Saint-Lo

Geography

Saint-Lo is located in the center of the Manche, in the middle of the Bocage saint-laws. The downtown area is located on a rocky outcrop in Schiste pertaining to the Armorican Massif which dominates the Vire. It is with the confluence of Dollée and Torteron, two now underground rivers (one always speaks about the street Torteron and the small valley of Dollée).

The city, in the past called Briovère , “ the bridge on Transfers ” in Celtic language, was born on a rocky outcrop in the confluence from the Vire, Pared and Torteron, in the Cotentin. This historical heart of the city became “the Enclosure”, a site adapted well to the civil defense.

In 1964, it absorbed two close villages, Holy-Cross-of-Saint-Lô and Saint-Thomas-of-Saint-Lô.

Climate

Saint-Lo profits from the oceanic soft climate characterized by soft winters and moderate summers.

It counts an average annual pluviometry from 800 to 900 mL/an. The rains are rather frequent throughout the year but more abundant in autumn and winter, in connection with the disturbances coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Seldom intense, they often fall in the form of Bruine (drizzle).

The average temperature is of 10°C.

in winter, the average temperature oscillates between 1°C and 7°C. One counts between 30 and 40 days of freezing per year.
in summer, the average temperature is located around 20°C.

Transport

Saint-Lo is located at the center of the department of the English Channel and thus constitutes a node of communication between North-Cotentin and the South-Handle.

At the road level :

Saint-Lo being located halfway axis Coutances-Bayeux (D972), a by-pass was brought into service in the years 1980 to allow the unchoking of the city by the south.

More recently, to disenclose the wearing of Cherbourg, the area and the department decided the construction of a 2×2 ways, the Trunk road 174. It constitutes a link of the European road E03 and allows a direct connection towards Rennes and Europe of the South by the exchanger of Guilberville. Today the southern section connects Saint-Lo directly to the highway A84, allowing a highway access towards Caen and Rennes. The startup of the northern section currently in work will allow as for him an access towards Cherbourg and England via the Trunk road 13. The construction of the 2×2 ways allowed the extension of the small southern by-pass towards the west and its change in genuine urban peripheral. It also allowed the creation and the extension of new zones of activities which strongly contributes to the current rise of the agglomeration.

Rail links :

Saint-Lo has a railway station with, in majority, of the connections passengers in direction of Caen via Lison and of Rennes via Dol of Brittany. Following the electrification of the railway section Lison-Saint-Lô, a non-stop line of train Saint-Lo/Paris Saint-Lazare could be tested during 2 years, with a daily return ticket.

One also counts a line closed down towards Condé-sur-Vire. This section is under the project of a bicycle-rail being next to the way of skirting towing Transfers it.

urban Grid system :

The urban transport is ensured by the Urban transport Saint-Lo Agneaux (TUSA), creates in 1980. The network is composed of four lines with 15 bus, for a total of 38km. In 2003, the company recorded more than 740.000 voyages.

Air transport :

In spite of its statute of prefecture, there does not exist aerodrome in the surroundings of the commune. Nearest is that of Lessay, and for an airport, it is necessary to join that of Caen-Carpiquet, Cherbourg-Maupertus or Rennes - Saint-Jacob.

River transport :

River transport on Transfers, which existed with barges which ensured the transport of pitches, is not from now on more possible.

History

Saint-Lo was a long time an important center of the economy Norman. It thus attracted the covetousness of the close people, in particular of the English, having for consequence of the many successive invasions. It lost its dominant position towards the end of the 19th century because it did not know to benefit from the first industrial revolution which on the contrary touched much the population mainly country. The policy of decentralization however makes it possible the town of return in the foreground.

Briovère

There exists the shape of habitat as of the Gallo-Roman time. The city was then called Briovère (or Briovera ), “the bridge on Transfers” in Celtic language. Occupied by the Gallic tribe of the Unelles of Cotentin, the city was conquered by the Romans directed by Quintus Titurius Sabinus in -56, after the defeat of their chief Viridovix with the Mont Castrates. The Romans then install fields in the neighborhoods as with Canisy, Marigny, Tessy-sur-Vire.

Then, the area was the theater of the various invasions saxonnes during the 3rd century. The Francs established only one administrative capacity there, Briovère having nevertheless the right to beat currency. The historian Claude Fauchet claims that Coutentin, of time mesme of our kings Mérovingiens, estoit inhabited by Sesnes ( Saxon ), pirates, and seems to have esté given up by Charliens, like variable and too esloigné of the correction of our kings, with Norman and other escumeurs of sea…

Christianity develops rather tardily; one counts only four bishops of Coutances before 511. After the death of the bishop Laud de Coutances, it is béatifié and was particularly honoured in Briovère, which would have sheltered its tomb. A pilgrimage was carried out there and the city taken then the name of Saint-Laud .

