Le Havre (France) – Location, History, Facts

Le Havre is a commune and port city in France, on the right bank of the Seine estuary where it meets the English Channel.

Le Havre, France.

Country: France
Coordinates: 49.4942° N, 0.1081° E
Country and region: France; Normandy in northern France
Department: Seine-Maritime département
Administrative roles: Commune, subprefecture, and seat of the Le Havre arrondissement

Le Havre overview

Le Havre is a commune and port city in France, on the right bank of the Seine estuary where it meets the English Channel. Its defining role is both civic and maritime: it is the seat of the Le Havre arrondissement and a member of Le Havre Seine Métropole, while its port makes it a major centre for container traffic and related industry. The central city also reflects a decisive historical break, having been rebuilt in concrete after extensive Second World War destruction under architect Auguste Perret.

Official recorded sales

Residential property prices in Le Havre

The median recorded residential sale price was €2,340 per m² across 13,567 qualifying transactions in 2021–2025. This is a historical transaction measure, not a live asking price or a valuation.

Apartment median: €2,308/m²
House median: €2,410/m²
Source updated: 2026-07-17

Open the full data analysis and methodology

Le Havre coordinates

Le Havre is commonly mapped at approximately 49.4942° N, 0.1081° E, or 49.4942, 0.1081 in decimal degrees.

Degrees: 49.4942° N, 0.1081° E

Decimal: 49.4942, 0.1081

Where Le Havre is located

Le Havre lies in Normandy in northern France, within the Seine-Maritime department. The city occupies the right bank of the Seine estuary along the English Channel, placing its urban area between the river’s maritime outlet and the coastal port. This position explains the close relationship between the settlement and shipping: the city was founded as a port in 1517, and its later economy continued to combine maritime trade, industrial activity, and services. Administratively, it is a commune, a subprefecture, and the seat of the Le Havre arrondissement.

A commune, subprefecture, and port administration

Le Havre performs both local-government and arrondissement-level administrative functions while serving as a major French port city.

As a commune, the city is an official French local authority identified in the national administrative system by code 76351. It is also a subprefecture and the seat of the Le Havre arrondissement, giving it an administrative role beyond its municipal boundaries. The city belongs to Le Havre Seine Métropole, linking it to an intercommunal structure. Alongside these civic functions, the port anchors a broader economic role: the source describes it as France’s largest container port and the country’s second-largest port by total traffic after Marseille.

A rebuilt centre between the estuary and the port

The urban form is defined by a modernist central city rebuilt after wartime destruction beside a major estuarine port.

The city’s setting gives its streets and districts a direct relationship with maritime space: the built-up area stands on the right bank of the Seine estuary, along the English Channel, beside the port founded in 1517. That urban fabric was radically altered during the Second World War, when 12,000 homes were totally destroyed before the city’s capture in Operation Astonia. From 1945 to the 1960s, Auguste Perret led reconstruction of the central city, largely using concrete and a modernist approach. The present centre therefore records both port geography and planned postwar rebuilding.

From a royal harbour to an industrial port city

Public and economic use shifted from a royal foundation serving older silted harbours to a trading and industrial city shaped by global commerce.

Francis I founded the city and port in 1517 to replace the older harbours of Honfleur and Harfleur, whose channels had silted up. Its later growth followed international trade, including West Indies commerce and the 18th-century slave trade. During the 19th century, the settlement developed into an industrial centre, extending its role beyond shipping and exchange. The Second World War then interrupted that urban continuity through extensive destruction. Reconstruction between 1945 and the 1960s created a new central environment, while the wider economy retained maritime and industrial connections.

The port, metropolitan government, and Malraux museum

The port, Le Havre Seine Métropole, arrondissement administration, and André Malraux Museum of Modern Art are institutions that define the city’s public role.

The port is the principal economic institution in the dossier, supporting the city’s identity as a container-shipping centre and connecting it to sectors including oil, chemicals, automotive manufacturing, services, aeronautics, and wind-turbine production. Public administration operates through the commune, the arrondissement, and Le Havre Seine Métropole. Cultural life is represented by the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art, whose collection includes a major group of Impressionist paintings. These institutions place industry, government, and visual culture within the same urban framework.

A public identity built around reconstruction

The rebuilt central city represents postwar reconstruction as a defining part of Le Havre’s civic identity.

The city’s symbolic role rests on the visible connection between destruction and reconstruction. The Battle of Normandy caused the deaths of 5,000 people and the total destruction of 12,000 homes, after which the central city was rebuilt under Auguste Perret from 1945 to the 1960s. That planned modernist reconstruction, largely in concrete, became the basis for UNESCO World Heritage inscription in 2005 under the title “Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret.” The designation identifies reconstruction, rather than only port activity, as a central public meaning.

Le Havre facts

France; Normandy in northern France
Seine-Maritime département
Commune, subprefecture, and seat of the Le Havre arrondissement
Le Havre Seine Métropole
166,687 inhabitants in 2023
City and port founded by King Francis I in 1517
France’s largest container port and second-largest French port by total traffic, after Marseille, according to the supplied source dossier.