Saint-Briac

Saint-Briac is a common French, located in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine and the area Brittany.

The commune is also called Saint-Briac-on-Sea ; what underlines its character of littoral commune. The denomination Breton of the city east Sant-Briag .

Its inhabitants is called the Briacins .

Geography

History

The name of Saint-Briac comes from a saint named Briac, originating in Ireland.

Briac unloads in Brittany with Saint Tugdual on the coast of the Leon towards 548. At the village of the Vault would have been built, seems it, a vault or an oratory as well as a called cross “Saint-Palm”.

The Paroisse is mentioned for the first time in 1271. It is about a dismemberment of the primitive parish of Pleurtuit and it depended on the évêché of Saint-Malo.

In XVIe century and until the Revolution, the family Of Breil de Pontbriand was the only lords of Saint-Briac-on-Sea. On September 4th and 5th 1758, a fleet British, strong of more than 113 ships and ordered by the Admiral Richard Howe, unloads in the Handle of the Pit, in the east of the Guerin Guard as Saint-Briac, a body of more than 9.000 men (even 13.000) under the orders of the general Thomas Bligh whom the duke accompanied by York, the future king Georges III. She establishes a camp at the Village of the Punt-Rock (Saint-Lunar), after having plundered Saint-Briac and her surroundings: she set fire to the villages as Saint-Briac of the Pit, Mesnil, the Way and the City-with-Cock.

Saint-Briac is called Port-Briac during the French revolution.

As show it the tables of the great painters of the end of the 19th century and the photographs of time, the coast, before the establishment of holidays, was deprived of trees: they are the new estival residents who planted all kinds of species and thus decorated the site.

Recently, the commune became famous in the United States, because the Forbes family has there a field in Essarts, which is the international seat of the family of the descendants of James Grant Forbes, a member of the Famille Forbes, born with Shanghai, originating in the China and Boston which was established in Brittany in Essarts. He is the famous grandfather of two politicians, Brice Lalonde, candidate ecologist with the French presidential elections of 1981, and John Forbes Kerry, democratic candidate to be a president of the United States of America. Many family members of Forbes spent the summer holidays to Brittany in this family field. Essarts were occupied and employ as an head office of a company Nazi during the Second world war. When the Germans left, they bombarded and burned Essarts . The field was rebuilt in 1954.

Economy

Saint-Briac is a Seaside resort with a strong tourist activity.

Administration

The city has as a mayor, since June 1995, Brice Lalonde, former minister for the Environment, founder of Génération ecology, former candidate with the presidential election of 1981, recipient, by his mother, of the manor of the foundation Forbes Essarts, to which also his/her first cousin belongs John Kerry, senator of the Massachusetts, democratic candidate with the American presidential election of 2004, which knows very well the residence and the area).

|- | align=left| 1971 - 1977 || Mr. Bourgeois ||align=" center" | || |- | align=left| 1977 -? || Mr. Ogé ||align=" center" | || |- | align=left| ? - 1983 || Mr. Taisne ||align=" center" | || |- | align=left| 1983 - 1989 || Mr. Debonnet ||align=" center" | || |- | align=left| 1989 - June 1995 || Mr. the Arm ||align=" center" | || |- | align=left| June 1995 - March 2001 || Brice Lalonde || GE || |- | align=left| March 2001 - today|| Brice Lalonde || GE ||

Demography

Particular monuments and places

the church Saint-Briac (17th century), rebuilt between 1870 and 1875 with the site of primitive churches dating from 1671 and the XI-XII-13th century. The old church, which went back to 1671, was composed of a nave with two collateral, of a Transept, a Abside with cut sides, and of a bell-tower gone back to 1671. The prohibitory vault of the lords of Pontbriand, like lords of the Guard, was Northern side. One liter with the weapons of the lords of Pontbriand surrounded the church at the 17th century. The chorus of the church contained formerly a high tomb pertaining to the lords of the Swell. A Reliquary or Mass grave, with an inscription in four worms was seen formerly opposite the main door. The old church was demolished in 1870, only the square tower in the West, decorated of two galleries with balusters, was preserved. The bell-tower preserves a bell of 1690 data by the lord of Pontbriand.
the vault of the Spine-Our-Lady or vault Saint-Adam , mentioned under this name since 1628, it is declared in ruin in 1682; rebuilt in 1688 under the name of Notre-Dame of the Spine. Old vault frairienne, it is rebuilt in 1833. Its Campanile carries the dates of 1565,1688 and 1833. The tradition claims that it is built on the site of a spine where a statue of the Virgin was found. One preserves at it the old bell of the vault Saint-Adam and the statue of the Virgin.
the old vault of the Old man-Convent (19th century) of the Sisters of Wisdom (1700-1800);
the martyrdom of the sailors (19th century), located at the borough of Saint-Briac. He is with the site of an old dolmen destroys about 1850;
the cross located at the village of the Vault. This cross replaces the old Vault Saint-Pabu or Saint-Tugdual;
the castle of Nessay (XIX-XXe century). The castle of Saint-Briac who was located at the locality the Swell was destroyed about 1650. The seigniory of the Swell is annexed by the King in 1650 with the seigniory of the family Breil-of-Pontbriand;
the old strong castle of the Swell, mentioned as of the 12th century in the Novel of Aquin. It had formerly a private vault. It was the castle seigneurial of the parish. Property of the family of Elbiest in 1460 and 1520. It is annexed in 1656 with the seigniory of Pontbriand;
the old faience manufacture (1898-1899);
the hotel of the Swell (1880-1885);
the house (18th century), located at the n° 1, rue du Nord;
the paved street Emile-Bernard;
the laundrette (20th century);
the boulevard of the Sea and the Emerald balcony;
Four mills of which windmills of the Swell (still called Mill of Pierre Gone) (17th century), of Walk, the Turret, and the water mill of Rochegoude (19th century).
Several monuments megalithic;
the discovery of axes, Roman and Gallic currencies;
the Hillock-Girault and “stone of the devil”;
the old manor of the Guard. Property of the Boutier family, then of the family of Breil in 1682;
the old manor of City-with-Provôts, located road of Pleurtuit. Property of the family of Breil in 1682.
the post office built within Laloy Pierre-Jack in 1936 is an good example of the regionalistic architecture of the interval wars.

Twinnings

Personalities related to the commune

Armel Beaufils, sculptor, resided at Saint-Briac of 1929 to 1952.
Gabrielle Bellocq (1920-1999), impressionist pastellist who lived several years dead end Cross-of-Sailors, with Saint-Briac, where she died and is buried with the communal cemetery.
Emile Bernard (1868-1941), painter and writer, in decorated, during the two months spent with Saint-Briac, his room of the inn of Mrs. Lemasson located in the street which bears its name today.
Brice Lalonde (1946), mayor of Saint-Briac, former minister for the environment.
Alexandre Nozal (1852-1929), painter, represented many landscapes of Saint-Briac and surroundings.
Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) painted a country-woman and her cow close to the mill.
Paul Signac (1863-1925), painter landscape designer, creator of the Pointillisme and the divisionnism, often stopped in Saint-Briac during his coastal navigations.

See too

Common of Ille-et-Vilaine

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