Le Havre

Le Havre is located on the right bank of the Seine , near its estuary . The city has direct access to the sea and the English Channel. Seine separates the city of Le Havre from the neighboring city of Honfleur . To the north and west of Le Havre is the coast of the Strait of Pas de Calais .

The city is divided into two parts: Upper Town and Lower Town. The border runs along the rocks located between the streets of Felix Faure and De Gobelix, between 329 streets and Marechal Joffre, between Salvador Allende and Aristide Briand, between Pablo Neruda and Vedun. In the east, the boundary of the cliffs runs along the railway line of Le Havre Station.

Le Havre is a port city. Almost the entire Lower City is washed by water and cut by pools . In the center (Lower city): Vauban Swimming Pool, Shopping, Du Roi Pool, De la Bar, Da la Citadel. Pools (harbors) are located in the port: the English Channel, Baylot, Er, Vatin, Fluvial, Theofil Ducrock, Rene Coti, Du Pacific, Vetilar, Hubert Raul-Duval, as well as Marcel Despoule and the Descent Pool (on the eastern border of Le Havre).

The largest of all Le Havre basins is the Hubert Raul-Duval ^[1] . It is located on the southern border of Le Havre itself and the Le Havre port; separated from the Gulf of Seine by a dam.

Time Zone

Le Havre is in the time zone designated by international standard as Central European Time . The offset relative to UTC is +1: 00.

The climate of Le Havre is temperate oceanic (marine) . Over the course of the year, the English Channel has an influence on the weather in the Le Havre region.

Precipitation falls evenly throughout the year, increasing by a small reading in the fall.

The strait greatly affects the climate. The weather is very changeable. Le Havre is characterized by storms and thunderstorms (most often occur in winter).

On October 16, 1987, in the suburb of Le Havre, Cap de la Gev, the maximum sea wind speed was recorded - 180 km / h ^[2] .

The first traces of a person’s stay at the Le Havre location date back to the Neolithic period . In the Iron Age, these places were inhabited by Celtic tribes. In the Gallo-Roman period, there was a road connecting Lillebonne at the mouth of the Seine with the English Channel . Gravel Abbey was founded here in the 9th century; in the 11th century, the village of Löhr and the harbor were founded on the seashore, serving as a temporary haven for ships awaiting the tide to go up the Seine to the port of Arfleur. At the same time, Guillaume Male, a participant in the Normad Conquest of England , built a castle in Gravilla, which was destroyed along with all the defensive fortifications during the Hundred Years War , and the surrounding area fell into disrepair.

A new interest in this place arose in the 16th century, when, due to silting of the mouth of the Seine, the use of the traditional ports of Arfleur and Honfleur became more and more problematic. On October 8, 1517, King Francis I signed a decree on the construction of a new city and port on the English Channel . Initially, the city received the name Franciscopolis in honor of the king, then it was renamed Le Havre-de-Grâce (“Harbor of Grace”) after the name of the church Notre-Dame-de-Grâce built by this time.

Le Havre quickly became France’s main gate in relation to the New World. In 1555, Nicolas de Villeganyon sailed from here, who founded the French colony (Fort Coligny) in Brazil. In 1564, another Huguenot, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, sailed from Le Havre to North America and founded the French colony of Fort Carolina near modern Jacksonville . From the end of the 16th century, merchant ships began to arrive at the port with American goods - leather, sugar, and tobacco.

Le Havre was seriously affected by the Religious Wars - on May 8, 1562, the Huguenots took the city, sacked churches and expelled Catholics. Fearing the counterattack of the royal army, they turned for help to England, who sent their troops. The troops of Charles IX, under the command of the Konableable Anna de Montmorency, besieged Le Havre and expelled the British on July 29, 1563. The fort, built by the British, was destroyed by order of the king, and the height of the tower of Notre Dame Cathedral was reduced.

The fortifications in Le Havre were reinforced again in the 16th century, when Cardinal Richelieu was the governor of the city. Subsequently, the leaders of the Princes Front - the Duke de Longville , the Princes of Conde and Conti - were imprisoned in the local bastion.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, Le Havre flourished thanks to trade with the American colonies; he ranked third among French ports in terms of slave trade after Nantes and La Rochelle . The old port is depicted in Monet 's painting “ Impression. The Rising Sun ”(1872), which gave the name to the Impressionist movement. The economic boom has led to a significant increase in the population of the city; in Le Havre, tobacco factories, shipyards, and trade exchanges began to open. Since the end of the 19th century, local entrepreneurs began to attract emigrants from Italy, Poland, and North Africa to work in their factories. The period from 1850 to 1914 was the “Golden Age” of Le Havre - trade flourished, the city was decorated with new buildings (city hall, court, new stock exchange), beautiful boulevards were laid. From the end of the 19th century, Le Havre began to gain popularity among Parisians as a seaside resort; the promenade, the Marie Cristin casino, the Regatta Palace and a number of others were built, the beaches were equipped with cabins.

