Ancient houses with timber-framing and wooden shutters in Auray, southern Brittany, France. Once based around a busy commercial port, Auray is now a popular tourist destination with many well-restored medieval buildings.
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Contributor:
Terence Kerr / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
2RXM464File size:
34.5 MB (2 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
2832 x 4256 px | 24 x 36 cm | 9.4 x 14.2 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
26 June 2011Location:
Auray, Morbihan, southern Brittany, FranceMore information:
This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage.
Auray, Morbihan, southern Brittany, France: ancient houses. Auray was once based around a busy commercial port. It is now a popular tourist destination, with restaurants and pavement cafes trading from its well-restored medieval buildings. Auray is said to be the last place reached by Julius Caesar on his conquest of Gaul. Its later history is bloody. The Battle of Auray, on Michaelmas Day 1364, ended the Breton War of Succession, witnessed the defeat and death of Charles de Blois and secured the dukedom of Brittany for young Jean de Montfort, later son-in-law to King Edward III of England. In 1795, following the 1789 French Revolution, royalist counter-revolutionaries known as Chouans were transferred to Auray as captives. After a summary trial, a military commission of Auray citizens condemned them to death; 750 of them were shot and buried in a meadow now called the Champ des Martyrs or Martyrs' Field. In December 1776, Saint Goustan was also involved - tangentially - in the American Revolutionary War or War of Independence against the British. Statesman, scientist, inventor and writer Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), a Founding Father of the United States, was forced by bad weather to land on the quayside while trying to reach Nantes to ask Louis XVI for military aid. D1212.B4470