The city rebuilt as an artwork — bombed to rubble in 1944 and given to architect Auguste Perret to rebuild from scratch in reinforced concrete, producing the only 20th-century urban design to earn UNESCO recognition, with a coastline of concrete modernism and France's second-busiest container port
Le Havre (170,000; metro 250,000) in Seine-Maritime is France's most architecturally distinctive port city — the entire city centre, destroyed in September 1944 by Allied bombing (5,000 civilians killed), was rebuilt 1945–1964 entirely from scratch by architect Auguste Perret following a unified plan of concrete modernism. The UNESCO World Heritage inscription (2005) recognises Le Havre as 'an outstanding example of 1950s architecture and town planning' — the only 20th-century city centre to receive this designation. The church of Saint-Joseph (1953, 107m concrete lantern tower) and the Cultu…
Le Havre was founded in 1517 by King Francis I as an artificial harbour to replace the silted ports of Harfleur and Honfleur — the most deliberately planned major port city in France. By the 18th century it was the primary port for transatlantic trade (sugar, coffee, cotton from the Americas) and immigration — over 1 million European emigrants departed from Le Havre for the Americas in the 19th century. The city was bombed by German aircraft in 1940, captured by German forces, then bombed more heavily by the RAF in September 1944 to dislodge the German garrison — a controversial operation tha…