is a walled
Port city in
Brittany in northern
France on the
English Channel . It is a ''
Sous-préfecture '' of the
Ille-et-Vilaine ''
Département ''.
Saint-Malo has 50,000 inhabitants, but that number can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season. With the suburbs, the population is about 135,000.
Saint-Malo during the
Middle Ages was a fortified island at the mouth of the
Rance River , controlling not only the
Estuary but the open sea beyond. The promontory fort of Alet, south of the modern centre in what is now the Saint-Servan district, commanded approaches to the Rance even before the
Romans , but modern Saint-Malo traces its origins to a
Monastic settlement founded by
Saint Aaron and
Saint Brendan early in the
6th Century .
In later centuries it became notorious as the home of a fierce breed of pirate-mariners, who were never quite under anyone's control but their own; for 4 years from
1590 , Saint-Malo even declared itself to be an independent
Republic , taking up the motto "not French, not Breton, but Malois". The
Corsairs of Saint-Malo not only forced English ships passing up the Channel to pay tribute, but also brought wealth from further afield.
Jacques Cartier , who sailed the
St Lawrence river and visited the sites of
Québec City and
Montréal - and is thus credited as the discoverer of
Canada , lived in and sailed from Saint-Malo, as did the first colonists to settle the
Falklands – hence the islands'
Argentinian name, ''Las Malvinas'', from the French ''Malouins''.
Saint Malo was the site of an
Anglo -
French summit which lead to a significant agreement regarding
European Defence Policy . British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and French President
Jacques Chirac stated that "the
{Link without Title} Union must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises".
Now inseparably attached to the
Mainland , Saint-Malo is the most visited place in Brittany. Sites of interest include:
Saint-Malo was the birthplace of:
