or Havre de Grace, the principal commercial seaport on the west coast of France, and a sub-prefecture and chief town of the department of Seine-Inferieure. It stands on the N. bank of the estuary of the Seine, in N. Lat. 49. 29. 14., and W. Long. 0. 6. 38.; by railway 143 miles from Paris, 127 from Poissy, 108 from Mantes, 553 from Rouen, and 32 from Yvetot. It is the port of the Seine and of Paris, and one of the most thriving maritime towns of France. It is quite modern in its construction, chiefly built on a low alluvial tract of ground, and divided into two parts by its outer port and basins. It has no fine buildings or historical monuments; its streets run chiefly in straight lines and at right angles with one another; and they are grouped round the basins or docks which communicate by lock-gates, and are placed so as to form a triangle entered from the outer port.

Havre is a fortified town of the third rank; a maritime prefecture, with a tribunal of the first instance and of commerce; an exchange and a chamber of commerce; a hydrographic school of the first class; a maritime arsenal, &c. The mouth of the harbour, formed in the flat alluvium of the Seine, is kept open by the aid of a reservoir of water, regulated by sluices. During only four hours each tide can vessels enter the port, which is left dry at low water. The three old docks are capable of containing from 200 to 300 vessels; the third, the Bassin de Vauban, the largest of all, situated outside the walls, and finished in 1842, is a magnificent work with a fine masting machine, and warehouses of the best construction. At the extremity of the reservoir has been constructed a fifth dock for steamers.

Napoleon said that "Paris, Rouen, and Havre, formed only one city, of which the Seine was the highway." This briefly accounts for the prosperity of Havre. It is the place of import of all foreign articles required for the supply of the French capital, as well as of cotton for the manufacturers of Rouen, Lille, St Quentin, and Alsace, which cities again export through Havre their manufactured goods. Like Liverpool, it is the point of communication between the continent of Europe and America; and a great trade has been here carried on with the United States since the declaration of their independence. Though Havre is much inferior in size to Marseilles, Bordeaux, or Nantes, the other great mercantile ports of France, yet it yields to none of them in activity. Its imports, though only half the weight of those of Marseilles, nearly equal them in value. The chief imports from America by Havre are coffee, indigo, hides, peltry; but above all, cotton for the Rouen and Mulhausen factories. From Spain are imported wine, oil, barilla, and timber; from Sweden and Norway, deals, planks, masts, pitch, and tar.

The manufactures of Havre are not numerous or extensive. They consist mostly of chemicals, starch, oil, tobacco, tar, cordage, sailcloth, cables, earthenware, furniture, and lace. The Havre station of the Paris, Rouen, and Havre railway covers an area of 36 acres. Pop. (1851) 26,410.

In 1509 Louis VII. founded Havre; and Francis I. took it under his special protection, bestowing upon it the name of Franciscopolis; but a chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame de Grace ultimately conferred on it its present name. The French East India Company and the Companies of Senegal and Guinea made it their entrepôt and the chief seat of their commercial operations. In 1759 (during the Seven Years' War) preparations were made here for an invasion of England, which led to the bombardment of the place by Admiral Rodney. In 1794 and 1795 it was again bombarded by the British.

In 1485 Henry of Richmond embarked at this place for Milford Haven and Bosworth Field with 4000 men, furnished by Charles VIII., to aid his enterprise. The town was delivered over to the keeping of Queen Elizabeth by the Prince de Condé, leader of the Huguenots, in 1562, and the command of it was entrusted to Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick; but the English were expelled within a year, after a most obstinate siege, the progress of which was pressed forward by Charles IX. and his mother, Catherine de Medici, in person.

Havre is the birthplace of Bernardin de St Pierre, author of Paul and Virginia; and of Mademoiselle Scudery, and of Casimir Delavigne.