Saint-Lô is a city famous for the largest stud in France, founded in the times of Napoleon I. It is also called the city of ruins from which it was raised after the great destruction of World War II.
The nickname "city of ruins" was given to Saint-Lô after World War II. It was one of the first cities attacked by the Allies during the Normandy Landing Operation. A very strong artillery fire destroyed most of the buildings. The reconstruction process took several years and today Saint-Lô regained large fragments of the mighty city walls that surrounded the Gothic churches of Notre-Dame and the Holy Cross, and partly the buildings of the center.
The biggest attraction of Saint-Lô is the local National Stud, founded in the early 19th century by Napoleon Bonaparte. Currently, it can be visited with a guide, and several times a year there are horse shows and open days.
In Saint-Lô you can also visit the 17th-century palace de la Vaucelle with its restored interiors, the Museum of Applied Arts and the Norman Bocage Museum located in a historic Breton pen and showing the life of the local villagers.
