A SUNSET WALK. LE HAVRE, NORMANDY, FRANCE.

24 Fun Facts About Le Havre, France

1. King Francis I founded the city and port of Le Havre in 1517.

2. The name Le Havre means “the harbor” or “the port.”

3. The citizens of Le Havre are known as “Havrais” or “Havraises.”

4. The Port of Le Havre — with more than four miles of docks — is the largest container port in France. It also is a major cruise port, as well as a ferry port for crossing the English Channel.

5. Le Havre has a modern grid-like layout makes it easy to navigate.

6. During World War II, Le Havre was occupied by Germany from the spring of 1940.

7. In September 1944, Le Havre was heavily bombed by the Allied Forces decimating the city center, destroying 12,500 buildings and leaving 40,000 people homeless nothing more than a gigantic field of ruins.

8. In the spring of 1945, the Minister of Reconstruction and Town Planning, entrusted the reconstruction of the Le Havre city center to French architect Auguste Perret.

9. Between 1946 and 1964, the city of Le Havre was rebuilt according to the plans from Auguste Perret. To rehouse the city’s homeless, 150 concrete residential blocks were built in the city’s destroyed docks.

10. Perret – who pioneered the architectural use of reinforced concrete –designed a group of buildings in the center of Le Havre, including the town hall and St. Joseph’s Church – his last major work.

11. St. Joseph’s church in Le Havre – built between 1951 and 1958 – was finished after Perret’s death in 1954. Built in the Neo-Classical style, the church’s most prominent feature is its 351 ft. tower, which resembles a lighthouse, and is visible at sea.

12. St. Joseph’s church contains 12,768 panes of colored glass that create a futuristic kaleidoscope of light on the interior floors and pillars. The church, a temple of concrete and stained glass, stands as an icon of Le Havre’s rejuvenation.

13. The Perret Show Flat is a small museum where you step back into the 1950s as you stroll through a 1,076 square ft. apartment that was designed by Auguste Perret for the 1947 World Fair, and then re-created in the Porte Ocean housing block of Le Havre.

14. The Perret-designed apartment includes three bedrooms, a living room, library/den, bathroom and kitchen — furnished with mass-produced furniture of the time, and filled with the modern domestic conveniences of the day — such as a pressure cooker, Frigidaire, vacuum cleaner, washing machine, and floor polisher.

15. Another notable architectural work — the Le Havre Cultural Center, nicknamed “The Volcano”– was designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and built between 1978 and 1982. This space-age complex — made of two white curved concrete masses that are accessible via a series of sloped walkways, is home to Le Havre National Theater.

16. Next door the Petit Volcan houses the extensive, modern Oscar Niemeyer library opened in November 2015. The library is equipped 125 computer stations, free Wi-Fi connections and numerous electrical outlets for visitors.

17. In 2005, the city center of Le Havre was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized as an extraordinary urban complex.

18. Le Havre was also an important city for the Impressionists who viewed the light on the estuary where the Seine empties into the ocean as one of their great inspirations.

19. In 1872, Claude Monet visited his hometown of Le Havre and created a series of works depicting the port of Le Havre.

20. Monet’s Impression, Sunrise became the most famous in the series after being debuted at what would become known as the “Exhibition of the Impressionists” in Paris in April, 1874. This painting is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movement.

21. The André Malraux Museum of Modern Art (also known as MuMa) in Le Havre overlooks the harbor entrance close to where Claude Monet painted the city. Constructed between 1952 and 1961, the MuMa was of the first major museum built in France after World War II. It contains one of the country’s most extensive collections of impressionist paintings.


22. Flooded with the natural light of the Normandy coast, the MuMa is a perfect setting for its extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century paintings by Claude Monet, Eugène Boudin, Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Matisse, among many others.

23. Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde, currently serving as the president of the European Central Bank since November 2019, spent her childhood in Le Havre, France. Ms. Lagarde attended Le Havre public schools including the Le Havre Lycée François 1er (where her father taught) and Lycée Claude Monet. Between July 2011 and November 2019, she served as chair and managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

24. A study by Aphekom comparing ten large French cities showed that Le Havre is the least polluted urban city in France.



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