Sanary-sur-Mer

Sanary -sur -Mer ( Provence Sant Nari de Mar) is a commune with 15 844 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2011 ) in the Var department in the Provence- Alpes- Côte d' Azur.

Geography

Sanary is a small town on the Mediterranean coast near Toulon in southern France in the east and Bandol in the West.

History

Sanary was founded in 1035 as San Nazari. The original Provencal name was changed in 1890 in Sanary -sur -Mer.

In the 12th century there were in the harbor today a convent of the abbey of Saint - Victoire in Marseille, which was dedicated to the Holy Saint Nazaire. End of the 13th century was known under its current name "Tour novels ," which served as a watch tower built. 1436 was built by King René I a small garrison, on whose tower it as a sign of royal privilege, gave a dovecote. Today the tower in a group of buildings, the " Hotel de la Tour " is integrated, which housed German emigrants during the reign of the Nazis. Since 1990 located in the buildings of the Museum Frédéric Dumas.

After the First World War, many painters and writers from all over Europe had settled here and near, among them Aldous Huxley and Julius Meier -Graefe with his partner Anne -Marie Epstein, who received the first German emigrants. In the years after the Nazi takeover in Germany held in the small town on the Mediterranean, many German emigrants. The city has since been regarded as an important center exile. Among the most famous exiles were Bertolt Brecht, Ferdinand Bruckner, Franz Theodor Csokor, Albert Drach, Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger, Bruno Frank, Walter Hasenclever, Francis and Helen Hessel, Alfred Kantorowicz, Hermann Kesten, Egon Erwin Kisch, Arthur Koestler, Annette Kolb, the brothers Golo and Klaus Mann, as well as their parents Katja and Thomas Mann and his brother Heinrich Mann, Ludwig Marcuse, Erwin Piscator, Anton Räderscheidt, Joseph Roth, Franz Werfel and Alma Mahler -Werfel, Friedrich Wolf, and Arnold Zweig Stefan Zweig.

During the Second World War Sanary was also the refuge of Jacques -Yves Cousteau, co-inventor of the modern addition Émile Gagnan regulator. He owned a house there, " Villa Baobab ", where he was able to protect his invention from being accessed by the German occupiers. 1943, the first immersion tests were carried out in collaboration with Philippe Tailliez in Bandol. Later these two diving pioneers formed together with Frédéric Dumas, who lived since childhood in Sanary, a well-known trio, nicknamed Les Trois Mousquemers. Dumas invented many diving equipment (underwater harpoon, scuba mask, BCD, etc.)

Attractions

• Chapel of Notre -Dame-de - Pitié: from 1560 built on a hill west of the city chapel reveals a nice view over the bay of Sanary with the hills of Toulon in the background and the coast to the Îles des Embiez, behind where the heights of Cap Sicié rise.
• Church of Saint Nazaire: A neo-Gothic building, the end of the 19th century, the old Romanesque church replaced in the 16th century.
• The "Roman Tower " (Tour novels ) was built in the Middle Ages.

Twinning

Sanary maintains partnerships with Luino in Italy, Kościerzyna in Poland, Bad Säckingen in Germany and in Austria Purkersdorf.