ldiers' lilting walking which created resonance in the bridge structure.
In 1875, a free faculty is created and soon assimilated to the medieval Universitas Andegavensis, which was dissolved during the French Revolution. The new faculty is canonically erected as a Catholic university by the Pope Pius IX in 1879. However, in 1890, a law prohibits private institutions of higher education to call themselves "university", and it is officially renamed in Faculté libre d'Angers (Free Faculty of Angers), although it informally kept its original name, Université catholique d'Angers. At the beginning of the 20th century, two higher education establishments, specialised in agriculture and commercial sciences, are opened.
During the first half of the 20th century, several Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings are constructed, such as the Nouvelles Galeries, the Hotel des Postes, Hotel Continental, the Alcazar or the Maison bleue.
In September 1939, when Poland is invaded by Germany, the Polish government-in-exile settles in Angers. It left the city the 12th of June 1940, after the invasion of France by the Wehrmacht. Angers falls to the Nazis during the same month. The Germans make it the seat of a regional Kommandantur. In 1941, a first Resistance movement, called Honneur et Patrie, is created in Angers. 60 Resistants are shot at Belle-Beille range in 1942 and a German bunker factory employs 6000 people in 1943. In July 1942, 853 Jews are arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
The night of the 28th May 1944, the first Allied bombing occurs over the Saint-Laud quarter. 243 people die and many others are wounded. Successive attacks the 29th and 30 May destroy the train station and its surroundings which are reconstructed in the 1950s.
After liberating Avranches and Rennes, General Patton and his 5th infantry division arrive in Anjou the 5th of August. To seize Angers, they decide to enter the city by its eastern side to surprise the Nazis. The 9th of
