Rennes

Rennes (Gallo: Resnn, Breton: Roazhon) is a city of northwestern France, in the east of Brittany. Rennes is the capital of the Bretagne région, as well as the préfecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine département.

Population of the city (commune) of Rennes at the 1999 census was 206,229 inhabitants (209,100 inhabitants as of February 2004 estimates). Population of the whole metropolitan area (French: aire urbaine) at the 1999 census was 521,188 inhabitants, ranking twelfth in France. Inhabitants of Rennes are called Rennais.

Administration

The current mayor of Rennes is Edmond Hervé, incumbent since 1977, when he replaced Henri Fréville. His "mairie" (mayor's office) is right in the centre of Rennes. Rennes is divided into 11 cantons:

• Le canton de Rennes-Bréquigny (15 397 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Centre (19 017 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Centre-Ouest (21 264 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Centre-Sud (15 774 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Est (20 323 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-le-Blosne (21 151 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Nord (21 845 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Nord-Est (18 224 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Nord-Ouest parts of Rennes and communes of Gévezé, Pacé and Parthenay-de-Bretagne (28 130 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Sud-Est parts of Rennes and communes of Chantepie and Vern-sur-Seiche (33 459 inhabitants)
• Le canton de Rennes-Sud-Ouest parts of Rennes and communes of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande and Vezin-le-Coquet (28 707 inhabitants)

Geography

The town is built on a hill, with the north side being more elevated than the south side. It is at the meeting point of two rivers: the Ille and the Vilaine.

Sights

Rennes is classified as a city of art and history.

Historic Center

• The Parlement de Bretagne (Parliament of Brittany, Plasenn Breujoù Breizh) is arguably the most famous building in Rennes. It was rebuilt after a terrible fire in 1994. It houses the Rennes court of appeal.
• Colorful traditional timber frame houses are situated primarily along the roads Saint-Sauveur, Saint-Georges, de Saint-Malo, Saint-Guillaume, des Dames, du chapitre, Vasselot, Saint-Michel, de la Psallette and around the plazas of Champ-Jacquet, des Lices, Saint-Anne and Rallier-du-Baty.

• • Polychromatic wooden busts from the 16th century, in the façade of 20 rue du Chapitre.
  • Basilica Saint-Sauveur
• Place des Lices and surrounding area
  • Les Halles Martenot of the 19th century, built between 1868 and 1871 by Jean-Baptiste Martenot, host the market on Saturday mornings (the third largest market in France).
  • The Mordelaises Gate (Portes Mordelaises), chatelet with two towers and a drawbridge
  • The remaining fortifications of the 3rd century
  • The Jehan Duchesne tower of the 15th century, on rue Nantaise
  • The 15th century ramparts east of the Gallo-Roman fortifications, in place Rallier-du-Baty.
• Place Saint-Anne (Plasenn Santez-Anna)
  • Saint-Aubin Church
  • Location of a former 14th century hospital
  • Jacobite convent
• La rue Saint-Michel nicknamed rue de la soif (road of thirst)
• Area from Saint-Mélaine to Place Saint-Mélaine
  • Notre-Dame en Saint-Mélaine Church,
    • tower and transept from the 11th century Benedictine abbey of Saint-Mélaine
    • 14th century gothic arcades
    • 17th century columnar façade
    • bell tower topped with a gilded Virgin Mary (19th century)
    • 17th century cloister
  • Magnificent park, The Parc Thabor, (formal French garden, orangerie, rose garden, aviary).
  • The 17th century promenade "la Motte à Madame", with monumental stair, Near the rue de Paris entrance to the Thabor.
• Rue Saint-Georges and rue Gambetta
  • 1920's Saint George Municipal Pool, with mosaics
  • Saint George Palace, and its garden
• Place de la Mairie (City Hall Plaza, Plasenn Ti Ker)
  • City Hall
  • Opera
• Place du Vau-Saint-Germain
  • Vau de Saint-Germain Church
  • Saint-Germain footbridge, 20th century wood and metal construction to link the plaza with Émile Zola Quay.
• Place du Champ-Jacquet
  • statue of Leperdit ripping up a conscription list.

