Lorient

This article is about the city of Lorient in Brittany, France. For other uses, see Lorient (disambiguation).

Lorient An Oriant
Coat of arms
Location of Lorient
Country	France
Region	Brittany
Department	Morbihan
Arrondissement	Lorient
Intercommunality	Pays de Lorient
Government
• Mayor (2008—2014)	Norbert Métairie
Area 1	17.48 km2 (6.75 sq mi)
Population  (2007)	58,135
• Density	3,300/km2 (8,600/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	56121 /56100
Elevation	0–46 m (0–151 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Lorient, or L'Orient, (French pronunciation: [lɔ.ʁjɑ̃]; Breton: An Oriant) is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.

History

At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis. They later built additional warehouses across the bay in 1628, at the location which became known as L'Orient (the Orient in French). Later, the French East India Company, founded in 1664 and chartered by King Louis XIV, established shipyards there, thus giving an impetus to the development of the city. In 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession, Britain launched an unsuccessful Raid on Lorient to destroy French shipping.

In attempts to destroy German submarine pens (U-boat bases) and their supply lines, most of this city was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II (see section below). Thus, today's Lorient reflects an architectural style of the 1950s.

Geography

Lorient is located on the south coast of Brittany on the Atlantic Ocean. The rivers Blavet and Scorff enter the Atlantic Ocean at Lorient.

Population

With a population of 58,135 (urban area: 186,144) Lorient is the most populous commune in Morbihan, although the capital is the slightly smaller commune of Vannes.

Inhabitants of Lorient are called Lorientais.

Breton language

The municipality launched a linguistic plan through Ya d'ar brezhoneg on 25 January 2007.

In 2008, 2.71% of the children attended the bilingual schools in primary education.

Economy

Industry

Lorient has a major fishing port, Port de Pêche (Breton: Porzh Pesketa), at Keroman and the docks area at Kergroise handle large cargo and passenger ships.

Tourism plays an important part in the city's economy and there are several large yachting marinas around the bay. The annual Festival Interceltique de Lorient was founded in Lorient in 1971 and attracts large numbers of tourists to the area every summer (700 000 people came in 2009).

Lorient was a former base of the French Navy but these piers, docks, etc., have now been removed. However, many important former French naval buildings remain around the quayside.

Transport

Lorient South Brittany Airport is situated just west of the city at Lann Bihoue, and it has direct flights to several destinations, such as to Paris and Lyon. There are direct connections with Ireland in Summer.

The Gare de Lorient is the railway station, offering connections to Quimper, Nantes, Rennes, Paris (slightly less than 4 hours by TGV) and several regional destinations.

Keroman Submarine Base

The former submarine base at Keroman

Lorient was the location of a German U-boat base during World War II. Großadmiral Karl Dönitz decided to construct the base on 28 June 1940. Between February 1941 and January 1942 three gigantic reinforced concrete structures were built on the Keroman peninsula. They are called K1, K2 and K3. In 1944 work began on a fourth structure. The base was capable of sheltering thirty submarines under cover. Although Lorient was heavily damaged by Allied bombing raids, this naval base survived through to the end of the war. Lorient was held until May 1945 by the Nazi German army, even though this city was surrounded by the American Army, since the Germans there refused to surrender.

Since they could not destroy the base and its submarine pens, the Allies had decided to flatten the city and port of Lorient, in order to cut the supply lines to the U-boat bases. Between 14 January 1943 and 17 February 1943, as many as 500 high-explosive aerial bombs and more than 60,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Lorient. The city was almost completely destroyed.

Culture

Lorient was the birthplace of: Jean-Baptiste Chaigneau (1769-1832), sailor, adventurer, and Grand Mandarin in Vietnam Jules Simon (1814-1896), statesman and philosopher; and Marie-Léontine Bordes-Pène (1858-1924), pianist

Lorient is the home of a major Celtic music festival, the Festival Interceltique de Lorient. It is also the home of FC Lorient Bretagne Sud whose stadium, Stade du Moustoir, is in the city centre. In the 2006 Tour de France, Lorient hosted the end of Stage 8.

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

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

Lorient is twinned with:

• Galway, Ireland, since 1978
• Vigo, Spain
• Wirral, United Kingdom
• Ventspils, Latvia
• Ludwigshafen, Germany
• České Budějovice, Czech Republic
• Denizli, Turkey

See also

• Mississippi Company
• U-74
• FC Lorient
• Festival Interceltique de Lorient
• Arrondissement of Lorient
• Communes of the Morbihan department

References

• INSEE

Notes

External links

• Official website (in French)
• Keroman submarine base
• Festival Interceltique de Lorient
• French Ministry of Culture list for Lorient Template:Fr icon
• See pictures on Antonio Mucherino's web site
• Tourism office (in French)