Nantes

Nantes, the eighth in size of the cities of France, capital of the department of Loire-Inférieure, lies on the right bank of the tidal Loire (here 2000 yards wide, and joined by the navigable Erdre and Sèvre-Nantaise), 35 miles from the sea, and 248 by rail SW. of Paris. The natural beauties of the site have been much improved by art, and, the old town having been demolished between 1865 and 1870, Nantes is one of the handsomest cities in all France, with its noble river, quays, bridges, shady boulevards, squares, and statues. The unfinished cathedral (1434-1852) contains Colomb's splendid monument (1507) to the last Duke and Duchess of Brittany, and another (1879) to General Lamoricère. The ducal castle, founded in 938, and rebuilt in 1466, was the occasional residence of Charles VIII. and most of his successors, the prison of Cardinal de Retz and Fouquet, and the place where on 15th April 1598 Henry IV. signed the famous Edict of Nantes, which gave freedom of religion to the Huguenots (q.v.), and whose revocation by Louis XIV. on 18th October 1685 drove 400,000 French into exile. Other noteworthy buildings are the splendid church of St Nicholas (1854), the palais de justice (1853), the theatre (1787), and the new post-office (1884), besides a museum, a picture-gallery, and a library of 50,000 volumes. Between 1831 and 1887 £180,000 was expended on harbour-works, but the rise since 1845 of the port of St Nazaire (q.v.), near the mouth of the Loire, and the increasing difficulty in the navigation of the river, have combined with depression of trade to reduce the commercial importance of Nantes; to restore which is the object of the ship-canal (1891) between the two places. The chief exports are hardware, cereals, and preserved provisions, the chief imports sugar, iron, cocoa, and wines; and their value respectively in 1872 was £2,200,000 and £2,800,000, in 1889 only £560,000 and £2,100,000. Shipbuilding also has greatly fallen off, but still is one of the leading industries, together with the preparation of sardines, and the manufacture of sugar, leather, iron, nets, soap, machinery, &c.; whilst 10 miles below Nantes is the vast government steam-engine factory of Indret, employing from 2000 to 3000 hands, and familiar to every reader of Daudet's Jack. Pop. of Nantes (1872) 112,947; (1891) 115,608. The Portus Namnetum of the Romans, and the former capital of Brittany—a rank it disputed with Rennes—Nantes has witnessed the marriage of Anne of Brittany to Louis XII. (1499), the embarkation of the Young Pretender (1745), the 'noyades' of the execrable Carrier (q.v.), the fall of the Vendéan leader Cathélineau (1793), and the arrest of the Duchess of Berri (1832). Fouché was a native. See works by Travers (1844) and Mellier (1872).