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Rochefort
Subprefecture and commune
Coat of arms
Location of Rochefort
Rochefort Show map of France Rochefort Show map of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Coordinates: 45°56′32″N 0°57′32″W / 45.9421°N 0.9588°W / 45.9421; -0.9588Coordinates: 45°56′32″N 0°57′32″W / 45.9421°N 0.9588°W / 45.9421; -0.9588
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Charente-Maritime
Arrondissement	Rochefort
Canton	Rochefort
Intercommunality	Pays Rochefortais
Government
• Mayor .mw-parser-output .nobold{font-weight:normal} (2008–2014)	Bernard Grasset
Area 1	21.95 km2 (8.47 sq mi)
Population (2008)2	25,676
• Density	1,200/km2 (3,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	17299 /17300
Elevation	0–29 m (0–95 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. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Rochefort (centre-right) seen from Spot Satellite

Rochefort arsenal, in 1690

Rochefort (French: [ʁɔʃ.fɔʁ]) is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.

History

In December 1665, Rochefort was chosen by Jean-Baptiste Colbert as a place of "refuge, defense and supply" for the French Navy. The Arsenal de Rochefort served as a naval base and dockyard until it closed in 1926.

In September 1757, Rochefort was the target of an ambitious British raid during the Seven Years' War.

Another infrastructure of early Rochefort from 1766 was its bagne, a high-security penal colony involving hard labor. Bagnes were then common fixtures in military harbors and naval bases, such as Toulon or Brest, because they provided free labor. During the Jacobin period of the French Revolution (1790–95), over 800 Roman Catholic priests and other clergy who refused to take the anti-Papal oath of the "Civil Constitution of the Clergy" were put aboard a fleet of prison ships in Rochefort harbor, where most died due to inhumane conditions.

Off Rochefort, from the island of Île-d'Aix where he had spent several days hoping to flee to America, Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to Captain F. L. Maitland aboard HMS Bellerophon, on 17 July 1815, ending the "Hundred Days".

Rochefort is a notable example of 17th-century "ville nouvelle" or new town, which means its design and building resulted from a political decree. The reason for building Rochefort was to a large extent that royal power could hardly depend on rebellious Protestant La Rochelle, which Cardinal Richelieu had to besiege a few decades earlier. Well into the 20th century, Rochefort remained primarily a garrison town. The tourist industry, which had long existed due to the town's spa, gained emphasis in the 1990s.

Population

Sights

The town is home to a unique style of bridge (built in 1900), named Pont transbordeur de Rochefort

Other sights include:

• Musée National de la Marine


• 
  Conservatoire du Bégonia, the world's largest begonia collection


• 
  L'Hermione, a replica of a 1779 frigate completed in the town in 2014

Notable inhabitants

Rochefort was the birthplace of:

• 
  Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville (1745–1804), French admiral.


• 
  Charles Rigault de Genouilly (1807–1873), French admiral, conqueror of Vietnam.


• 
  Pierre Loti (1850–1923), author. His house has been turned into a museum
  


• 
  Amédée William Merlaud-Ponty (1866-1915), Governor General of French West Africa.


• 
  Pauline Réage, pseudonym of Anne Desclos (1907–1998), author


• 
  Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961), philosopher


• 
  Pierre Salviac, (1946-), is a French journalist, former commentator of rugby-match and since then polemicist.

International relations

Rochefort is twinned with:

• 
  Burton upon Trent, United Kingdom
  


• 
  Torrelavega, Spain
  


• 
  Papenburg, Germany
  

See also

• Communes of the Charente-Maritime department


• Kaolin deposits of the Charentes Basin


• 
  The Young Girls of Rochefort film directed by Jacques Demy with Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, and Gene Kelly with music composed by Michel Legrand

References

• INSEE

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rochefort (Charente-Maritime).

• Official website