LITTLE STORY OF LA CIOTAT
The beginning
La Ciotat was created, as an independant community, by the Charter of March
1429. Its name “ La Cieutat “, which means the town, comes from
the memory of the antique "Civitas" (city) which stood here and of
which a few rare romains are left.
La Ciotat of the 15th and the 16th centuries was reduced to "Dintre",
a small space limited to our current streets : Maréchal Foch, François
Donzel, La Callade.
The 17th century, on the contrary, was the golden century for La Ciotat which
built its church and chapels and extended itself to the current limits.
It was the century of the triumphant beliefs which manifested themselves through
brotherhoods (e.g. : Pénitents) and through congregations (e.g.: Capucines,
Bernardines, Ursulines for women, Capucins, Servites, Minimes, Oratoriens for
men).
The XVIII th and XIX th centuries
During the 18th century, the middle class of La Ciotat developped their patrimony
through trade and navigation. The fishermen formed a powerfull unit, furthered
by their tribunal.
The Revolution was greeted with fervour by the "petit peuple" of shipworkers
and farmers, and by craftsmen who gathered in the "Club des Antipolitiques",
affilied to the Club of Marseille (Friends of the Constitution).
La Ciotat, on the edge of the Mediterranean, endured the Franco-English war
which lasted from the Directory to the Empire.
The Restoration and the Second Empire, even if they brought peace, saw La Ciotat
depopulated and poorer, at least until the creation of the "Service Maritime
des Messageries Nationales".
In 1835, one doubles the capacity of the port by building the pier of Bérouard.
An industrialist: Louis Benet, there installs a factory of steam engines and
will launch in 1836, in collaboration with Vence, the naval manufacturer ciotaden,
the first French vapor steamer of the Mediterranean. Ruined by the Revolution
of 1848, it yields its workshops, in 1851, with the Maritime Service of the
National Transport (which will become Impériales in 1853 then Maritimes
in 1871).
From the III° Republic until now
This is the era in which La Ciotat gradually modernised itself.
The railway reached La Ciotat in 1854. The Marseille-Toulon line was finished
in 1859. In 1861, the town was illuminated by gas whereas electricity was installed
in 1890.
In 1887, a railway line linked the town of La Ciotat to the Paris-Lyon-Marseille
line.
1895 saw the brillant invention of two adopted citizens, the brothers Louis
and Auguste Lumière : Cinematography.
La Ciotat constructed its schools, its open-air market, its fishermongers, its
public garden.
In 1910, some citizens of La Ciotat invented “la Pétanque”.
The "Messageries Maritimes"”, then the "Société
Provençale de Constructions Navales"(S.P.C.N.) and the "Chantiers
Navals de La Ciotat"(C.N.C.)(the shipyard of La Ciotat) assured constant
and profitable work.
Alas! The two world Wars(1914-18)-(1939-45) badly damaged La Ciotat in casuelties
and destructions.
With the end of the second world war, Ciotat counts 13410 inhabitants,
they will be 30000 after the expansion of "the thirty glorious ones"
in 1975. In 1982, the state amalgamates the building sites of Ciotat, Seyne
and those of Dunkirk: it is the "NORMED". But the crisis which begins
will be right of this company and the last launching of ship in Ciotat will
take place in 1987. The city, disaster victim by unemployment, sees decreasing
its population during this end of XXeme century. In this beginning of XXIeme,
if the city could not yet find its industrial strength of antan, various establishments
of new companies in sectors various and innovating (maritime or different) and
its tourist attraction show the sign of a revival for this old woman and courageous
city.
