Discussion: Alvéole 14 - Transforming a Submarine Bunker into a Cultural Centre in Saint- Nazaire
The French city Saint Nazaire lies on the Loire Delta and was already home to one of France's largest port facilities at the beginning of the twentieth century. In its wharfs, ocean liners were built, and Transatlantic vessels set sail from here towards South America. But during the Second World War the tables would turn: between 1941 and 1943, as part of the "Organisation Todt", the German occupying force built a submarine bunker in the middle of the old port. This colossal mound of concrete, designed to house two submarine flotillas and a warship wharf, not only cut the city off from the ocean, but also meant that Saint Nazaire became the target of the Allied Forces' air raids. The 37,000 square metre submarine bunker only suffered - due to its massiveness - minor damages, but Saint Nazaire was nearly levelled: 85 percent of the city's territory was destroyed. To this day the bunker is the city's predominant characteristic, while when the war was over, the city centre was rebuilt about one kilometre away.
