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Saint-Malo

 
Dictionary: Saint-Ma·lo   (săN-mə-lō') pronunciation
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A town of northwest France northwest of Nantes on the Gulf of Saint-Malo, an inlet of the English Channel. Founded on the site of a 6th-century A.D. monastery, it was a base for French pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries. Population: 50,000.

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Saint-Malo

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Gulf of Saint-Malo
Gulf of the English Channel, France. Indenting the northern coast of Brittany, the gulf extends from the island of Bréhat to the peninsula of Cotentin, Normandy. It includes the rocky islet of Mont-Saint-Michel. At low tide in spring and fall a huge tract of land is uncovered at the gulf's main port, Saint-Malo. The shore is lined with numerous small resorts.

For more information on Gulf of Saint-Malo, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia:

Saint-Malo

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Saint-Malo (săN-mälō'), town (1990 pop. 49,274), Ille-et-Vilaine dept., NW France, on the English Channel. Built on a rocky promontory, Saint-Malo is a fishing port and one of the great tourist centers of Brittany. The major industries are deep-sea fishing, printing, machinery manufacturing, and boatbuilding. There is regular ferry service to the Channel Islands in the summer. A Welsh monk built a monastery nearby in the 6th cent., and in the 9th cent. refugees fleeing Norman raids on nearby Saint-Servan settled at the site of the present-day Saint-Malo. The town was made a part of France in 1491; it became a prosperous commercial seaport in the 1500s. Between the 17th and 19th cent., French corsairs operated out of Saint-Malo, despite repeated English efforts to destroy the port and corsair fleet. Saint-Malo is famous for its ramparts and its 17th-century architecture. Points of interest include the main gate to the city (15th cent.), a château (15th cent.) that is now a municipal museum, and an open-air aquarium. In World War II, German forces, retreating before the U.S. army, set the city ablaze. In 1966 a tidal-power station, harnessing the energy from the channel's high tides, was opened. The nearby towns of Saint-Servan and Paramé were annexed by Saint-Malo in 1967. The city was the birthplace of Jacques Cartier and François Chateaubriand, whose tomb is near the harbor.

Wikipedia:

Saint-Malo

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For the saint, see Malo (saint).
For the community in Louisiana, see Saint Malo, Louisiana.

Coordinates: 48°38′53″N 2°00′27″W / 48.6480555556°N 2.0075°W / 48.6480555556; -2.0075

Commune of Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo
Saintmalo.jpg
View of the walled city
Location
Saint-Malo is located in France
Saint-Malo
Administration
Country France
Region Bretagne
Department Ille-et-Vilaine
Arrondissement Saint-Malo
Canton Saint-Malo-Nord and Saint-Malo-Sud
Intercommunality Saint-Malo
Mayor René Couanau (UMP)
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 0–51 m (0–170 ft)
(avg. 8 m/26 ft)
Land area1 36.58 km2 (14.12 sq mi)
Population2 52,737  (2007)
 - Density 1,442 /km2 (3,730 /sq mi)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 35288/ 35400
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Saint-Malo (Breton: Sant-Maloù; Gallo: Saent-Malô) is a walled port city in Brittany in north-western France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department.

Contents

Demographics

The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season. With the suburbs included, the population is about 135,000.

The population of the commune more than doubled in 1968 with the merging of three communes: Saint-Malo, Saint-Servan (population 14,963 in 1962), and Paramé (population 8811 in 1962).

Date of Population
(Source: Cassini[1] et INSEE[2])
1793 1800 1806 1820 1821 1831 1836 1841 1846 1851
10,730 9147 9934 - 9949 9981 9744 10,053 10,076 9997
1856 1861 1866 1872 1876 1881 1886 1891 1896
10,809 10,886 10,693 12,316 10,295 11,212 10,500 11,896 11,476
1901 1906 1911 1921 1926 1931 1936 1946 1954
11,486 10,647 12,371 12,390 13,137 12,864 13,836 11,311 14,339
1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2004 2007 -
17,137 42,297 45,030 46,347 48,057 50,675 - 52,737 -
For the census of 1962 to 1999 the official population corresponds with the population without duplicates according to the INSEE.

Inhabitants of Saint-Malo are called Malouins, Malouines.