The Middle Ages

The Breton ones directed by the duke Solomon, started to occupy the west coast of Cotentin from 836. In front of their projections, in August 867, Charles II the Bald person then gave to Solomon Comitatus Constantiensis, territory on which it hardly had influence.

In 889, the Viking S go up Transfers it and besiege Saint-Lo. Protected by built solid ramparts one century before by Charlemagne, the city does not go. The attackers cut the water provision then, having for consequence the rendering of the inhabitants. The Vikings massacre the inhabitants, whose bishop of Coutances, then shave the city. The seat of the diocese was to be transported to Rouen. It is only in 1025 that the Herbert bishop decides to go up the walls of Saint-Lo and to restore the episcopal see.

Then, under Geoffroy de Montbray, the city knows a beautiful economic advancement, benefitting from the forwarding from Norman in Sicily. Robert Guiscard, a close relation of Geoffroy, brought back Apulie and of Calabria important spoils (it is thanks to this treasure that Geoffroy made rebuild in 1056 the cathedral of Coutances). Saint-Lo is famous for its Orfèvrerie S and even Mathilde of Flanders, the woman of William the Conqueror ordered two candelabra for the Abbaye with the Ladies. The population of the area took part in the Conquête of England.

With died of Henri I {{er}} Beauclerc in 1135, Etienne of Blois, count de Mortain and Geoffroy of Anjou dispute the legitimacy of the kingdom. Saint-Lo lines up at the sides of Etienne but was taken in 1139 by the army of Plantagenêt in only three days. The archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket passes to Saint-Lo and one dedicated a church to him of which there does not remain any trace except the street name Saint-Thomas. In 1204, Saint-Lo is subjected to Philippe-Auguste and becomes French. For this period of peace, the city thrived: one made build the hospital on the edges of the city and part of the Notre-Dame church. Saint Louis comes in the city twice, in 1256 and 1269. Saint-Lo is then the third town of Normandy behind Rouen and Caen. It is specialized:

in the Tannery S with the name of leather known as the cow of Saint-Lo . According to Toustain de Billy, the only trade of laces and leather aglets assemble in 1555 to a million;
in the Cutlery: A saying of known as “the Which voudroit to have good knife, It faudroit to go to Saint-Lo ”;
in the Goldsmithery
in the textile , one of the principal centers of France. One counts more: 2000 tisserands, located for the majority close to Pared, the river less powerful than Transfers it and with the more regular flow. One imports wool of all Cotentin. An ordinance of the June 20th 1460 fixes a special edge for cloths of Saint-Lo.

The September 24th 1351, the king Jean the Good creates a monetary workshop but the right to strike under the letter “S” only in 1389 receives. In January 1538, the letter “C” is allotted to him. The city was dispossessed of its monetary title in 1693, with the profit of Caen.

Then it is the return of the conflicts with the Guerre One hundred Year old. Geoffroy d' Harcourt, knight having of the franknesses in North-Cotentin, betrays the king of France and lends homage to Edouard III. In reaction, the barons Percy, Bacon and the Rock-Shard are decapitated in Paris and their heads will be exposed to Saint-Lo during two years. The English unload in Saint-Vaast-the-Hougue the July 12th 1346 then moves towards Saint-Lo the 22. Jean Froissart describes it “the large town of Saint-Leu in Constentin,… for time estoit hard rich and commercial”. The city was then again plundered. Then the city was struck by the great plague in 1347.

The town of Saint-Lo is reconquered in 1378 by Charles VI but it is lost the March 12th 1418. During this time of political disturbances, the small lords do not know any more with whom to support. And the French take again Saint-Lo for the account of Charles VII the September 12th 1449. The king confirming the statute of Duchy of Normandy, it is with the turn of the duke of Brittany to want to occupy the English Channel, but Saint-Lo pushes back an attack in victoriously 1467 by decimating part of the Breton troops locked up by surprised in the street Torteron. The November 9th 1469, the ducal ring is broken and Normandy is definitively integrated into the kingdom of France.

The period of peace was of return but Cotentin lost of its importance. One will note the arrival of François I {{er}} in 1532, which was acclaimed in front of the door of Neufbourg. At the 16th century, Protestantism gained the English Channel. Saint-Lo had a church reformed since 1555 and the first printed books will be Protestant works. The Huguenot S, holding Saint-Lo and Carentan, went to plunder Coutances in 1562 and were seized of the bishop Artus of Thimble-Brissac which was trailed in the town of Saint-Lo on an ass. But whereas the edict of pacification of Amboise had encouraged the city to subject to Charles IX, in February 1574, the Norman Protestants made of Saint-Lo their general headquarter. The troops led by the Maréchal of Matignon besieged the city on May 1st and passed to the attack ten days afterwards. One counted more than 500 dead whose chief Colombières, lord of Bricqueville but the large captain protesting Gabriel I {{er}} of Montgomery escaped by the door of Dollée. The city is yielded to Jacques II of Matignon which made build the citadel. The Révolte of the tramps shook a little the area in 1636, when the government wanted to extend the gabelle one to Cotentin.

