The dock

At the start of the 19th century, when the former French East India Company port closed to trade and became exclusively military, a new port with a wet dock, navigational lock and pre-port was built on the bed of Le Faouëdic. The construction was long and laborious; the work started in 1838 and the commercial port was only inaugurated in 1870. At the site of the current lift bridge, surrounded by two lock houses, was a rotating bridge manoeuvred by means of a capstan winch, still there today.