LE HAVRE

seaport and town, Seine-Maritime dpartement, Haute-Normandie rgion, northern France. It is on the English Channel coast and on the right bank of the Seine estuary, 134 miles (216 km) west-northwest of Paris and 53 miles (85 km) west of Rouen by road. Le Havre was only a fishing village until 1517, when Francis I had a harbour built there named Havre-de-Grce (Haven of Grace). Enlarged and fortified under the Cardinal de Richelieu and Louis XIV in the 17th century, it was adapted to accommodate bigger vessels under Louis XVI in the late 18th century and was further improved under Napoleon III in the mid-19th century. During World War II the Belgian government was transferred there for a short time after the fall of Antwerp and Ostend to the Germans. Almost three quarters of Le Havre's buildings were destroyed during World War II but were subsequently rebuilt. The Place de l'Htel de Ville in the centre is one of the most spacious public squares in Europe. The 16th17th-century Church of Notre-Dame is one of the few surviving old buildings; although damaged during World War II, it was restored in the 1970s. The Church of Saint-Joseph is an unusual reinforced-concrete edifice. The new museum, built in 1961, houses a collection saved from the old museum, which was destroyed in 1944. Paintings by the 19th-century painter Eugne Boudin and the 20th-century artist Raoul Dufy are housed there. The harbour, rebuilt after World War II, was expanded in the early 1970s. Le Havre is the second port of France after Marseille and acts as an outport (seaward terminal for deep-draft vessels) of Paris. Before World War II it was one of the principal centres of passenger traffic with North America. This role has virtually ceased, however, because of air travel. Regular car-ferry services run to England and Ireland. Le Havre's main imports are fuel oil and tropical goods (cotton, coffee). Pipelines connect the port to refineries east of the town and carry the refined product to the Paris region. Petroleum-storage facilities exist at nearby Antifer. Elsewhere, major industrialization efforts have been made. Le Havre's industries now include the manufacture of machinery and automobiles, as well as the older, traditional manufacture of rope and the handling of timber. Pop. (1990 prelim.) 196,000.