Brest is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of a peninsula and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second largest French military port after Toulon. The city is located on the western edge of continental France. With 139,456 inhabitants (2020), Brest forms Western Brittany's largest metropolitan area, ranking third behind only Nantes and Rennes in the whole of historic Brittany, and the 25th most populous city in France (2019); moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the préfecture of the department is in the much smaller town of Quimper.
A view of the Tour Tanguy with the Château de Brest in the background
Brest in c. 1700
The Maison de la Fontaine in Recouvrance, one of the oldest houses of Brest (end of the 17th century, beginning of the 18th century)
Gustave Le Gray: la batterie Royale à Brest, 1858
Finistère is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Its prefecture is Quimper and its largest city is Brest. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.
Prefecture building of the Finistère department, in Quimper
Granite rocks in Ouessant
Pontusval lighthouse near Brignogan-Plages
Calvary in Saint-Jean-Trolimon
