Nantes and its sights • All PYRENEES · France, Spain, Andorra. Nantes (fr. Nantes) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, 50 km from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France. The city owes its development to its location on the banks of the Loire. After having been an important port site of the Metal Age, it became the capital of the Gallo-Roman city of Namnètes, the seat of a bishopric in the fifth century, then the capital of a Frankish county, illustrated by Roland’s semi-legendary personality. Support point of the Frankish kingdom against the push of the Bretons, it was conquered in 851 by Nominoë.
Consequently, the history of the city is largely linked to Brittany, of which it became the ducal capital in the fifteenth century, when the construction of its cathedral began. However, the city lost its political pre-eminence in Brittany in favour of Rennes, after the integration of the duchy into the kingdom of France in the sixteenth century. It has been a university town since 1962. Tourism and main sights Museums Parks.