The New International Encyclopædia/Havre, Le

HAVRE, ȧ′vr’, Le. The second seaport of France, and the capital of an arrondissement of the Department of Seine-Inferieure, on the estuary of the Seine, 108 miles northwest of Paris (Map: France, F 2). It is a well-built and regularly laid out city, with a number of fine boulevards and squares, as the Boulevard François I., Strasbourg, and the Course de la République, the chief boulevards occupying the site of the ancient ramparts. The most prominent public buildings are the city hall, built in Renaissance style; the Church of Notre Dame, dating from the sixteenth century; the exchange, the Palais de Justice, arsenal, and customhouse. The museum has fine statues of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Casimir Delavigne (both natives of Havre), and contains collections of paintings and sculptures and a library of about 50,000 volumes. The harbor, formed in part by an immense dam, is regarded as one of the best in France, and has a capacity of about 500 vessels. Its entrance, defended by two forts and a number of batteries, is barely 300 feet in width. The harbor is divided into nine separate basins, and has over eight miles of quays.

The situation of Havre at the mouth of the Seine gives it great advantage in regard to the internal trade of the country, while its position on the English Channel makes it one of the chief centres of the foreign trade. The annual imports and exports exceed 2,000,000 tons, valued at nearly 2,000,000,000 francs. The chief articles of import are coffee, cotton and cotton goods, grain, hides and skins, silk, etc. The exports are mainly silk and cotton goods, coffee, clothing, metal articles, and artificial flowers. Havre has a number of large industrial establishments, including sugar refineries, chemical and glass works, breweries, ship-building yards (for battleships as well as merchant vessels), electrical works, and works for the manufacture of guns and heavy ordnance. Population, in 1896, 119,470; in 1901, 130,196.

Havre, originally named Ville Françoise, or Françoiseville, and afterwards Havre de Grâce, was founded in 1517 by Francis I., from whom it received numerous privileges. It was surrendered to the English by the Huguenots in 1562, but was retaken by the French soon afterwards. It was bombarded by the English in 1694, 1759, 1794, and 1795. Havre owes its harbor improvements to Richelieu, Louis XIV. (who employed Vauban), Louis XVI., and Napoleon.