Le Croisic
Le Croisic (French pronunciation: [lə kʁwazik] (
listen); Breton: Ar Groazig; Gallo: Le Croèzic) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department, western France. It is part of the urban area of Saint-Nazaire.[3]
Le Croisic
Ar Groazig | |
|---|---|
Commune | |
 | |
.svg.png.webp) Coat of arms | |
Location of Le Croisic | |
  Le Croisic  Le Croisic | |
| Coordinates: 47°17′38″N 2°30′33″W | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Pays de la Loire |
| Department | Loire-Atlantique |
| Arrondissement | Saint-Nazaire |
| Canton | La Baule-Escoublac |
| Intercommunality | CA Presqu'île de Guérande Atlantique |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2020–2026) | Michèle Quellard[1] |
| Area 1 | 4.5 km2 (1.7 sq mi) |
| Population | 4,114 |
| • Density | 910/km2 (2,400/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 44049 /44490 |
| Elevation | 0–20 m (0–66 ft) (avg. 5 m or 16 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
History
The United States Navy established a naval air station on 27 November 1917 to operate seaplanes during World War I. The base closed shortly after the First Armistice at Compiègne.[4] The writer and historian Auguste Lorieux (1796–1842) was born in Le Croisic. The French engineer, physicist, Nobel laureate, and the first person to discover evidence of radioactivity, Henri Becquerel died here in 1908.
During World War II, Le Croisic was home to a radar station for the Wehrmacht following the surrender of France and construction of the U-boat submarine pens at Saint-Nazaire, in order to protect the Loire estuary from enemy attack due to the Normandie dry dock at Saint-Nazaire that could be used to repair the large Kriegsmarine battleships such as the Bismarck and its sister ship, Tirpitz. However, in the March 1942 St Nazaire Raid, a British Commando team on the obsolete HMS Campbeltown and several motor launch boats were able to slip by the Le Croisic radar station and ram Campbeltown into the Normandie dry dock gate, before sabotaging other vital parts to the dry dock. Delayed action explosives on Campbeltown went off several hours after the night raid, destroying the dry dock gate and putting it out of commission until after WWII was over, with France liberated and Nazi Germany having surrendered to the Allied Powers.[5]
Legend
In a medieval French legend recounted during the funeral of Anne of Brittany in 1514, Le Croisic was the scene of a story which explained the origin of the use of ermine in heraldry. In the story, Anne's supposed ancestor Innogen, the daughter of Greek king Pandrasus and wife of Brutus of Troy from Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-history Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136), was attending a hunt at Le Croisic, when a stoat being pursued by Brutus' dogs took refuge with her. Innogen saved and fed it, and adopted it for ordre et armes ('order and arms').[6]
Population
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See also
References
- "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
- "Populations légales 2020". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 29 December 2022.
- Unité urbaine 2020 de Saint-Nazaire (44601), INSEE
- Van Wyen, Adrian O. (1969). Naval Aviation in World War I. Washington, D.C.: Chief of Naval Operations. p. 45.
- WWII's Greatest Raids - Commando Do or Die, American Heroes Channel
- Cornette, Joël (2021). "'La Royne est morte! La Royne est morte!'". Anne de Bretagne. NRF Biographies (in French). Paris: Gallimard. p. 209. ISBN 9782070770618.
