'' by
Jean-François Hue, 1793 In the 4th century AD, Brest was known as
Osismis, as attested in the
Notitia Dignitatum. Breton Latin sources of the early Middle Ages also refer to the settlement as
urbs Ocismorum, using the old name of the tribe of the
Osismii. The etymology is uncertain, but it may be related to
bre ('hill'). In 1240,
Harvey V, Lord of Léon ceded it to
John I, Duke of Brittany. In 1342
John IV, Duke of Brittany surrendered Brest to the English, in whose possession it was to remain until 1397. This was strategically important to the English as it helped protect their communication with
Gascony. The importance of Brest in
medieval times was great enough to give rise to the saying, "He is not the Duke of Brittany who is not the Lord of Brest." With the marriage of
Francis I of France to
Claude, the daughter of
Anne of Brittany, the definitive overlordship of Brest – together with the rest of the duchy – passed to the
French crown in 1491. They notably surrounded the house of Régis Meunier with their bayonnets fixed. . In the
Second World War, the
Germans maintained a large
U-boat submarine base at Brest. Despite being within range of RAF bombers, it was also a base for some of the German surface fleet, giving repair facilities and direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. For much of 1941, , and were under repair in the dockyards. The repair yard facilities for both submarines and surface vessels were staffed by both German and French workers, with the latter forming the major part of the workforce; huge reliance was made on this French component. In 1944, after the Allied
invasion of Normandy, the city was almost totally destroyed during the
Battle for Brest, with only a tiny number of buildings left standing. After the war, the
West German government paid several billion
Deutschmarks in
reparations to the homeless and destitute civilians of Brest in compensation for the destruction of their city. Large parts of today's rebuilt city consist of utilitarian
granite and concrete buildings. The French naval base now houses the
Brest Naval Training Centre. During the postwar
Nuremberg Trials, a memorandum of German admiral and chief of staff
Kurt Fricke from 1940 was given in evidence which suggested that the town should serve as a German enclave after the war. In 1972, the French Navy opened its
nuclear weapon-submarine (deterrence) base at
Île Longue in the
Rade de Brest (Brest
roadstead). This continues to be an important base for the French nuclear-armed
ballistic missile submarines.
Coat of arms The
coat of arms of Brest is divided in two: to the left, there's the
three fleurs-de-lis of the former kingdom of France, and to the right it has the
ermines of the
Duchy of Brittany. These arms were used for the first time in a register of deliberations of the city council dated the 15 July 1683. Additionally, it looks visually identical to the coat of arms of
Bourg-la-Reine. ==Sights==