The name
Rennes comes from Riedones, the
name of the Gaulish tribe living
in that particular part of
Armorica in the 2nd century B.C.
The tribe chose "Condate"
(meaning confluent) as its
centre and the town thrived
during the Roman occupation.
At the
time, it covered an area of
almost 90 hectares. At the end
of the 3rd century, the threat
of invasion by the Barbarians
led to the building of a
fortified town surrounded by a
1200-metre long wall ranging
over 9 hectares. The wall marked
the boundaries of the mediaeval
town and was the town's only
defence system until the 15th
century.
In the 14th
and 15th centuries, the initial
fortifications were restored and
two new enclosures were built as
the town grew. These were the
"Ville neuve" to the north east
of the River Vilaine as far as
Saint-Georges Abbey, and the
"Nouvelle ville" to the south.
King Charles VIII's engagement
to Duchess Anne of Brittany
(married by proxy to Maximilian
of Austria a year earlier in the
duke's chamber in Rue
Saint-Yves) was celebrated in
the Chapel of
Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle, in
1491. This event heralded
Brittany's annexation to France,
which became official with the
Union Treaty in 1532.
From this
moment on, the fortified town -
the seat of a bishopric in the
5th century, hub of a road
network and dukes' residence -
became a provincial town,
characterised by timber-framed
houses and a certain
architectural tradition, whose
crowning glory, thirty years
later, was the establishment of
the Parlement, marking
the town as a provincial capital
and aristocratic town. Rennes
subsequently became the seat of
the provincial high court and
the chamber for publishing royal
edicts. Additionally, it was
entitled to make remonstrances
to the King. The Parlement
building took a century to
complete (1618-1709) and its
stonework and decoration
reflected the learned royal
architectural tradition of the
time. In parallel, numerous
stately townhouses were built
for the legal profession and
convents sprang up as a result
of the Counter-Reformation.
The parliamentary revolt, or
Fronde, which began with the
Papier Timbré Revolt in 1675 and
Parlement's exile to
Vannes until 1690, continued, in
1765, with the La Chalotais
Affair, the conflict between the
public prosecutor and the King.
The fire which broke out on 22
December 1720 destroyed 33
streets and 900 timber-framed
houses in the town centre.
Jacques Gabriel, the architect
commissioned to rebuild the
centre after the fortifications
engineer, Robelin, was ousted,
built a brand new town with a
more spacious layout, set around
two royal squares and
predominantly made of stone. One
of these squares celebrated
Louis XIV with the Parlement
building in the background, and
the other square paid homage to
Louis XV, whose statue presides
over the Hôtel de Ville, or City
Hall.
The "holy, learned and resonant"
town witnessed the events
running up to the French
Revolution and was held to be
the "birthplace of freedom", as
confirmed by Chateaubriand in
his "Reader, I must detain you:
witness the first drops of blood
flow which the Revolution was
obliged to spill […], cross the
river of blood which separates
forever the old world, which you
are leaving, from the new world
on whose threshold you will
die".
The 19th century was
characterised by the cleaning
and canalisation of the River
Vilaine, which opened up the
lower town or basse ville, and
the building of the railway
station (1857). The town's
architectural diversity, with
the theatre (1830-36) and a
university palace (1847-52),
were a clear indication of
Rennes' administrative and
cultural vocation whilst its
residential architecture bore
witness to its urban expansion.
The second half of the 19th
century witnessed the building
of the Lycée, or secondary
school, the Science Faculty
(1888) - which hosted the second
Dreyfus trial in 1899, the
Baltard-style Lices covered
market (1867), the Thabor
gardens and the Palais du
commerce, according to J-B
Martenot's plans. And under the
mayorship of Jean Janvier
(1908-1923), E. Le Ray designed
swimming baths, the main covered
market and Art-Deco and mosaic
nurseries.
After the Second World War,
Brittany's capital was rising in
status as a university town and
had one of France's fastest
growth rates (land development
of 5,000 hectares and 200,000
inhabitants in 1980) with a
nature reserve covering a vast
area of 35 hectares.