South of the Vilaine

• Quai Émile Zola (Émile Zola Quay), next to the Vilaine River.
  • The Fine Arts Museum
  • The Museum of Brittany
• rue du Pré-Botté
  • prior location of Ouest-Éclair, then of Ouest-France, premier daily regional newspaper; resutored and now occupied by the Mercure hotel.
• rue Duhamel
  • the large mills, constructed on each side of the south branch of the Vilaine in 1895 and 1902.
• Place Henri Commeurec
  • Les Halles centrales, covered market of 1922, converted into contemporary art gallery.

Also

• North-west, near the rue de Saint-Malo
  • the sluices of the canal d'Ille-et-Rance of 1843
• East of the city, rue de Paris
  • The two halls of the printer Oberthür, built by par Marthenot between 1870 and 1895.
  • Oberthür Park, the second biggest garden in the city.
• South, Blosne Quarter (Bréquigny)
  • The manor of the Haute-Chalais (17th century), granite chateau

History

Rennes is the capital of the région of Brittany, in France. It has a long history due to its location at a confluent of two rivers.

The eastern Armorican people of Redones founded Condate— an ancient Celtic word meaning confluent— at the confluence of the Ille and Vilaine rivers and made it the capital of a territory that extended to the Bay of Mont Saint Michel. The name of the city of Rédon also reflects that of the Redones. Early in the 1st century BCE, they adopted the Greek and Roman practice of issuing coinage [1], adapting the widely-imitated gold staters of Philip II of Macedon, in the characteristic Celtic coin metal alloy called billion. Without inscriptions, as the Celtic practice was, the Redones coinage features a carioteer whose pony has a human head. Large hoards of their coins were unearthed in the "treasure of Amanlis" found in June 1835 and that of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, discovered in February 1941. The Museum at Rennes contains a large representative collection.

They joined the Gaulish coalition against Rome in 57 BCE, which was suppressed by Crassus. The following year, Roman emissaries were held hostage by the Redones, which obliged Julius Caesar to intervene in Armorica and suppress the rebels, and the following year to cross the Channel to discoruage further support of the Redones by the Britons. In 52 the Redones responded to the call of Vercingetorix to furnish a large contingent of warriors (Caesar, Gallic Wars II.34; VII.75).

Roman era

In the Roman era, Condate became Condate Riedonum, capital of civitas riedonum

The oldest known rennais is Titus Flavius Postuminus, known to us from his steles found in Rennes in 1968. As indicated by his name, he would have been born under the Flavian dynasty, under the reign of Titus, i.e. between 79 and 81 AD. One of the steles tell us, in Latin, that he took charge over all the public affairs in the Civitas Riedonum. He was twice duumvir and flamine for life for Mars Mullo.

During the Roman era, the strategic position of the town contributed to its importance. To the west the principal Roman route, via Osismii stretched from Condate to Vorgium (modern Carhaix).

In the year 275, the threat of barbarians led to the erection of a robust brick wall around Rennes. Rennes became known as the "red town".

Once threatened by the danger of bagaudes at the end of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Armorican peninsula, including Brittany and therefore Rennes, made up the last of the stronghold of the western Roman Empire. The invincible Armorican Romans held their ground against Clovis I, who occupied most of Alamans, then the Visigoths. Melaine, the bishop of Rennes, played an important role in the peace treaty between the Franks and the Armoricans in the year 497. He famously declared "Il faut faire la paix entre chrétiens" ("Peace must be made between Christians").

Middle ages

Starting in the fifth century, Bretons occupied the western part of the Armorican penensula, which started to be called little Britain, and then Brittany, while the Franks took the rest of Armorica. To contain the expansion and avoid Breton incursions, the Carolingians instituted a Breton march, composed of the counties of Rennes, Nantes, and Vannes.

