About History

Celtic Armorica At the time of the conquest of Gaul, present-day Brittany was called Armorica: in Latin Armorica. Its inhabitants were the Armoricans. This Gallic name designates the people who live near the sea. In Julius Caesar, Armorica also includes current Normandy: it is the seaside region, from the Loire to the Seine. The Gallic name gave: - in French: Armor which we find in the name of the department of Côtes d'Armor. It replaces the name Côtes du Nord: the north is not attractive to tourists, so we changed the name… - in Breton: arvor designates the coast and Arvorig, Armorica. Western Armorica was inhabited by five Gallic peoples. At the end of the 3rd century, the Armoricans had to face Saxon and Frank raids. We then fortify the cities; Carhaix and Corseul lost their status as capitals, in favor of Brest and Alet (near Saint-Malo), where citadels were built to better defend the coastline. It was at this time that the name of the capitals took that of their people. Thus, Vannes, Nantes, Rennes and Corseul owe their name to a Gallic people.

Resulting from the merger of the former regions Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes, it was initially called Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes. It brings together twelve departments, extends over 84,036 km2 (i.e. one eighth of the national territory) and has 6,033,952 inhabitants (municipal population as of January 1, 2020)3.