The area thrived especially in the manufacture of savings known as “of estame”. In 1678, the relics of Laud Saint are brought back to Notre-Dame. The royal road between Paris and Cherbourg, built about 1761, passed to Saint-Lo, facilitating the trade. The French revolution of 1789 upset the administrative cutting of France and the place chief of the department was temporarily fixed at Coutances between 1794 and 1796. Saint-Lo taken the republican name of “ Rock of Freedom ” and a tree is planted on the field of March, arranged by without employment in 1970. The city is relatively saved during the mode of Terror and one counted only some clashes with the chouans.

The Napoleonean period saw the creation of the National stud farm ( to see low). In 1827, Marie Therese de France, duchess of Angouleme, passed by Saint-Lo and it was struck by the beauty of the landscape. It then projected to make come the sea to Saint-Lo while making navigable Transfers it. The creation of the Canal of Transfers and Taute in 1833 made it possible to establish the connection between Carentan and Saint-Lo. Then, by ordinance of July 10th, 1935, Transfers it was classified navigable. The baron Alfred Mosselman builds a port in Saint-Lo while recruiting nearly 250 military and captive prisoners Spanish. A building site of boats east creates and the traffic passed from 50 barrels in 1841 to more than 132 in 1846. Mosselman launched barges then and introduces on the inland waterway traction by the horses by arranging tow paths. Several goods are forwarded but mainly pitches it and lime coming from the careers dePont-Hébert and Cavigny. It thus made pass the production of lime of 1233 tons in 1841 to 30.000 in 1858. In 1867, the paper mill of Valvire is built close to the outfall and manufactured packing paper. It was destroyed by a fire in 1930 and factory it remains nothing any more but the chimney.

Saint-Lo was isolated layout of the railway line Paris-Cherbourg because its inhabitants, being afraid of industrial progress, refused a layout connecting them to Paris. It will be attached only in 1860 to the rail network. On the 19th century, Saint-Lo, in the middle of a rich person area cattle-rearing, was essential as a great place for the fairs on the animals but the fear of the rural population with respect to the industrial revolution bloqueait its development. The river traffic did not see forwarding any more but 53.000 tons of goods including only 6% of food products. One also noted an escape in the channel and Transfers it is displaced in 1926. The area undergoes an important rural migration and undergoes the human losses of the war of 1870 and the First World War. The paper mill of Valvire burned in the Thirties and will never be rebuilt. The demography of the department is very negative as from 1850. The city approached the second world war in a declining situation.

The capital of the ruins

France is invaded in 1940 and the 7th division of Panzer, ordered by Rommel, returns to Basse-Normandie. The objective being the catch of the wearing of Cherbourg, the center manchois is saved and Saint-Lo will go in the night of the June 17th 1940. During the occupation, the statue of Dairy the Norman, carried out by Arthur the Duke is unbolted and molten to make guns of them, in spite of an opposition of the town councilors.

In March 1943, the Germans decide to dig an underground under the rock. For the time being nobody are able to say which would have been the utility of underground and that to dig at the same time under Institut of Lamb. Workmen resulting from STO will be necessary until June 1944. On this date, the underground, in building site, will accommodate the patients of the hospital located just opposite and part of the population saint-loise. A German soldier is killed in January 1944 and several Saint-Laws are stopped; cinema, theater and bars are closed, the stations of confiscated TSF and fire covers it is advanced at 8 p.m. (Source Mr. Mignon Jean, Saint-Lo)

The Americans decided to bombard the city, located at a strategic crossroads but of relative importance, in the night from June 6th to 7th 1944. It was necessary to prevent the German reinforcements stationed in Brittany to be able to go up on the face. Released leaflets of warning the day before were dispersed by the wind on the common neighbors. Saint-Lo is shaven to 95% by aviation. More than 200 prisoners whose 76 patriots perished locked up (nowadays, only remains the door of the building). One counts more than one thousand of deaths.

Whereas the high command had fixed the catch of the prefecture 9 days after the unloading, the battles of the hedges strongly slows down the American progression. Moreover, strong bad weather, which took place around on July 9th, transforms the grounds into muddy fields. The conquest of Saint-Lo was entrusted to the 19th first American army corps, placed under the command of the Corlett general. July 15th, 1944, it gathers:

the 29 {{E}} division placed on the road of Bayeux, close to Martinville. It has at its head the Gehardt general.
the 30e division placed on the road of Périers, close to the Mesnil-Durand
the 35e division placed on the road of Isigny, having difficulties with Bridge-Hébert

Opposite, two army corps German are on the face of Saint-Lo: the 352 {{E}} division of infantry ordered by the Krais general and the 3rd division of the 2nd body of parachutists ordered by the general Eugen Meindl.

