Page 259 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

A spiralling staircase inside Eckmühl’s lighthouse

BRITTANY

Little is known about Brittany’s first inhabitants,
bar their lasting imprint upon the landscape – the
thousands of Neolithic megaliths that still stand
myste riously throughout the area. The region was
later inhabited by the Celts, who knew it as
Armorica, “land of the sea”. In 56 BC, the Romans
conquered Brittany, but could not retain control.
In the 5th and 6th centuries Celtic tribes from
Britain, seek ing refuge from Anglo-Saxon invaders,
settled in the area and gave Brittany its name. The
region was united in the 9th century by Nomenoë,
hero of the Bretons, who led a revolt against the
Frankish Carolingian emperors. Following this it
became an independent duchy, only joining France
in 1532; despite this union, it continued to have a
large degree of autonomy. The events of the
French Revolution saw little support in the region,
as it led to the duchy, with all its sovereign powers,
being abolished. Following the Revolution,
Brittany withstood a dramatic economic decline
that affected its strong Breton culture; it was only
in the 1960s that the region began to revive. Celtic
ties today are, fondly, stronger than ever.
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