Île des Morts

Île des Morts is a 7-hectare island in the Bay of Roscanvel, to the south-west of the roadstead of Brest, between the Quélern peninsula and Île Longue. It is 26m above sea level at its highest point.

In 1720, the neighbouring island of Trébéron became a quarantine island or lazaret for lepers, with Île des Morts as its cemetery. During the 18th century, the arsenal at Brest was supplied with gunpowder from the powder-mills of Pont-de-Buis. Transported by boat, the gunpowder made a last stop at the île d'Arun, at the mouth of the River Aulne. However, the magazine on the île d'Arun was small and remote from Brest and was not convenient in the context of the Napoleonic Wars, with the British fleet blockading Brest. In 1808, Jean-Nicolas Trouille, director of the maritime works at Brest, decided to develop Île de Morts by adding powder magazines. The rock-breaking works done by convicts from the Brest prison allowed him to level a plateau on which to build three 45m-long and 12m wide two-level powder-magazines . In completing the magazines, he also built a mole out towards île Trébéron, several landing points and a barracks for the magazines' garrison.

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