Sanary-sur-Mer Sant Nari (Occitan) | |
|---|---|
 Waterfront in Sanary-sur-Mer | |
.svg) Coat of arms | |
 Location of Sanary-sur-Mer | |
  Sanary-sur-Mer  Sanary-sur-Mer | |
| Coordinates:43°07′05″N5°48′05″E / 43.118°N 5.8014°E /43.118; 5.8014 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur |
| Department | Var |
| Arrondissement | Toulon |
| Canton | Ollioules |
| Intercommunality | CA Sud Sainte Baume |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2021–2026) | Daniel Alsters[1] |
Area 1 | 19.24 km2 (7.43 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 17,938 |
| • Density | 932.3/km2 (2,415/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 83123 /83110 |
| Elevation | 0–429 m (0–1,407 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Sanary-sur-Mer (French pronunciation:[sanaʁisyʁmɛʁ], literallySanary on Sea;Occitan:Sant Nari), popularly known asSanary, is acommune in theVardepartment in theProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azurregion, SoutheasternFrance. Sanary-sur-Mer is located in coastalProvence on theMediterranean Sea, 13 km (8.1 mi) west ofToulon and 49 km (30 mi) southeast ofMarseille. It can be reached from Paris byTGV in less than four hours. In high season there are direct flights to nearbyToulon–Hyères Airport from London, Oslo, Brussels and Rotterdam.
The seafront location was part of the commune ofOllioules. In the 16th century theseigneur established a fishing village here, clustered around the medieval watchtower, under the protection of "Sanct Nazari" ofLérins Abbey. The port was constructed and the harbour deepened in the mid-16th century. The little fishing port known in theProvençal dialect ofOccitan (or in Provençal if considered as a distinct language) asSant Nazari, laterSant Nàri, contracted later on asSanàri, was finally granted its independence from Ollioules byLouis XIV of France on 10 July 1688. On 12 November 1890 it officially received its Francised name,Sanary, which was formalised and distinguished as "sur-Mer" ("on Sea") on 27 July 1923.
As a tourist rendezvous, the village underwent a strong decade of growth in the 1980s. Sanary-sur-Mer's coastline has a number of small beaches; it is an active village all year round, unlike most small towns on the Mediterranean coast. Sanary-sur-Mer is one of the sunniest places in France, with an average of only 61 days of rain, mostly in winter, as well as major solar radiation (6,156 MJ/m2/yr), comparable toSicily. It is regularly swept by theMistral, a strong wind coming from theRhône Valley, which brings low humidity around 20%, gusts up to 130 km/h (81 mph), cool temperatures, sun and deep blue skies. Wind is near gale force or higher on average 115 days per year (storm force eight days per year), making Sanary a favourite destination for windsurfers.
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 8,851 | — |
| 1975 | 10,264 | +2.14% |
| 1982 | 11,505 | +1.64% |
| 1990 | 14,730 | +3.14% |
| 1999 | 16,995 | +1.60% |
| 2009 | 16,806 | −0.11% |
| 2014 | 15,963 | −1.02% |
| 2020 | 17,173 | +1.23% |
| Source: INSEE[3] | ||
Jacques Cousteau had a house in Sanary, the Villa Baobab. He was a pioneer ofdeep sea diving equipment, which he invented and developed around Sanary. The Frédéric Dumas International Diving Museum (Musée Frédéric-Dumas) is in a 13th-centuryRomanesque tower made available by the municipality; it bills itself as an historical city of diving.Frédéric Dumas was a co-inventor with Cousteau of theaqua-lung.[4]
Sanary was the birthplace ofErnest Blanc (1923–2010), a distinguished operatic baritone who enjoyed a long international career.
Sanary hosts every year during the month of May the prestigious international photography festival PHOTOMED,[5] now also held in parallel in Beirut.
With the rise of Nazism in the early 1930s, a great number of German writers and intellectuals left Germany and settled here: the playwrightBertold Brecht,Egon Erwin Kisch,Thomas Mann,Ludwig Marcuse,Joseph Roth,Franz Werfel and his wifeAlma Mahler widow ofGustav Mahler at Le Moulin Gris (near the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Pitié),Lion Feuchtwanger at Villa Lazare then at Villa Valmer, andArnold Zweig. Patronised byJean Cocteau and his coterie, Sanary had already drawnAldous Huxley, who wroteBrave New World at Villa Huley,[6] and his wife, Maria; they attracted other English visitors, such asD. H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda;Julian Huxley and his wife, Juliette; and others.
The German expatriates clustered around Thomas Mann and his large family, his brother Heinrich and his wife (the model forBlue Angel), the writersStefan Zweig andArnold Zweig, the art criticJulius Meier-Graefe, and the artistRené Schickele. Sybille von Schoenebeck (later, asSybille Bedford, the author ofA Legacy) lived here with her mother.Ludwig Marcuse in his book "Mein Zwanzigstes Jahrhundert" (p. 160) wrote about Sanary: "Wir wohnten im Paradies – notgedrungen", meaning "We lived in paradise – against our will".
"If one lives in exile," wroteHermann Kesten, "The café becomes at once the family home, the nation, church and parliament, a desert and a place of pilgrimage, cradle of illusions and their cemetery... In exile, the café is the one place where life goes on."
With the declaration of war in 1939, the French government treated these exiles as enemy aliens and interned some of them in camps like the concentrationCamp des Milles near Aix-en-Provence, and eventually some were sent toAuschwitz. After theliberation of France, the whole episode went ignored until the 1990s when, perhaps thanks to the increasing number of tourists from Germany, a commemorative plaque was unveiled, and literary itineraries were signposted.[citation needed]
Sanary-sur-Mer istwinned with:
Luino, Italy, since 2001
Bad Säckingen, Germany, since 1973
Purkersdorf, Austria, since 1973
Hongcheon, South Korea, since 1986
Kościerzyna, Poland, since 1990
Noginsk, Russia, since 2010
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