During World War II, Le Havre was occupied by German troops in the spring of 1940 and was regarded as the base for preparing the invasion of England. Many residents left the city or went into the Resistance movement. When the Germans retreated in 1944, they blew up the port infrastructure, but Le Havre was especially seriously affected during the bombing by British aircraft on September 5 and 6, when the city center and the port were destroyed. In the postwar years, the central part of the city was re-built up with modern buildings of a characteristic white color according to the project of architect Auguste Perret. Residential buildings Perre served as one of the sources of the project of the Soviet " Khrushchev ". On July 15, 2005, UNESCO entered the city center of Le Havre on the World Heritage List for "innovative use of the potential of concrete." According to UNESCO, the central part of the city, located on a territory of 133 hectares of land, is an “exceptional example of architecture and urban planning of the post-war period” - one of the rare modern World Heritage sites in Europe.

In Le Havre, many types of urban land transport, as well as a funicular system, are developed . The city has a dense network of transport links.

Most of the Le Havre transport is owned by LIA STRO (a subsidiary of Veolia Transport). Currently there are 19 bus lines, a vacation system and city tram lines.

In 2008, major repairs of buses were carried out, which allowed to improve the quality of bus traffic.

In 2012, the tram system was reconstructed. A new line of 23 stations has been laid, combining Le Havre beach and the eastern part of the city.

Le Havre Station

Le Havre Station ( Fr. Gare du Havre) is the central railway station in Le Havre.

It is the final destination of the TGV train routes from Marseille and Strasbourg ^[4] .

The station was opened in 1847 on the Paris -Le Havre railway line. The station was rebuilt in 1932 by the architect Henri Pason (fr. Henri Pacon).

Le Havre Tram

The first tram in Le Havre was launched in 1874. The network lasted until 1951, because after the war the tram lost its relevance, giving place to buses and trolleybuses.

After 59 years, the Le Havre authorities considered the creation of a new improved tram system. From November 2006 to March 2007, a survey was conducted among the residents of Le Havre on the introduction of a new tram.

Construction work lasted from 2008 to 2012. In December of the same year, the grand opening of the new Le Havre tram system took place. Currently, the network consists of two lines.

One of the largest ports in the country (cargo turnover of over 50 million tons , mainly oil ). Through Le Havre passes most of France’s foreign trade with the countries of America and West Africa. Shipbuilding, oil refining, chemical, cement, cotton industry.

Employment structure:

• agriculture - 0.1%
• industry - 9.6%
• construction - 4.7%
• trade, transport and services - 51.5%
• state and municipal services - 34.1%

The unemployment rate ( 2014 ) is 21.4% (France as a whole - 13.5%, Seine-Maritime department - 15.2%).
The average annual income per person, euro ( 2014 ) - 18 244 (France as a whole - 20 150, the Seine-Maritime department - 19 978).

Currently, there are 55 kindergartens and 49 elementary schools in Le Havre. 37 secondary educational institutions are open to residents of Le Havre.

University of Le Havre

Le Havre University is relatively young among other higher education institutions in France. Opened in 1986 near the building of Le Havre Station. Currently, an educational complex has been created, which includes a university library (opened in 2006), a sports complex, a student canteen and a student house.

In 2011, about 12 thousand students studied at the University of Le Havre.

The development of the city is predominantly post-war, it is dominated by a church like Saint-Joseph's skyscraper . Separate architectural monuments of the 16th – 18th centuries have been preserved. ( Notre Dame Church , Abbey Graville-Saint-Honorine ). A museum of medieval sculpture and archeology is opened near the city, and in the city itself is a museum of fine arts named after Andre Malraux .

The homogeneity of modern buildings sharply distinguishes Le Havre, which was destroyed during the Second World War , among other cities in France. Auguste Perret's urban development decision is distinguished by the thoughtfulness and peculiar aesthetic advantages that allowed UNESCO to include the city center in the list of World Heritage sites .

Population dynamics, people

Since 2017, the post of mayor of Le Havre has been occupied by Luc Lemonnier , a member of the Republican Party, and a member of the Council of the Seine-Maritime Department of the canton of Le Havre 6 . He was elected to this post after the resignation of Édouard Philippe after his appointment as Prime Minister of France.

In Le Havre, the 2011 film of the same name by the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki takes place.

Also here, the action of the film “ Quay of the Mists ”, directed by Marcel Carne, was released .

Le Havre became the prototype of the fictional city of Bouville, in which the events of the novel by the French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre " Nausea" are unfolding.

• Buldakov G. N. , Leiboshits N. Ya. Le Havre / Design by artist M. A. Bychkov; Leningrad organization of the Order of Lenin of the Union of Architects of the USSR . - L .: Stroyizdat . Leningra. Otdel, 1974. - 112 p. - ( Twin cities of Leningrad ). - 15,000 copies. (region, super-region)

• National Institute of Statistics
• 2014 municipal election results