project called
"City-port" which aims to become an extension of the city center. The
project also leaves an important place for the construction of new
housing programs. Finally, the old passenger station abandoned after the
war has undergone an important renovation in order to accommodate a new
theater, which once housed the theater and cinema "Le Fanal" during the
destruction of the old Jacques Tati room, to then become the Simone Veil
Theater, national stage. The entire area near the old train station also
hosts Agora, an associative space that houses in particular the Jacques
Tati Arthouse cinema, named in tribute to the film Mr. Hulot's Vacation
shot on the Nazaire coast. The area of the new station has meanwhile
undergone transformations aimed at economic attractiveness, with the
realization of the two towers of the Meteor project, the renovation of
the station, and more recently the construction of a hotel complex. This
district now attracts more than a million visitors every year.
One of the most significant events of the post-war period is the
shipyard strike in 1955, described by Louis Oury in his book Les Prolos
(1973); this strike shortly precedes that of the Nantes shipyards.
The conflict began at the end of 1954 when the management imposed on
the welders the bonus payment system: principle according to which a
given task is assigned a minimum time of index 100 and a maximum time of
index 150. If the team uses the maximum time (or more), it receives the
basic salary (index 100); if it uses the minimum time, it receives a
salary of index 150: the bonus in this case is 50 (the maximum
possible). This system can be designed in a shipyard where there is no
chain work. The problem is that the basic salary is insufficient and
that the times are calculated arbitrarily. Until 1954, the welders
received the average bonus of the workshop where they worked, which is
logical since they intervene at the request of the other workers.
The change in the status of welders, added to the general weakness
of wages and in particular the gap compared to wages in the Parisian
metallurgy, will cause a movement of hidden strikes, with short-term
work stoppages rotating between the different trades, which disorganizes
production in an anarchic way (from the point of view of the
management). The three unions: the CGT, the CGT-FO and the CFTC, on the
other hand, are in a phase of unity of action, in the struggle and in
the negotiation, which strengthens the movement.
After this long
period of hidden strikes, the situation became very tense during the
summer and on August 1, 1955 a real battle took place between workers
and law enforcement officers in the boiler workshop in Penhoët and then
on the Penhoët embankment 50 workers and 60 policemen were injured;
despite the violence of the fight, there were no deaths, unlike in
Nantes (as illustrated by Jacques Demy's film, A room in the city).
Following this spectacular event, the employers' positions are very
weakened and the negotiations lead to an increase in wages of 22%.
The town of Saint-Nazaire is located on the right bank of the Loire
estuary (its territory including the point of Chémoulin which marks the
end), 50 km west of Nantes. It is located near the Brière marshes, an
important regional natural park bringing together many animal and plant
species, the second largest wetland in France after the Camargue.
The neighboring municipalities are, clockwise, Pornichet to the
west, La Baule-Escoublac to the northwest, Saint-André-des-Eaux,
Saint-Joachim, Trignac and Montoir-de-Bretagne. South of the Loire,
Saint-Brevin-les-Pins. The town of Pornichet was created in 1900 by
dismemberment of Saint-Nazaire and Escoublac.
The eastern part of the town is located on alluvial land located
between the Brière and the Loire estuary. The western part, more
extensive, corresponds to the extension of the hillside of Guérande: the
relief is hilly and of higher altitude, where we find a granite and
metamorphic base.
The change takes place quite abruptly along a
line connecting the tip of Ville-ã-Martin to a place called La Belle
Hautière, where we reach the Brière marshes.
To the east of this
line, the altitude is generally only 2 m, with the exception of a few
heights (Prézégat in Saint-Nazaire, Savine Butte, Trefféac in Trignac).
This area includes all the port facilities, the city center (town hall,
sub-prefecture, market) and the central beaches (Petit Traict and Grand
Traict).
To the west of this line, the altitude varies between 10
m and 45 m (at a place called The Six Paths), in general between 20 m
and 35 m. In this part, we find the west of the city center
(neighborhoods of the hospital, the Bakery, the university); the
secondary settlements of the Immaculate and Saint-Marc-sur-Mer; the
rural sectors of Saint-Nazaire.