The 29e division tackled the North-eastern sector of Saint-Lo close to the Madeleine. A battalion directed by major Bingham, said the “ battalion lost ”, will be found insulated during a whole day without ammunition and with little food. One counted 25 wounded and only three male nurses whereas the German forces were very close. Planes have even due to release pockets of plasma. The hill of Martinville, as for it, was sprinkled continuously by German artillery. The July 17th, the 3rd battalion of the general Thomas D. Howie joined towards 4:30 the lost battalion. Hidden under the vegetation, the 3rd battalion had as an order to counteract the enemy shootings and to make use only of the bayonet. If the junction were successful, a mortar shell burst close to the Major, concerning mortally. The position was then heavily attacked, preventing any movement of the day.

July 17th, the Puntenney captain asked for the support of artillery and aviation to disperse the German troops. The GI, with court of ammunition, took all the same the crossroads of the Madeleine thanks to a deposit of mines, abandoned of the Germans. The 115e, as for him, circumvented the Alfalfa to spread itself in the bottom of the valley of Dollée. The July 18th, a company of the 116e restores the junction with the position of the Madeleine and the Germans fold up themselves in the West towards Rampan. A group of operation is placed under the direction of the general Norman D. Cota to form the Task force C . Around 3 p.m., the armoured tanks skirt the road of Isigny, follow-ups of the rows of soldiers. They arrived at Saint-Lo by the district of the rocker, close to the church Holy-Cross. The army gathered on the place of Field-of-March and controlled the strategic points of the east of Saint-Lo (road of Carentan, road of Torigni, road of Bayeux) around 6 p.m. Surprised by the speed, the Germans opposed only little resistance. Folded up on the slope of Lambs, the German artillery rams the crossroads saint-laws, in particular that of the Rocker, wounding several officers of which the Cotta general. Thus, the major Glover S. Johns, ordering the 1st battalion of the 115e decided to install the headquarters in the cemetery, in the basement of the funerary vault of the family Blanchet. One deposited the skin of major Howie on the remainders of the bell-tower of Holy-Cross to pay homage to his courage, him which had been promised to be the first soldier to enter the city. The following day, the soldiers surveyed the streets to flush out the German embusqués gunners, which tried without success a counter-attack in the night of 20. With 4:40, the 29e division leaves the city to the control of the 35e division.

The period post-war period

Destroyed in near total (97%), Saint-Lo accepted the not very enviable nickname of Capitale of the ruins , an expression evoked since 1946 by Samuel Beckett in a report for the Radio Eireann. The Notre-Dame church located on the ramparts carries still today the marks of the bombardments and the bloody confrontations which took place.

The population returns timidly in the city. One counts 180 inhabitants on August 12th, 1944 but the American authorities decide not to deliver an authorization of residence and tickets of supply. Begin a long work of clearing, in particular of the corpses of the inhabitants and soldiers which will last until October 15th. However, the persons in charge hesitated to rebuild Saint-Lo; indeed, some had the will to leave the ruins like a testimony of city martyrdom and to rebuild one new Saint-Lo further. The population refused, preferring réhabiter its city.

In April 1945, the Minister for the rebuilding Raoul Dautry recommended the provisional construction of huts out of wooden. These huts are built thanks to the generosity of the gifts. Thus, the association of the Swiss Gift released an appropriation of 620.000 Swiss francs to build dwellings and a social center. October 10th, 1949, the Suisse offers a gold ingot to the city which will bring back 649.490 francs. One counts in 1948 ten cities, sometimes made up of more than 70 houses. The huts were delivered in kit and it was enough to assemble them on the spot. Each one had different specificities according to their origin (Swedish, Finnish, Swiss, French, American, Canadian).

The Irish Croix-Rouge took part in the construction of a hospital made up of 25 buildings (located at the level of the Pasteur college) and unloaded 174 tons of material. The hospital was inaugurated on Sunday, April 7, 1946 and the Irish medical team left Saint-Lo at the beginning of January 1947. This hospital, composed of huts out of wooden, functioned until 1956.

In 1948, it is now necessary to rebuild in hard Saint-Lo. That will be done on the basis of plan conceived by the architect as a chief of the rebuilding André Hilt (deceased in 1946), which had proposed to preserve the general screen of the city by adapting it to the modern needs. The president Vincent Auriol poses the first hones four whole right after the unloading.

