Rochefort is a commune in south-western
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, a seaport on the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
. It is a
sub-prefectureSubprefectures are the administrative towns of arrondissements in France that do not contain the prefecture for its department. Subprefecture is also the name given to the building which houses the administrative headquarters for the arrondissement....
of the
Charente-MaritimeCharente-Maritime is a department on the west coast of France named after the Charente River.- History :Previously a part of Saintonge, Charente-Inférieure was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
départementIn the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies, a department is an administrative division roughly analogous to an English district or a Scottish region. The 100 French departments are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas...
.
In December 1665 Rochefort was chosen by
Jean-Baptiste ColbertJean-Baptiste Colbert served as the French minister of finance from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. He was described by Mme de Sévigné as "Le Nord", because he was cold and unemotional. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister...
as a place of "refuge, defense and supply" for the French navy. Its military harbour was fortified by
Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
's commissary of fortifications
VaubanSébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban , commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and in breaking through them...
. Between 1666-1669 the king had the "Corderie Royale" (then the longest building in Europe) constructed to make cordage for French ships of war.
Rochefort is a commune in south-western
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, a seaport on the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
. It is a
sub-prefectureSubprefectures are the administrative towns of arrondissements in France that do not contain the prefecture for its department. Subprefecture is also the name given to the building which houses the administrative headquarters for the arrondissement....
of the
Charente-MaritimeCharente-Maritime is a department on the west coast of France named after the Charente River.- History :Previously a part of Saintonge, Charente-Inférieure was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
départementIn the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies, a department is an administrative division roughly analogous to an English district or a Scottish region. The 100 French departments are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas...
.
History
In December 1665 Rochefort was chosen by
Jean-Baptiste ColbertJean-Baptiste Colbert served as the French minister of finance from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. He was described by Mme de Sévigné as "Le Nord", because he was cold and unemotional. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister...
as a place of "refuge, defense and supply" for the French navy. Its military harbour was fortified by
Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
's commissary of fortifications
VaubanSébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban , commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and in breaking through them...
. Between 1666-1669 the king had the "Corderie Royale" (then the longest building in Europe) constructed to make cordage for French ships of war. The making of cordage ceased in 1867, and in 1926 the
arsenalAn arsenal is an establishment for the construction, repair, storage and issue of weapons and ammunition. The word arsenal appears in various forms in Romance languages , i.e. Italian arsenale, Spanish arsenal etc.; Italian also has arzana and darsena, and Spanish a longer form atarazanal...
of Rochefort was closed. The building was burned by occupation forces in 1944 and left abandoned for twenty years. Today it has been restored for municipal and tourist purposes. Another infrastructure of early Rochefort from 1766 was its
bagne, a high-security
penal colonyA penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by locating them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
involving hard labour.
Bagnes were then common fixtures in military harbours and naval bases, such as
ToulonToulon is a city in southern France and a large military harbour on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base...
or
BrestBrest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in north-western France.Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, Brest is an important seaport and naval base. The 1999 census recorded 303,484 inhabitants of the Brest metropolitan area, while the...
, because they provided free labour. During the Jacobin period of the French Revolution (1790-95) over 800 Roman Catholic priests and other religious who refused to take the anti-Papal oath of the "Civil Constitution of the Clergy" were put aboard a fleet of prison ships in Rochefort harbor where most died due to inhumane conditions. This was in effect one of the first "Concentration Camps" in the world.
Off Rochefort, from the island of
Île-d'AixÎle-d'Aix is a small island in the Atlantic, off the west coast of France. It is also the name of the commune of the Charente-Maritime département which occupies the territory of the island. It has a population of only 186 and an area of about 300 acres...
where he had spent several days hoping to flee to America, Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to Captain
F. L. MaitlandRear Admiral Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland, KCB was an officer in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He rose to the rank of rear admiral and held a number of commands...
aboard
HMS BellerophonThe first HMS Bellerophon of the Royal Navy was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line launched on 6 October 1786 at Frindsbury on the River Medway, near Chatham. She was built at the shipyard of Edward Greaves to the specifications of the Arrogant, designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1758, the lead ship...
, on 17 July 1815, ending the "
Hundred DaysThe Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Napoleon Bonaparte's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
".
Rochefort is a notable example of 17th-century "ville nouvelle" or
new townA new town, planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion.Navi Mumbai, a planned city near Indian city...
, which means its design and building resulted from a political decree. The reason for building Rochefort was to a large extent that royal power could hardly depend on rebellious Protestant
La RochelleLa Rochelle is a city in south-western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department....
, which Cardinal Richelieu had to
besiegeThe Siege of La Rochelle was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627-1628...
a few decades earlier. Well into the 20th century, Rochefort remained primarily a garrison town. The tourist industry, which had long existed due to the town's spa, gained emphasis in the 1990s.
