Pontivy (; ) is a commune in the Morbihan

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in Brittany in north-western France. It lies at the confluence of the river Blavet and the Canal de Nantes à Brest. Inhabitants of Pontivy are called ''Pontivyens'' in French.

Map

History

A monk called Ivy built a bridge nearby over the river Blavet in the 7th century, and the town is named after him ("''pont-Ivi''" being the Breton for "Ivy's bridge"). From November 9, 1804, the name was changed to Napoléonville after

Napoléon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

, under whom it had around 3,000 inhabitants. After his downfall, it was renamed Pontivy again, then later Bourbonville, and Napoléonville again after

Napoléon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

came to power.

Population

Economy

This is a largely agricultural town.

Breton language

The municipality launched a linguistic plan through Ya d'ar brezhoneg on 8 August 2004. As part of that plan, all road signs in the town centre are bilingual. In 2008, 11.34% of the children in the town attended the bilingual schools in primary education. ''Ofis ar Brezhoneg''
''Enseignement bilingue''
/ref>

Sights

*The castle of Rohan (with its

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

) (late XVe). *The Notre-Dame-de-Joie basilica. asilic

*The Saint Joseph church. glise St. Josep

Events

*Every year the final round of Kan ar Bobl, a

Breton music Since the early 1970s, Brittany has experienced a tremendous revival of its folk music. Along with flourishing traditional forms such as the bombard- biniou pair and fest-noz ensembles incorporating other additional instruments, it has also branc ...

competition.

Twin towns

The town maintains twinning links with: * Tavistock, United Kingdom since 1958 * Ouelessebougou, Mali since 1986 * Wesseling, Germany since 1972 * Napoléonville, United States since 1989

References

External links

Official website
*
Mayors of Morbihan Association
Communes of Morbihan Subprefectures in France {{Morbihan-geo-stub

Map