The town has a fairly extensive
coastline, just a little beyond the tip of Chémoulin to the west.
To the west of the tip of Villès-Martin, it is a coast of rocky
cliffs that can, in general, be followed on the customs officers' path
(GR 34), with several beaches, such as those of Villès-Martin, Porcé,
and especially those surrounding the seaside resort of
Saint-Marc-sur-Mer.
In 2010, the climate of the municipality is of the altered oceanic
climate type, according to a CNRS study based on a series of data
covering the period 1971-2000. In 2020, Météo-France publishes a
typology of the climates of metropolitan France in which the
municipality is exposed to an oceanic climate and is in the climatic
region of eastern and southern Brittany, Pays Nantes, Vendée,
characterized by low rainfall in summer and good insolation.
For
the period 1971-2000, the average annual temperature is 12.4 ° C, with
an annual thermal amplitude of 12.4 ° C. The average annual cumulative
rainfall is 755 mm, with 12.5 days of precipitation in January and 6.1
days in July. For the period 1991-2020, the annual average temperature
observed on the meteorological station installed in the municipality is
13.1 ° C and the average annual cumulative rainfall is 595.3 mm. For the
future, the climate parameters of the municipality estimated for 2050
according to different greenhouse gas emission scenarios can be
consulted on a dedicated website published by Météo-France in November
2022.
Saint-Nazaire is an urban municipality, because it is part of the
dense or intermediate density municipalities, within the meaning of the
Insee's communal density grid. It belongs to the urban unit of
Saint-Nazaire, an intra-departmental agglomeration grouping 17
municipalities and 190,847 inhabitants in 2021, of which it is the
city-center.
In addition, the town is part of the attraction area
of Saint-Nazaire, of which it is the town-center. This area, which
includes 24 municipalities, is categorized into areas of 200,000 to less
than 700,000 inhabitants.
The town, bordered by the Loire and the
Atlantic Ocean, is also a coastal town within the meaning of the law of
January 3, 1986, called the coastal law. Specific urban planning
provisions therefore apply in order to preserve natural spaces, sites,
landscapes and the ecological balance of the coastline, such as the
principle of unconstructibility, outside urbanized spaces, on the
coastal strip of 100 meters, or more if the local urban planning plan
provides for it.
The land use of the municipality, as it appears from the European
database of biophysical land use Corine Land Cover (CLC), is marked by
the importance of artificial territories (53.3% in 2018), an increase
compared to 1990 (47.7%). The detailed distribution in 2018 is as
follows: urbanized areas (38.6%), heterogeneous agricultural areas
(20.8%), meadows (12.3%), industrial or commercial areas and
communication networks (12%), arable land (6.8%), maritime waters
(2.5%), artificial green spaces, non-agricultural (2.1%), continental
waters (1.7%), coastal wetlands (1.3%), inland wetlands (1%), mines,
landfills and construction sites (0.6%), environments with shrubby
and/or herbaceous vegetation (0.4%). The evolution of the land use of
the municipality and its infrastructures can be observed on the various
cartographic representations of the territory: the Cassini map
(eighteenth century), the staff map (1820-1866) and the maps or aerial
photos of the IGN for the current period (1950 to today)
The
municipality is trying to return the city to its historical axis, i.e.
towards the maritime and commercial port, which will eventually host the
city's student cities, as well as multiple modern and innovative
infrastructures, such as shopping centers and a new theater. This
reversal involves the reappropriation of the underwater base, among
other things through its vegetalization (Gilles Clément's Third
Landscape Garden project). "City-port" is part of the logic of
development of this city, in the East in particular by a project for a
"Business district" near the Saint-Nazaire train station and in the West
by the construction of new districts and the CH (Health city), the
extension of the city continues on a large scale.
On January 25,
2011, Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed the launch of a monumental tender for
the installation of 600 wind turbines. A park that will develop a power
of 3,000 megawatts for an investment of ten billion euros. This offshore
wind farm is commissioned between June and November 2022, and is
inaugurated by President Emmanuel Macron on September 22, 2022.