Things to see in Nantes

Nantes is a city of ducal strongholds, formal squares, covered passages and reminders of its life as a major port. Capital of the Duchy of Brittany until the fifteenth century, it prospered through international commerce in the eighteenth century, including the slave trade. Much of the architecture that shapes the historic centre dates from this period.

The principal sights extend from the Château des Ducs de Bretagne and cathedral to the old commercial streets, the Loire waterfront and the Île de Nantes. Together, they trace the city’s political, maritime and cultural history without reducing it to a single district.

The ducal city

The Château des Ducs de Bretagne is not one building but a complex developed between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its earliest castle, the Chastel de la Tour Neuve, was enlarged by Jean IV of Brittany in the fourteenth century. The later residence of Duke François II and Duchess Anne of Brittany subsequently served as a fortress, governor’s headquarters and barracks. A major restoration carried out from 1997 to 2007 brought its varied architecture back into view; the complex houses the Nantes History Museum.

Nearby, the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul took more than 450 years to build. Work began in the fifteenth century under Guillaume Dammartin. Two flat-topped towers frame its façade, while one of the notable monuments inside is the tomb of Duke François II and his wife, Marguerite de Foix.

Squares and churches

Place du Maréchal Foch has changed name several times, from Place d’Armes to Place Louis XVI before taking its present name after the First World War. Eighteenth-century buildings around it include the hôtels Montaudouin, d’Aux and de Bruc. The last of these was used as Gestapo headquarters during the Second World War. At the centre is a surviving statue of Louis XVI by Dominique Molknecht.

Mathurin Crucy designed Place Royale as a focal point for the city. Its balanced classical façades surround a large sculptural composition devoted to Nantes’s maritime identity. A seated female figure pours water from two amphorae, accompanied by figures representing the Erdre, Sèvre, Cher and Loiret. The square became fully pedestrianised in 2007.

Two churches add contrasting silhouettes to the centre. The neo-Gothic Basilique Saint-Nicolas, built in granite under Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus, was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War and then rebuilt over more than three decades. Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port has an Invalides-like dome and a Greek-cross plan. Designed by the Nantes architects Seheult and Chenantais, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her role as protector of sailors.

Passages, theatre and literature

Passage Pommeraye turns a steep change of level into its defining feature. The nineteenth-century shopping arcade occupies three floors connected by a monumental staircase. Its theatrical setting has appeared in cinema and literature, including Jacques Demy’s Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Jacques Tardi’s graphic novel La Véritable Histoire du Soldat Inconnu.

On Place Graslin, the opera house was also designed by Mathurin Crucy and opened in 1788. Eight Corinthian columns support its classical front, above which stand eight muses sculpted by Dominique Molknecht. The auditorium follows the Italian theatre plan and appeared in Demy’s 1960 film Lola.

The Musée Jules Verne, opened in 1978, is devoted to the Nantes-born writer. Its displays draw on manuscripts, illustrations, posters, portraits and personal documents. The museum building did not belong to Verne or his family, although his parents’ house can still be seen at 29 rue des Réformés.

Nantes and the water

The three-masted Belem was built in Nantes and once carried cacao between the Caribbean and the city’s port. When steam power made such commercial sailing ships obsolete, the Duke of Westminster bought it and converted it into a yacht. Its history provides a direct link with the port’s trading past.

On the Île de Nantes, Les Machines de l’Île places enormous mechanical creatures in a former industrial setting. The project opened in 2007. Its Carrousel des Mondes Marins rises to almost 30 metres and contains more than 30 marine figures; the 12-metre mechanical elephant offers another way to view the city.

A quieter waterside landscape lies on the Erdre. Nantes’s Japanese garden occupies an artificial island formed from material dredged during work on the Nantes–Brest Canal. Bamboo, Japanese cherry trees, camellias and bald cypresses surround three buildings inspired by traditional Japanese architecture: the harbourmaster’s office, the Maison de l’Erdre and a restaurant at the end of the island.