La Cité de la Mer: event and exhibition space

The Cité de la Mer (“City of the Sea”) is a maritime museum in Cherbourg, France. The museum is located in the Cherbourg cruise terminal. This monument was built in 1933; it is one of the larger Art Deco monuments of today.

Its history

The former transatlantic marine station is the largest French Art Deco monument. It was built in 1928 by René Levavasseur, in collaboration with engineers Chalos and Fleury, in reinforced concrete, light brick, and concrete stones imitating granite. Nicknamed Notre-Dame des Queens after the Cunard Line, it was inaugurated on July 30, 1933, by the President of the Republic, Albert Lebrun. The whole was made up of the 240 m long train hall and the transatlantic hall – surmounted by a 70 m high bell tower – (with a hall for lost steps, company offices, shops, etc.) and the covered gallery of ‘boarding’. Four trains and two ocean liners could be accommodated simultaneously. Blown by the Germans on the night of June 23, 1944, it was partially rebuilt in 1948 before being inaugurated in 1952 in the presence of Antoine Pinay. Abandoned in the 1970s, the transatlantic ferry terminal was partially demolished before being listed in 1989 and again in 2000. The idea of creating a museum around the Redoutable, the first French nuclear submarine, dates back to the beginning of its dismantling at the end of the 1980s. The President of the Cherbourg Urban Community (CUC) and Minister of Tourism, Olivier Stirn, launched a study for the design of such a museum, but the size discouraged elected officials. However, in 1995, a few active associations succeeded in having the municipal councils of the agglomeration register the transfer of competence to the CUC for the design, construction, and management of a naval museum within the transatlantic station. Supported by Bernard Cauvin, President of the CUC, the project is also part of the rehabilitation of the former René Levavasseur naval station, the largest Art Deco monument in France, entrusted to the architect Jean-François Milou. La Cité de la Mer, which celebrates the maritime ambition of the Cherbourg metropolitan area, has been a success since its opening, becoming the second most visited paid tourist site in the English Channel after the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. It welcomed its 2,500,000th visitor at the end of 2012 its 3,000,000th on May 5, 2015, and the 4,000,000th in September 2019.