Mémorial de l’Abolition de l’Esclavage

Down by the water, 2000 brick-sized glass plaques embedded in the quay-side pavement scream out the names of ships that regularly set sail from the port of Nantes from 1750 until the early 19th century trading in enslaved people. They form part of an emotive Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery, designed in 2014 by Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko and American architect Julian Bonder. Steps lead down into a meditative tunnel beneath the quay, etched with abolitionist texts on a 90m-long glass panel.