The Americans, at the origin of the bombardment, decide to build a modern hospital. The plans are carried out by the architect Paul Nelson, decided to build a building of contemporary style. Located road of Villedieu, work starts since 1949. It is completed only on May 10th, 1956. A monumental mosaic is carried out by Fernand Leger, which pays homage to peace and the Franco-French friendship: two hands are tightened towards Cotentin symbolized by a branch of apple tree in flower.

November 29th, 1949, the journalist Frederic Pottecher subjects the assumption not to move the prefecture of the English Channel in Saint-Lo. It should be said that during the rebuilding, this one is placed temporarily at Coutances. The whole of the population reacts and a petition collected more than 2.400 signatures: In the newspaper the Alarm clock, an article quotes

Thus return to Saint-Lo, Mister! Not for the burial, but to see the prefecture, the building sites, the plans, the notch of the disaster victims. You will see with which heat the Saint-Laws will know to you botter the buttocks

. The prefecture will return to Saint-Lo in 1953 in new buildings.

Saint-Lo is rebuilt. The style dominating was a functionalist néo-regionalism, where the concrete dominates. If this choice, dictated by the circumstances and the immediate problems of the housing of the Saint-Laws, leaves regrets today, it makes of Saint-Lo, with more small scales that Le Havre or Lorient, one of testimonys more striking period of the Rebuilding. The commune benefits from the economic advancement of the glorious Thirty and the population increases by 30% between 1968 and 1975. One builds districts of building in the small valley of Dollée and the valley Midsummer's Day. The theater as for him is inaugurated in 1963. The city continues its expansion by absorbing the two common neighbors (Holy-Cross-of-Saint-Lô and Saint-Thomas-of-Saint-Lô). The place of the town hall is completely refitted in the years 1990. The city organizes at the time of the fiftieth birthday of the unloading a great demonstration. The edges of Vire are refitted with the rehabilitation of the way of towing and the creation of a green beach, places quay at Tangue. A Gabarre was rebuilt and furrows besides the river, like remembering the old river activity. In 2004, the zone of Boisjugan, made up of fields, is urbanized with the creation of dwellings within a framework of safeguarding of parks and a great watery center.

Administration of the town of Saint-Lo since 1784

During the Revolution

For the revolutionary period, the destruction of the majority of the files does not make it possible to lead to a final result.

Empires and Restoration

IIIe Republic

Since 1944

In 1944, the municipal council is suspended and a municipal delegation, chaired by Georges Lavalley, is charged to manage the city temporarily.

Demography

Nombre retained starting from 1962: Population without double accounts

Heraldic

Blazon of the town of Saint-Lo:

“Of mouths to the projecting Unicorn of money, to the chief of azure charged with three flowers of gold lily. ” The unicorn symbolizes the purity of the Virgin Mary to which the city was devoted. The flowers of lily were granted by the king Louis XI to thank Saint-Lo for its fidelity to the crown of France.

One also finds, in the place of the chief of France, a canton of azure to money star.

Economy

The city, crossroads between Caen, Cherbourg and Rennes have a natural vocation of place on the market in the center of the scrap-metal manchois. Town of craftsmen and trade, which owes part of its prosperity with its statute of prefecture, it knew only one late industrialization and tries to affirm today its place in regional agribusiness industry. In spite of that, the country saint-laws became one of the least industrial basins of the area. Its unemployment rate of 6,7% mask also an exodus of the young workers towards the area of Caen and Rennes.

The service entrance of the Trunk road 174 made it possible to disenclose the Manche center and to create a new industrial park (ZAC Neptune).

Industries

Lecapitaine : manufacture of automobie bodies and refrigerating - 320 employees - CA 33 M€.
Moulinex : the Moulinex factory was a long time the largest factory of Saint-Lo. When the group went bankrupt in 2004, the factory was filialisée and called general Compagnie of the electrical motors which was repurchased by Euromoteurs. The site saint-laws employed 150 employees and manufactured electrical motors of small and average power. However, Euromoteurs was put in liquidation in 2007.
Softway: Machine chip cards. 80 paid in February 2007. Currently machine in construction. Pascal Baisnée, the chairman of Softway, is one of the actors of the Pole protected electronic transactions.

Tertiary sector

The town of Saint-Lo is very directed towards the services, thus since the fall of Moulinex, the Hospital Memorial United States France became the first employer of the city. There exists much of employment in the administrations related to its statute of prefecture.

Its situation in the middle of the scrap-metal enables him to accommodate related services with agriculture historically: One can note the presence of one of the seats of the Crédit Agricole of Normandy, but also Groupama the quite visible insurer of the roundabout of Major Howie and the Agricultural Social insurance system. Lastly, of many trade developed along the peripheral.