Breton language

In 2007, 0.7% of the children attended the bilingual schools in primary education.[3]

History

Saint-Malo during the Middle Ages was a fortified island at the mouth of the Rance River, controlling not only the estuary but the open sea beyond. The promontory fort of Aleth, south of the modern centre in what is now the Saint-Servan district, commanded approaches to the Rance even before the Romans, but modern Saint-Malo traces its origins to a monastic settlement founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan early in the 6th century. Its name is derived from a man said to have been a follower of Brendan, Saint Malo.

Saint-Malo had a tradition of asserting its autonomy in dealings with the French authorities and even with the local Breton authorities. From 1490–1493, Saint-Malo declared itself to be an independent republic, taking the motto "not French, not Breton, but Malouins".[4]

Saint-Malo became notorious as the home of the corsairs, French privateers and sometimes pirates. (In the nineteenth century the city's "piratical" notoriety was portrayed in Jean Richepin's play Le flibustier and in César Cui's like-named opera derived therefrom.) The corsairs of Saint-Malo not only forced English ships passing up the Channel to pay tribute, but also brought wealth from further afield. Jacques Cartier, who sailed the Saint Lawrence River and visited the sites of Quebec City and Montreal — and is thus credited as the discoverer of Canada, lived in and sailed from Saint-Malo, as did the first colonists to settle the Falklands – hence the islands' French name Îles Malouines, which gave rise to the Spanish name Islas Malvinas.

The commune of Saint-Servan was merged, together with Paramé, and became the commune of Saint-Malo in 1967.

Saint Malo was the site of an Anglo-French summit in 1998 which led to a significant agreement regarding European defence policy.

Food

Saint-Malo has one of the highest concentration of sea food restaurants in Europe. It is famous for its local oysters from the nearby village of Cancale.

Transport

Saint-Malo is a terminal for ferry services to Poole, Portsmouth and Weymouth in England via the Channel Islands.[5][6] It also has a railway station offering direct TGV service to Paris and a bus service provided by Keolis. There is an Airport at Pleurtuit, a little village near to Saint Malo.

Sites of interest

Saint-Malo.

Now inseparably attached to the mainland, Saint-Malo is the most visited place in Brittany. Sites of interest include:

  • The walled city (La Ville Intra-Muros)
  • The château of Saint-Malo, part of which is now the town museum.
  • The Solidor Tower in Saint-Servan is a fourteenth century building which holds a collection tracing the history of voyages around Cape Horn. Many scale models, nautical instruments and objects made by the sailors during their crossing or brought back from foreign ports invoke thoughts of travel aboard extraordinary tall ships at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
  • The tomb of the writer Chateaubriand on the Ile du Grand Bé
  • The Petit Bé
  • The Cathedral of St. Vincent
  • The Privateer's House ("La Demeure de Corsaire"), a ship-owner's town house built in 1725, shows objects from the history of privateering, weaponry and ship models.
  • The Great Aquarium Saint-Malo, one of the major aquaria in France.
  • The labyrinthe du Corsaire, (an actraction park in Saint Malo)
  • The Pointe de la Varde, Natural Park.
  • The City of Alet, in front of Saint Malo Intra Muros.

Notable people

Saint-Malo was the birthplace of:

Saint-Malo

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Twin towns — Sister cities

Saint-Malo is twinned with:

Gallery

Old map of Saint-Malo

The "Fort National" visible from Saint-Malo

View up a typical city street towards the cathedral

View of the city from the walls

Cathedral window

The city wall of St Malo.

Commemoration of the Cartier expedition in the floor of the cathedral.

The Holy Family on a Saint-Malo background, in a painting made by James Collinson in 1878, when he was living in Brittany

See also

References

  1. ^ "http://cassini.ehess.fr/ Population avant le recensement de 1962". http://cassini.ehess.fr/cassini/fr/html/6_index.htm. 
  2. ^ "INSEE: Population depuis le recensement de 1962". http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/docs_ffc/psdc.htm. 
  3. ^ (French) Ofis ar Brezhoneg: Enseignement bilingue
  4. ^ S. et J. Beaulieu, Saint Malo et l'histoire, p 10 to 32
  5. ^ "http://www.condorferries.co.uk/Terminal/malo.html". Condor Ferries. http://www.condorferries.co.uk/Terminal/malo.html. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
  6. ^ "Portsmouth - St Malo". Brittany Ferries. http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/routes/portsmouth-st-malo. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 

External links

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Saint-Malo".  Read more

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