Nantes

Nantes Naunnt / Nantt (Gallo) Naoned (Breton)
Prefecture and commune
Top to bottom, left to right: the Loire in central Nantes; the Château des ducs de Bretagne; the passage Pommeraye, and the île de Nantes between the branches of the Loire
Flag Coat of arms
Motto(s):  Latin: Favet Neptunus eunti (Neptune favours the traveller)
Location of Nantes
Nantes Show map of France Nantes Show map of Pays de la Loire
Coordinates: 47°13′05″N 1°33′10″W / 47.2181°N 1.5528°W / 47.2181; -1.5528
Country	France
Region	Pays de la Loire
Department	Loire-Atlantique
Arrondissement	Nantes
Canton	7 cantons
Intercommunality	Nantes Metropolis
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Johanna Rolland[1] (PS)
Area 1	65.19 km2 (25.17 sq mi)
• Urban  (2018)	498.6 km2 (192.5 sq mi)
• Metro  (2018)	3,471.1 km2 (1,340.2 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]	323,204
• Rank	6th in France
• Density	5,000/km2 (13,000/sq mi)
• Urban  (2018)	655,187
• Urban density	1,300/km2 (3,400/sq mi)
• Metro  (2018)	997,222
• Metro density	290/km2 (740/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Nantais (masculine) Nantaise (feminine)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	44109 /44000, 44100, 44200 and 44300
Dialling codes	02
Website	metropole.nantes.fr
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Nantes (/nɒ̃t/, US also /nɑːnt(s)/;^[3][4][5] French: [nɑ̃t] ^ⓘ; Gallo: Naunnt or Nantt [nɑ̃(ː)t];^[6] Breton: Naoned [ˈnãunət])^[7] is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, 50 km (31 mi) from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 320,732 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabitants (2020).^[8] With Saint-Nazaire, a seaport on the Loire estuary, Nantes forms one of the main north-western French metropolitan agglomerations.

It is the administrative seat of the Loire-Atlantique department and the Pays de la Loire region, one of 18 regions of France. Nantes belongs historically and culturally to Brittany, a former duchy and province, and its omission from the modern administrative region of Brittany is controversial.

Nantes was identified during classical antiquity as a port on the Loire. It was the seat of a bishopric at the end of the Roman era before it was captured by the Bretons in 851 with the help of Lambert II of Nantes. Although Nantes was the primary residence of the 15th-century dukes of Brittany, Rennes became the provincial capital after the 1532 union of Brittany and France.

During the 17th century, after the establishment of the French colonial empire, Nantes gradually became the largest port in France and was responsible for nearly half of the 18th-century French Atlantic slave trade. The French Revolution resulted in an economic decline, but Nantes developed robust industries after 1850 (chiefly in shipbuilding and food processing). Deindustrialization in the second half of the 20th century spurred the city to adopt a service economy.

In 2020, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Nantes as a Gamma world city. It is the third-highest-ranking city in France, after Paris and Lyon. The Gamma category includes cities such as Algiers, Orlando, Porto, Turin and Leipzig.^[9] Nantes has been praised for its quality of life, and it received the European Green Capital Award in 2013.^[10] The European Commission noted the city's efforts to reduce air pollution and CO₂ emissions, its high-quality and well-managed public transport system and its biodiversity, with 3,366 hectares (8,320 acres) of green space and several protected Natura 2000 areas.^[11]