Agriculture and Agro-alimentary Pole

The city accommodates linked activities with the breeding of bovines and horses. Each week, a cattle market is held in the foirail installed close to Ronchettes.

The city also has the Center of Promotion of the breeding, located beside the stud farm, which accommodates each year in August the horse show of Normandy Horse Show.

The agro-alimentary Pôle was developed since 1990 with an aim of accueuillir companies of this sector, multiple public agencies or parapublic were thus created:

Adria Normandy: Center technical council with agribusiness industries.
the agroalimentary seedbed.
the LILANO: Dairy Interprofessional laboratory of Normandy.
the agroalimentary Pole of formation of Saint-Lo, an extension of the agricultural college of Thère.
the ARDEFA: Regional association for the Development of l´Emploi and the Formations in food industries.
the agroalimentary workshop of rotation.
agroalimentary Park of Saint-Georges Montcocq/Mesnil Rouxelin.

For the moment, only success in the agro-alimentary field is the success of the company France Kébab which obtained many prices in 2007.

Education

The town of Saint-Lo concerns the Académie of Caen.

I.U.T.

The antenna of Saint-Lo is an element of IUT Cherbourg Manche and proposes on this site the following formations:

HAD Services and communication networks
HAD thermal Genius and energy
professional License development and protection of the cultural heritage, option Virtual reality and multi-media Formation
professional License management maintenance and industrial exploitation.

Part of Group FIM, training company of the CCI of the Center South-Handle and that of Cherbourg.

Culture in Saint-Lo

Places

Arts center Jean Lurçat: médiatèque, museum of the fine arts, auditorium, art school and house of associations.
municipal Music school
Theater Roger Ferdinand
Normandy: current concert hall of Pluri-artistic Music
Places Art-Feather with the small valley of Pared the

Events

Asian Festival culture and manga (in February)
Fair with the Crusts (in September): exposure and sale of tables of local artists and vacuum-attic
the Heteroclite ones (in June): theater of street, acrobatics, music, in the bucolic environment of the small valley of Pared.
sonic Appointments (in November): festival of music.
Polyfollia, festival of choir singing.

Personalities related to the commune

Births

Jacques Of the Perron, poet and diplomatic
Daniel Saint, miniaturist of the
Edouard-Léonor Havin, lawyer and member of Convention
Urbain the Glassmaker, astronomer and mathematician, born in Saint-Lo in 1811, where it will spend the first years of his childhood. A plate is installed place of Field-of-March, on the building where he lived
Alexandre Blanchet
Octave Layer (1821-1890), writer, was born and died in Saint-Lo. Its native house always exists, 2 rue Saint-Georges. Novelist and playwright with success under the Second Empire, it was regarded as “the middle-class writer” of this time, and was elected with the French Academy at only 40 years
Valerie Feuillet (1832-1906), woman of letters and wife of the precedent
Jacques Datin, French type-setter who wrote for France Gall, Juliette Gréco, Serge LAMA, Claude Nougaro, Edith Piaf etc
Jean Teulé, Romancier French, which also practiced the Cinéma and the Télévision.
Jacky Vimond, first French pilot of Motocross to becoming world champion in 1986
Eric Levallois, riding gold medal by team with the world equestrian Plays 2002
Florian Angot and Reynald Angot, riding members of the team of France to the Olympic Games of Athens
Hugues Duboscq, swimmer French bronze medal on 100 m brews with the Olympic Games of summer of 2004
Mathieu Johann (), French singer resulting from season 4 of the Star Academy
Alexis Loret, actor French who played in particular in the Mariages film! with Jean Dujardin and Mathilde Seigner
Jean-Marie Hervagault, born in Saint-Lo, probable bastard of Honore IV of Grimaldi, False Dolphin

Others

Jean Follain, writer, devoted a book, heading Chef-lieu (1950), in Saint-Lo where it passed his adolescence. Many documents are gathered with the museum of the Art schools of the city.
Samuel Beckett, writer, who engages as officer of intendance at the Irish hospital of Saint-Lo. It dedicated four worms now engraved to the entry of the Museum of the Art schools:

Paul-Jacques Bonzon, novelist for youth.

current prince de Monaco, Albert II, carries among its many titles that of baron of Saint-Lo.

