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Concarneau (Municipality, Finistère, France)

Konk-Kerné

Flag of Concarneau - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 14 September 2002

Presentation of Concarneau
Flag of Concarneau
Logo flags of Concarneau
Yacht clubs in Concarneau
- Société des Régates de Concarneau

See also:

Presentation of Concarneau

The municipality of Concarneau (19,816 inhabitants in 2019; 4,108 ha) is located 30 km south-east of Quimper.
The Breton name of the city is Konk-Kerné, meaning "the shelter of Cornouaille".
The historical part of the town, called Ville-Close (Enclosed City) was built on a small island (350 x 100 m) linked to the mainland by a fortified bridge. The island is enclosed in walls built in XIVth century and reinforced in the XVIIth century.

Concarneau was allegedly established in 192 (?) by Urbo, cousin of Grallo, Count of Cornouailles, after he had reconquered Conq rocky island from the Pictes. "conq" means "a conch", here "a harbor"; for the sake of differentiation from another famous Conq located near Brest, now Le Conquet, "kerneau" (of Cornouailles) was added to the harbor's name in the Middle Ages.

The island, today the Enclosed City, has the shape of an irregular oval. It is separated from the mainland by the narrow Passage channel; the monks of the abbey of Landévennec, who established a parish dedicated to St. Guénolé, perceived a toll on passengers and cargo crossing the Passage.
Conq rock was probably inhabited much earlier; on the mainland, remains of Gallo-Roman villas have been found in the mainland, where toponym Beuzec recalls box, a plant imported in Brittany by the Roman legions.

During the Middle Ages, Concarneau was fortified by the Dukes of Brittany. The main sources of income were trade of dried fish, grain and Bordeaux wines imported through the old Wine Gate.
Sardine industry was initiated in Concarneau in the 18th century, when 300 fishing boats were registered in the port. Barrels filled with pressed fish were shipped to the Atlantic coast and Bordeaux, but also to the Mediterranean coast (Sète and Marseilles). The first canning factories were established one century later; their number increased from 5 in 1854 to some 30 in 1940. After the exhaustion of sardine resources and the crisis that resulted in 1905, Concarneau became Europa's first port for albacore fishing. During the Second World War, shipowners from Boulogne and Lorient relocated their fleet to Concarneau, which was less exposed to air raids.

The castle of Kériolet, a manor from the XVth century located 1.5 km north of Concarneau, was transformed in the XIXth century into a neo-medieval castle by the Russian princess Zenaid Narishkin-Jusupov. Prince Iusupov was among Rasputin's murderers (1916).

Concarneau, located quite far from Paris compared with Deauville, Dinard or La Baule, experience a very slow development of tourism; in September 1875, the writer Gustave Flaubert visited the place and took daily baths in the sea, which stunned the villagers. A few years later, the owner of one of the three small hotels of the place established huts on the beach, allowing people to take sea baths in tubs. The "Guide des bains de mer" of the time already pimped Concarneau as "one of the safest and most pleasant places to be found". In 1883, the inauguration of the railway station boosted tourism and the development of moderns hotels. A few landlords built estates on the seaside, which they rented to vacationers, painter and photographers. In 1884, Baron Loïc de Cambourg built three big estates, the larger of them self-styled Hôtel des Sables Blancs (White Sands Hotel). Concarneau was officially registered in 1908 as a sea resort; to attract more tourist, the baron planned to open a casino, which was allowed in sea resorts. The Municipal Council granted a 35-year monopoly on gambling game to the baron "to be able to maintain first-aid help in case of fish penury" (see below). The project of casino was submitted to very strict rules; customers would be "people allowed by their income to enjoy costly leisure, upper classes, industrialists and merchants". "Entrance shall be refused to ladies except, by tolerance, to married ladies, under their husband's responsibility". The establishment would be immediately closed "were it to become a cause of disorder or scandal". In 1911, de Cambourg presented the final project of his hotel: a facade of 40 m in length, three stores, 50 rooms supplied with "the town's water and electric light". The building site was inaugurated two years later, the casino being presented as "optional", and stopped by the outbreak of the Fist World War. The Grand Hôtel de Cornouaille was eventually inaugurated during the interbellum, but the casino fell into oblivion. The project of casino resurfarced in 1987 and 2000, to no avail. [Source: Concarneau du passé et d'aujourd'hui]

Concarneau is the first French fishing port for fresh fish and tuna. The Fishery Museum is located in Ville-Close and a marine biology laboratory owned by the National Museum of Natural History is located on the mainland. The former fish market was replaced by a modern salesroom (criée).

The Festival des filets bleus (Blue Nets Festival) is Brittany's oldest traditional festival. It was first organized in 1905 as a first-aid the fishers ruined by the sardine crisis. The festival was initiated by mayor Billette de Villeroche, also owner of a canning factory, and several notables from the town and from Paris. Supported by local and national intellectual circles, the festival gained national recognition and was to be organized every year.Albert Larrieu, a famous songwriter from the borough of Montmartre, in Paris, composed several songs portraying Concarneau and the fishers, and offered the festival's official anthem, which is still played. The 100t Festival des filets bleus will be held from 11 to 15 August 2022. [Source: Official website]

Ivan Sache, 21 May 2022

Flag of Concarneau

According to P. Rault (Les drapeaux bretons de 1188 à nos jours [rau98]), the flag of Concarneau is white with a semy of ermine spots and three red axes placed horizontally, the blade facing the hoist. This flag is a banner of the municipal arms.

Ivan Sache, 14 September 2002

You can see it in use for example here (photo) and here in the city hall (photo, 2019; photo, 2016; photo, 2015; photo, 2012) together with a white flag with logo.

Olivier Touzeau , 28 November 2021

The arms are featured in the Armorial Général [image]. The three axes are said to represent the defenses of the Enclosed City.
Additional photos: photos, 2010; photo, 2020; photo, 2020; photo, 2022;

Ivan Sache, 21 May 2022

Logo flags of Concarneau

Logo flags of Concarneau: left, older logo; right, current logo - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 28 November 2021

Logo flags can be seen on the city hall totether with the banner of arms of Concarneau (photo, 2019; photo, 2016; photo, 2015; photo, 2012).

The logo was modified at the end of the years 2000 but the older logo could still be seen on the flag on the city hall in 2016. The current white flag with logo can also be seen here (photo, 2021).

Olivier Touzeau , 28 November 2021