The Tour Tanguy, Bastille de Quilbignon or Tour de la Motte Tanguy is a medieval tower on a rocky motte beside the Penfeld river in Brest, France. Probably built during the Breton War of Succession, it faces the château de Brest and is now accessed by a road off the square Pierre Péron, at one end of the pont de Recouvrance. It now houses the Museum of Old Brest, a museum with a collection of dioramas that depict the city of Brest on the eve of World War II.
Probably built to protect or block crossings between the two banks of the river, the tower's origins cannot be precisely determined. It may have been built by the English during their occupation of the city in the 14th century, or earlier by lord Tanguy du Chastel, of the line of lords of Quilbignon which distinguished itself in battles against the English in Brittany and contributed to the development of the right bank. The name bastille de Quilbignon gives places to that of tour Tanguy, a forename held by members of this line. Their arms are engraved below the tower's gate. The family's powerbase was at the château de Trémazan at Landunvez.
Jean de Montfort handed it over to the English in 1341[ verification needed ], but it was restored to his son John V, Duke of Brittany in 1397. Until about 1580, the tower was the seat of justice for the lords of Le Châtel, and it was neglected after that date, becoming the property of the Rohan-Guéméné family in 1786 before becoming a French royal possession and finally being sold to a Mr Gabon on the French Revolution.
In 1862, it was bought by the architect Barillé who turned it into his house, cutting windows and building on its top a sort of Chinese-style roof over a kiosk or pavilion. Its last occupant and private owner, doctor Joseph Thielmans, left it after it caught fire during the bombardment of 1944 (the bombing also destroyed the pavilion). It was acquired by the town of Brest on 15 July 1954 and summarily repaired, but its state worsened once more and its future was compromised by the redevelopment of the Recouvrance quarter. In 1959 the town finally charged the painter Jim Sévellec with evoking the town's past, of which few remains were left. The tower was restored and opened as the Museum of Old Brest on 25 July 1962. In 1971, a turret was added and the Neo Gothic cornice along the battlements replaced to restore the tower to its medieval shape.
The ground floor houses old plans of the city of Brest, the penal colony, the Saint-Louis church and fortifications; A collection of the coats of arms of various Brest corporations (34 listed); Old postcards and photographs.
On the first floor, Jim Sévellec has created dioramas of significant events and historical scenes of the city of Brest such as:
On the second floor, dioramas by Jim Sévellec offer views of significant events, and a walk through the picturesque streets and squares of Brest in the past, including:
The top floor is only accessible during certain events and exhibitions.
Brest is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of a peninsula and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second largest French military port after Toulon. The city is located on the western edge of continental France. With 139,456 inhabitants (2020), Brest forms Western Brittany's largest metropolitan area, ranking third behind only Nantes and Rennes in the whole of historic Brittany, and the 25th most populous city in France (2019); moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the préfecture of the department is in the much smaller town of Quimper.
Orléans is a city in north-central France, about 120 kilometres southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the department of Loiret and of the region of Centre-Val de Loire.
The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. It was the sixth of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It was held at the esplanade of Les Invalides, the Champ de Mars, the Trocadéro and at the banks of the Seine between them, with an additional section in the Bois de Vincennes, and it was visited by more than fifty million people. Many international congresses and other events were held within the framework of the exposition, including the 1900 Summer Olympics.
Île de la Cité is an island in the river Seine in the center of Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the Roman governor. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace on the island. In the 12th century, it became an important religious center, the home of Notre-Dame cathedral, and the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the city's first hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu. It is also the site of the city's oldest surviving bridge, the Pont Neuf.
Bastille is a station on Line 1, Line 5 and Line 8 of the Paris Métro. Located under the Place de la Bastille and near the former location of the Bastille, it is situated on the border of the 4th, 11th and 12th arrondissement.
Vitré is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France.
Carhaix-Plouguer, commonly known as just Carhaix, is a commune in the French department of Finistère, region of Brittany, France. The commune was created in 1957 by the merger of the former communes Carhaix and Plouguer.
Elven is a commune, located in the department of Morbihan and region of Brittany, western France.
The rue de Siam is the main arterial street of Brest, a port city in Brittany, France. Its name comes from the arrival of three ambassadors led by Kosa Pan, sent by the King of Siam on the 29 June 1686 to meet Louis XIV in Versailles. They went with six mandarins, three translators, two secretaries and a retinue of servants, loaded with presents. They traveled on the boats l'Oiseau and La Maligne.
The Pont de Recouvrance is a vertical-lift bridge in Brest, France, across the river Penfeld. Opened on 17 July 1954, it was the largest vertical-lift bridge in Europe until the opening of the Rouen Pont Gustave-Flaubert in 2008. It links the bottom of the rue de Siam to the quartier de Recouvrance, replacing a swing bridge destroyed by Allied bombardment in 1944.
The Pont National was a swing bridge across the river Penfeld in Brest, France. It opened in 1861 and linked rue de Siam to Recouvrance, near the Tour Tanguy. It was destroyed by Allied bombardment in 1944 and was replaced by the Pont de Recouvrance in the 1950s.
The Château de Brest is a castle in Brest, Finistère, France. The oldest monument in the town, it is located at the mouth of the river Penfeld at the heart of the roadstead of Brest, one of the largest roadsteads in the world. From the Roman castellum to Vauban's citadel, the site has over 1700 years of history, holding right up to the present day its original role as a military fortress and a strategic location of the highest importance. It is thus the oldest castle in the world still in use, and was classified as a monument historique on 21 March 1923.
Rue Saint-Malo is a paved street in Brest, France. It is located in the Carpon valley, against the plateau des Capucins in the Recouvrance quarter. Only its lower half survives, as the oldest street in the city.
Jim Sévellec(21 January 1897 – 21 May 1971), born Eugène Sévellec, was a French painter.
The Manoir de Mézarnou is a fortified 16th century manor-house located in the Finistère département of Brittany in northwestern France. It is located in the small rural town of Plounéventer, near Landivisiau. It was erected by Yves de Parcevaux, who reorganised the domaine between 1571 and 1591.
The Château de Blain or Château de la Groulais, is a mediaeval castle constructed in the 13th century and heavily remodelled in the 16th, located in the commune of Blain in the Loire-Atlantique département of France. It formed part of the frontier defences of Brittany along with the towns and castles of Vitré, Fougères, Châteaubriant, Ancenis and Clisson.
The Brest tramway located in Brest, Brittany, France consists of a 28-stop, two-branch, 14.3-kilometre (8.9 mi) line connecting Porte de Plouzané in the west with Porte de Gouesnou and Porte de Guipavas northeast of the city centre. The end-to-end journey takes 38 minutes. It's operated by RD Brest, and it's part of the Bibus network. The system began service on 23 June 2012. It is expected to serve 50,000 passengers per day. The line is the successor to a tram network that operated in Brest from 1898 to 1944. The network has the distinction of being trilingual.
The Château de Châteaubriant is a medieval castle strongly modified during the Renaissance, located in the commune of Châteaubriant in the Loire-Atlantique département of France. The original castle was founded in the 11th century on the eastern border of Brittany and, such as the fortresses in Vitré, Fougères, Ancenis and Clisson, it was defending the duchy against Anjou and the Kingdom of France.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Brest, France.
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest is the main art museum in the city of Brest, Brittany, France, housing French and Italian old masters as well as more modern art. It and most of the city were destroyed by Allied bombing during the Second World War and the building and its collections both had to be recreated in the post-war period,making it what one author has called "the largest collection [of old masters] to have been formed in France since 1945". The museum building was completed in 1968 and is typical of Brest's functional post-war architecture.