Sport

Sporting disciplines

FC Saint-Lo Handle: the team of Football of the town of Saint-Lo evolves/moves in 2006 in the top of CFA2. The club plays in recent the Stade Louis Villemer.
Jimmer' S of Saint-Lo: the team of Base-ball evolves/moves in 2006 in the Championnat of France elite
the Normandy horse show is a great appointment of horsemanship for the promotion of the saddle horse. The annual event proceeds around the week of August 15th.
the TEAM Nissan France Unsolders, directed by André Dessoude, takes part each year in the championship of Rally-raid, of which the Rallye Dakar. In 2002, it engages Johnny Hallyday.
ASPTT Saint-Lo Handball evolves/moves in 2006 in the Championnat of France of Handball de Nationale 3.
Rugby Club Saint-Laws

Equipment

Sports complex of Saint-Ghislain (old covered swimming pool street of the Exodus):

Room of Haltérophilie
Room of Boxing Marcel Cerdan
Stage
Course of Tennis

Gymnasium Andre Guilbert - Marshal June
Room of gymnastics of Burning Wood & Dojo Alain Crépieux - Place Georges Pompidou
Room of table tennis - street of Complex Mesnilcroc
of Vaucelle: Stage Jean Berthelem - Base of Canoe Kayak
Stage Louis Villemer - Ronchettes: Ground of Foot
Stage of the Dawn - Ronchettes: Ground of Rugby
Sporting Center Fernand Beaufils - Fields of Mars: room of Tennis shoe
watery Center - Wood Jugan
Course of Tennis of the Memorial Tennis Club - Hospital Memorial France-State-Plain
Riding school of Gourmette Saint-Loise
Squash - Jugan Wood (close to the watery center)

Places and monuments

Ramparts

Ramparts remain on three on the four sides of the Enclosure. Southern part, the disaster of 1944 had the paradoxical effect to release the base from it, where houses had pushed, street of Torteron. The tower of the Beautiful-Glances, which offers a panorama on Transfers with the south-west and the tower of the Explosives magazine, impressive military vestige, are the two most remarkable elements of the ramparts. , it was used for more with haranguer crowd that to deliver the religious sermon. It is made up of a tank with five panel of blazing decoration surmounted by an arrow with hooks of sheets of ferns.

Put aside the plundering of the church in 1562 by the Protestants, the building does not undergo major degradations before 1944. With the July 18th, after the wild combat of the Release, the building was destroyed with nearly 50%: nave discovered of its cover and its vaults, frontage broken down following the bombardment of the Northern tower by German artillery. Only the Southern tower without its arrow, the chorus and the low sides remained about intact upright.

The restoration of the church (1944-1974) was long and difficult because of a change in the party taken of restoration during the building site. After the first emergency work, the architect of the Historic buildings Louis Barbier prepares a reconstruction project with identical western frontage by recovering most of the cut stones of origin. But in 1947, it is replaced by Yves-Marie Froidevaux, who proposes in 1953 the principle of keeping the ruin of the western frontage and of making a memorial against the war of it. This project will be fought locally. However, for financial reasons and by lassitude, the municipal council ends up giving his agreement. A blind pinion wall “healing” out of green schist of North-Cotentin east built in withdrawal of the disappeared frontage. Confronted with unforeseen difficulties (size of the stone) the building site will not be completed that in 1972 with the installation of three doors historiées out of bronze thus attenuating the severity of the unit which makes regret the disappearance of the historical frontage.

The restored church accepted its new dedication at the time of the 30e birthday of the Release. In 1994, at the time of the 50e birthday, the painter Bruno Dufour-Coppolani drew up a provisional fabric painted with the site of the disappeared frontage. The interior on the other hand was restored with a very great care.

The worthy statue of Notre Dame of the Pillar, in thousand pieces at the time of the disaster, was saved and placed at the bottom of the sanctuary. The organ goes back to 1968. The dresser does not have any interest but the instrument reharmonized by Alfred Kern is excellent.

The Notre-Dame church thus became the memorial of the destruction of the town of Saint-Lo: the restitution with identical of its old frontage to two turns and arrows would be the symbol of peace and reconciliation which the old “capital of the ruins” would need for its future identity. . As of its origin, the deposit was installed on buildings and grounds to close down old abbey Holy-Cross (3 initially rented ha then had starting from September 22nd, 1807). The stud farm then recruited reproducers resulting from the Haras of the Pine. In 1826, the deposit of goes up military settles in the buildings which the Stud farm yields to him; the majority of the standards leave the stud farm to provide the cavalry on May 28th, 1874, the law Boscher makes it possible to supervise the equipments of the regiments and makes it possible to equip the stud farm of more than 230 horses. June 28th, 1881, the municipal council decides to transfer the stud farm at the edge of the road from Bayeux.

Thus, the current buildings of stud farm go back to 1884 (poses first hones on June 11th, 1884) and the transfer is finished three years later. At the time of the First World War, five mares out of six will be requisitioned, but no standard. The Palefrenier S fought with the face and of the German prisoners dug a pond.