Miscellaneous
The town gained some fleeting fame with
Jacques DemyJacques Demy was one of the most approachable filmmakers to appear in the wake of the French New Wave. Uninterested in the formal experimentation of Alain Resnais, or the political agitation of Jean-Luc Godard, Demy instead created a self-contained fantasy world closer to that of François...
's musical movie
Les demoiselles de RochefortThe Young Girls of Rochefort is a 1967 musical film directed by Jacques Demy, starring Catherine Deneuve, her sister Françoise Dorléac , Jacques Perrin, Michel Piccoli, Danielle Darrieux, George Chakiris, Grover Dale and Gene Kelly...
(
The Young Girls of Rochefort) (1967), starring
Catherine DeneuveCatherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of beautiful ice maidens for various directors, including Luis Buñuel and Roman Polanski. Deneuve won two César Awards for her performances in Le Dernier Métro and Indochine . She has also received BAFTA and Academy...
, her slightly elder sister
Françoise DorléacFrançoise Dorléac was a French actress.Born in Paris, she was the daughter of screen actor Maurice Dorléac and Renée Deneuve, and the elder sister of Catherine Deneuve...
,
Gene KellyEugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer....
and
George ChakirisGeorge Chakiris is an American dancer and film actor.-Early life:Chakiris was born in Norwood, Ohio to Steven and Zoe Chakiris, immigrants from Greece. Chakiris studied at the American School of Dance....
(Bernardo from
West Side StoryWest Side Story is a 1961 American film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, which itself was adapted from Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, and...
).
It is home to a unique style of bridge called a
Transporter bridgeA transporter bridge is a type of movable bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river. The gondola is slung from a tall span by wires or a metal frame. The design has been used to cross navigable rivers or other bodies of water, where there is a requirement for ship traffic to be...
, (built 1900) named
Pont transbordeur de Rochefort.
http://www.fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_transbordeur_de_Rochefort
Births
Rochefort was the birthplace of:
- Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville
Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville was a French admiral and a hero of the American Revolutionary War and of the Napoleonic wars.-Early life:...
(1745-1804), French admiral.
- Charles Rigault de Genouilly
Pierre-Louis-Charles Rigault de Genouilly was a nineteenth-century French admiral. He fought with distinction in the Crimean War and the Second Opium War, but is chiefly remembered today for his command of French and Spanish forces during the opening phase of the Cochinchina campaign , which...
(1807-1873), French admiral, conqueror of VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
.
- Pierre Loti
Pierre Loti , born January 14, 1850 in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime and died June 10, 1923 in Hendaye, was a French novelist and naval officer.-Biography:...
(1850-1923), author. His house has been turned into a museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
- Pauline Réage
Anne Desclos was a French journalist and novelist who wrote under the pseudonyms Dominique Aury and Pauline Réage.-Early life:...
, pseudonym of Anne Desclos (1907-1998), author
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger in addition to being closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir...
(1908–1961), philosopher
Town Twinning
Burton upon TrentBurton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a large town straddling the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. Its associated adjective is "Burtonian".Burton is best known for its brewing heritage...
,
East StaffordshireEast Staffordshire is a local government district with borough status in Staffordshire in England. It has two main towns, Burton upon Trent, famous for its breweries, and Uttoxeter, for its racecourse....
, UK
TorrelavegaTorrelavega is a municipality and important industrial and commercial hub in the single province Autonomous Community of Cantabria in northern Spain....
,
CantabriaCantabria is a Spanish province and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria belongs to...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
PapenburgPapenburg is a city in the district of Emsland in Lower Saxony, Germany, situated at the river Ems. It is known for its large shipyard, the Meyer-Werft, which specializes in building cruise liners.- Districts :...
,
Lower SaxonyLower Saxony lies in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen Bundesländer of Germany...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
Points of interest
- Musée National de la Marine
The Musée National de la Marine in Rochefort is one of the main Navy museum of France.It is part of a network of 5 Navy museums in France, the others being in Paris , Toulon, Brest and Port-Louis....
- Conservatoire du Bégonia
The Conservatoire du Bégonia is a botanical garden specializing in begonias. It is located at 1 rue Charles Plumier, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France, and open for guided tours several days per week in early spring and late fall; an admission fee is charged.The conservatory...
, the world's largest begoniaBegonia is a genus in the flowering plant family Begoniaceae. The only other members of the family Begoniaceae are Hillebrandia, a genus with a single species in the Hawaiian Islands, and the genus Symbegonia which more recently was included in Begonia...
collection
- Palmyre Zoo
La Palmyre Zoo is one of the most popular zoos in France and one of the most recommended in Europe. It was created in 1966 in the forest of the commune of Les Mathes, near Royan, by its founder Claude Caillé...
- L'Hermione, a replica of a 1779 frigate being built in the town
External links