The rue du Calvaire after the bombings of September 1943. -

Nantes Archives

  • The bombings of September 16 and 23, 1943 killed nearly 1,500 people in Nantes.

  • The material damage was enormous.

    Thousands of inhabitants were affected.

  • The reconstruction, sometimes in a hurry, forever changed the aesthetics of the city center.

EDIT >> A year ago, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the bombings, we published this article.

We invite you to rediscover it

“A rain of iron and fire.

The metaphor is often used to evoke the bombings of September 16 and 23, 1943, which Nantes commemorates this Sunday and Sunday, September 23.

Little known, this episode of the Second World War changed the face of the City of the Dukes.

Place Graslin just after the bombings of September 1943. - Nantes Archives

And left a visible mark in the current architecture of the city center.

It must be said that the damage was enormous: 700 buildings completely destroyed, 1,300 damaged buildings, 2,000 to be repaired.

“It was chaos.

Everything had to be redone ”

The districts of Decré, Calvaire, Brittany, Gloriette, quai de la Fosse, Sainte-Anne and Chantenay were the most affected.

But the rue de Gigant, the Place Royale, the Place du Commerce, the Champ de Mars, Doulon or the State station did not escape the bombs.

“It was chaos, everything had to be redone,” says Lieutenant-Colonel (RCIT) Xavier Trochu, historian of the Second World War.

Many families preferred to go to the countryside.

Thousands more have been relocated to wooden or tin barracks.

"

Officially launched in 1948 under the leadership of architect Michel Roux-Spitz, the reconstruction of Nantes lasted nearly fifteen years.

“We took advantage of the drama of the bombing to rethink part of the city.

It was a question of forming new ways to make room for the growing traffic of cars.

"

New streets, new cities

The current rue du Calvaire is a good example.

Destroyed three-quarters, it was widened to become a "priority traffic axis".

The rue de Budapest was created on this occasion to connect another artery traced to the site of the insanitary district of Marchix (now disappeared).

The rue du Calvaire, just after the September 1943 bombings in Nantes.

- Nantes Archives

The current form of Place Bretagne took shape at the same time.

“The collapsed buildings were not rebuilt there.

Space was freed to accommodate imposing administrative buildings, where La Poste and Cram are today.

Another consequence of the bombardments, housing estates for disaster victims appeared on the outskirts of the city center (Chêne des Anglais, Poitou, Serpette, Contrie, Grand-Clos, etc.)

A reconstruction with a lot of concrete

Reduced to rubble, some emblematic places have been rebuilt almost identically, such as the eastern half of the Place Royale, the Saint-Nicolas church, the Palais de la Bourse (now Fnac) or the Cours Cambronne.

Others were rebuilt according to the architectural standards of the time, with a lot of concrete reinforcement.

This is the case with the rue de la Marne, the Hôtel-Dieu, the Protestant Temple or the quays of the Loire.

Place de la Bourse just after the bombings of September 1943. - Nantes Archives

"The aesthetics of the city center suffered, for sure," concludes Xavier Trochu.

Quai de la Fosse, there is no longer this uninterrupted alignment of 17th or 18th century facades.

We have lost this architectural homogeneity which is the beauty of Bordeaux, for example.

But the urgency was elsewhere, that of relocating and getting up.

"

Nearly 1,500 dead

The bombings of September 16 and 23 killed 1,463 people in Nants and injured more than 2,500 others.

They were the work of American and British aviation, which targeted port and industrial facilities.

The fall of the bombs on the city center would be due to an error of aim. 

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