In 1939, the old stud farm lodged the manpower of the Stud farm of Strasbourg (40 standards and personnel) at the time of the German opening. Then, in 1944, fifty horses were killed by the bombardments and other standards were concealed by the German soldiers in escape. The old stud farm was destroyed and claimed by the city; thus, of the building only the name of the " remains; street of the Haras" Old man;. The new stud farm was rebuilt; the general de Gaulle offered to the sultan of Morocco Bois de rose , a English Pur-sang stationing since two years with the stud farm. Then the stud farm developed gradually in the field of the reproduction, while investing in a center of artificial insemination, a center of congelation of seed and a unit of transfer of embryo. Thus, the district of Saint-Lo to the strongest density of breeding of the deposits of France.

The place of the town hall

Altered in 1990, the place is all out of black bitumen lit by spots on the ground. The night it resembles a track of airport.

One can see in top of the place the statue of the dairy one. Arthur the Duke (1848 - 1918) presents in 1887 the plaster of a statue, a woman Norman marked by the difficult work of the ground, its kanne on the shoulder. A few years later, bronze arrives at Saint-Lo. It is posed on a round base, surrounded by a basin, on the place of the Beautiful-Glances in front of the Notre-Dame church. She moved a little further when one installed the Poilu Great War. Then, it was unbolted and molten on February 8th, 1942 by the Germans to build guns. In January 1984, Andre Leplanquais, a tradesman saint-laws, wished to create a new counterpart of this statue. A basic collection caused important gifts on behalf of the inhabitants. Once the joined together money, the sculptor Louis Derbré refashioned the statue according to original plans. Several times moved, one can find it close to the staircases of the place. The granite base and basin are of origin.

Just at side the door of the prison is, vestiges of the bombardments of 1944. A ballot box containing of ashes of deportees is placed at the foot of the door. Memorial in the honor of the victims of repression Nazi, it became the departmental monument of the Résistance.

One can also observe on the place the Beffroi which seems to spout out heart of the city. Built in 1954, one formerly made there dry the pipes of the firemen. Renovated in 1990, it is the symbol of the rebuilding of the city. A wind vane in the shape of Unicorn and a table of orientation are at the top of which one can admire all the area. Previously opened with the public by the tourist office, its access is from now on prohibited.

The castle of Vaucelle

Located at the edge of Transfers, the castle belongs to the descendants of the memorialist saint-laws of the 17th century Luc Duchemin. The Holy-Pernelle vault is the work of a lord of Vaucelle Jean Boucart, confessor of Louis XI and founder of the parochial library of Saint-Lo which was for the time the second library of Normandy by its importance.

Three kings resided at Vaucelle: Edouard III in 1346, at the beginning of the War One hundred Year old because the king found the city nonsure, François Ier at the time of his visit in 1532 and Charles IX.

The museum of the Art schools

Built by the architect Eugene Leseney, the Arts center Jean Lurçat is located on the place of the field of March, opposite the church Holy-Cross.

It shelters since 1989 the museum of the Art schools where the collections of the city are found: writings and sketch of Jean Follain, fabrics of Corot, Guillaume Fouace, Eugene Boudin. Are also exposed the hanging of the Loves of Gombault and Macé (16th), made up of eight tapestries coming from the Workshops from Bruges.

The museum of the Norman scrap-metal

The farm of Boisjugan is a farm of the 17th century which was in activity until 1970.

Converted into museum, it recalls the history and the ethnography of agriculture in the Norman scrap-metal since 18th by presenting husbandries, the breeding of the horse and the cow. The typical places are rebuilt there (workshop, stable, cattle shed, butter factory).

The Madeleine vault

The Madeleine vault is located just beside the national stud farm, on the road of Bayeux. It is the vestige of an old leper-house of the 14th century. It was classified historic building in 1974 and was restored between 1988 and 1994.

A memorial is inaugurated in May 1995 in the honor of the soldiers of the 29e and 35e which released Saint-Lo in 1944. Photographs, commemorative plaques, tables and flags are exposed there.

Parks and green areas

The commune is a flowered city having obtained three flowers with the Concours of the cities and flowered villages.

the public garden : it is located in the Enclosure, between the tower of the beautiful-glances and the administrative city. The point of view is impregnable on Transfers and the street Torteron.
the islands of Transfers : the Lebroussois island and the Moselman island are separated by the outfall. A arboretum was planted with the foot of the brick chimney, only vestige of the paper mill which burned in the years 1930.
the way of hâlage : between the station and the bridge of Rocreuil, many Saint-Laws make them jogging. One can see the castle of Vaucelle there.
the small valley of Pared the : with the foot of the road of Lison, one finds there a level and a mill with paddle as well as a course health. It is also the framework of the festival of the " hétéroclites".
the village of Hutrel : in the middle of the scrap-metal saint-laws Hutrel and its place accommodate the festival of the village each year the Ascension Day.

Twinnings

The city is twinned with:

See too

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