These marches were entirely absorbed by the Breton Kingdom in the ninth century, and Rennes became Breton in 851. Rennes would later become the capital of Ducal Brittany.

During the Breton War of Succession, in 1356 and 1357, the city was sieged by the Duke of Lancaster, brother of the English king, but Bertrand du Guesclin slipped into the city and took over the resistance, which would ultimately be victorious. After nearly a year, Lancaster renounced the English siege in 1357.

In 1491, it was the French army of Charles VIII, led by his general, La Trémoïlle, that uncusessfully attacked Rennes. Brittany having already capitulated elsewhere, Rennes alone still resisted. The defenders of Rennes were determined to resist to the death, but the Dutchess Anne of Brittany chose instead to nagotiate. By her marriage to Charles VIII, she made Brittany a part of France. Anne jealously guarded Brittany's autonomy, but the duchy was eventually fully merged with the French crown by her daughter Claude of France.

Modern era

In 1857 Rennes train station was built, which gradually led to the southward sprawl of the town. In 1899 the trial for Alfred Dreyfus' affair took part in Rennes.

Economy

Local industries include car manufacturing and telecommunications. Citroën, currently the largest employer of the population of Rennes, opened a manufacturing plant at Rennes La Janais in 1961 to manufacture the Ami.

Rennes is also one of first Technopoles in France that were established in an effort to stimulate the economies of regions other than Paris during the Aménagement du territoire.

Culture

Rennes invests heavily in arts and culture and a number of its festivals (such as the music festival Les Transmusicales, les Tombées de la Nuit and Travelling (a cinematic festival)) are well known throughout France. Rennes was one of the first towns in France to have its own television channel 'TV Rennes', created in 1987. Rennes is home to Stade Rennais FC, who play at Route de Lorient in the French Premier League.

Miscellaneous

Colleges, universities and research facilities

The Rennes agglomeration has a large student population (around 60,000).

The city has two main universities:

• Université de Rennes 1 : science, technology, medicine, philosophy, law, management and economics-based centre
• Université de Rennes 2 : the arts, literature, languages, communication, human and social sciences, sport

In addition:

• The École Normale Supérieure de Cachan has a branch on the Ker Lann campus, just outside Rennes.
• An École Supérieure for political science is based in Rennes called the Institut d'études politiques de Rennes
• The computer science and applied mathematics research institute IRISA is in the suburbs of Rennes.
• The Délégation Générale pour l'Armement (defense procurement agency) operates the CELAR research center, dedicated to electronics and computing, in Bruz, a suburb.
• The École Supérieure d'Électricité - Supélec has a branch in the west of the city (Cesson-Sévigné).
• The grande école Institut National des Sciences Appliquées

Transportation

Rennes has well developed national road, rail and air links and is two hours by TGV from Paris. Local transport is based primarily on an extensive bus network (38 different lines) and a metro line that was inaugurated in March 2002 and cost €500 millions to build. The Rennes Metro is 9.4 km in length and has 15 stations, including one designed by architect Norman Foster. Rennes is one of the smallest cities in the world to have a metro.

See also: Gare de Rennes

Rennes is also served by an airport, Rennes-St. Jacques Airport, located to the south-west in the commune Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande.

Twinned towns

These twinned towns are inscribed on the bridge over the central canal of Rennes:

• Exeter (UK) since 1957.
• Rochester (New York, USA) since 1958.
• Erlangen (Germany) since 1964.
• Brno (Czech Republic) since 1965.
• Sendai (Miyagi, Japan) since 1967.
• Leuven (Belgium) since 1980.
• Cork (Ireland) since 1982.
• Setif (Algeria) since 1982.
• Rennes-les-Bains (Aude, France) since 1985.
• Jinan (Shandong, China) since 1985.
• Almaty (Alma-Ata in Kazahakstan) since 1991.
• Poznan (Poland) since 1998.
• Sibiu (Romania) since 1999.
• Plateau Dogon (Mali) since 1999

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rennes".