Rennes is a city where art and the history mingle with each turnings with a street, of a place. One should not hesitate with stroll in the medieval lanes of the city at discovered houses with wood sides, because in Rennes, as in the whole of the duchy of Brittany, the permanence of construction with wood sides until the middle of the XVIIème century, prolongs the medieval tradition beyond the strict limits of the Middle Ages. The fire which declared on December 23rd, 1720 devastated, in one week, more than 900 houses and buildings. Nevertheless all around the epicentre of the city remain of many houses with wood sides. Moreover, the rough-casting operated on the frontages for twenty years has emphasized a know-how expressed in the structures, the frontages, the staircases, the woodworks… which make of a walk in Rennes, a true pleasure, to see some time, enchantment.
Around the place of des Lices where a market is held every saturday, (the 3rd market of France) you will find the private mansions of the members of Parliament Breton. On the place of the Town hall, the public edifice of invoice baroque and traditional faces the theater of the city. The Parliament of Brittany recently restored draws up itself not far from there, guard of the Breton memory. Rennes also invites you to the daydream with its raised fountains and its parks, as with the east, the Garden of Thabor with a whole vegetable gasoline range. Randomly streets, you will surprise the intimacy of an interior court under the glance of a mascaron carved above a carriage door.     top page

Parliament of Brittany

When in 1561, the Parliament settles in Rennes, the king Henri II incites the noble members of Parliament to be made build a palate, worthy of their double political office and legal. The plans of Germain Gaultier (1571-1624), four bodies of buildings, connected by four houses of angle, forming an interior court, are corrected by Salomon de Brosse who, if it retains the granite for the ground floor, prefers micaceous chalk for the stage. In frontage, a balustrade joined the two houses of angle, supported by a staircase with double revolution leading to a terrace which makes it possible to the noble members of Parliament to reach directly the room of the prosecutors. The ground floor is useful at the time of prison. If the building is built in 1655, the execution of the decorations makes come to Rennes carpenters, sculptors, gilders, painters… until 1709.     top page

In the night from February 4th to 5th 1994, the palate of the Parliament of Brittany is the prey of the flames, following disorders, opponent in Rennes the Breton fishermen and the services of the order. Fire, having brooded behind the sundial, will set ablaze the roof and will burn the frame in oak of the XVIIème century, as well as the vault of the room of the Lost Steps. The saved prestigious fabrics received an exemplary restoration.

The Court of Appeal reinstalls itself there starting from October 4th, 1999. The restoration and the rough-casting of the frontage emphasize the play of soft polychromy expensive at the XVIIème century, through in particular the granite and the stone of Richemont, will mascarons them keystones, the carved plank and the “black” slate roof of Maël-Carhaix.     top page

Religious buildings in Rennes

They are numerous in Rennes and each one of them contains true treasures: the Basilica Saint-Sauveur, behind his frontage of the XVIIIe century in the style of the engineers, this church of meditation presents an ex-voto of the fire of 1720 and one remarkable furniture such as baldachin, pulpit, baptismal font and organ of XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries. The Saint-Pierre Cathedral, with his frontage which superimposes the orders, on both sides emblem of the sun king Soleil, answers the Roman basilica the impressive neo-classic decoration and the exceptional Gothic retable of XVème century out of gilded wood. The Notre-Dame Church as Saint-Melaine, where old Benedictine abbey remain the abbey palate, the cloister with the rich person carved decoration and the conventual church. It presents testimonys of the Romance time to the sides of tombs, statues as well as stained glasses of the XIXe century and contemporaries. The Saint-Etienne Church and Saint-Augustin, old vault of Augustins, the beginning of the XVIIIe century, watch a high altar with baldachin and glory, rate/rhythm by marble columns, marble side furnace bridges of Saint-Berthevin and a pulpit offered by a president to mortar to the Parliament of Brittany. The Toussaints Church, which is the old vault of the famous college of the Jesuits describes by Chateaubriand. In this building of the XVIIe century out of calcareous stone, three retables are remarkable, that of the chorus in the spirit of the order and those of the transept signed of the resident of Laval François II Houdault. The Church Saint-Germain, it is the church of the merchants drapers of the city, built in XIIIe century, expresses the richness of these corporations: the Gothic and the rebirth are posted on the porches; the stained glasses of two bays dating from XVIe century côtoient more contemporary achievements of max Ingrand. The Church Sainte Therese, very damaged following a fire in September 2001, this church is again opened with the worship. The restoration gave in value the many decorations “Art déco” which it conceals: the Odorico mosaic, paintings of Garin, stained glasses of Rault or sculptures of Le Bourget.     top page

Civil buildings

They are the many and not less interesting ones than the others, we will quote amongst other things, the Saint-Georges palate, of the Benedictine abbey, founded in XIe century by the duke Alain III, out the walls of the city, and protected starting from XVe century by the medieval enclosure, it remains the palate built at the XVIIe century under magistère of Magdeleine de la Fayette, by the “Laval-native architects” Tugal Caris and Corbineau.
In the center, on the floor of the roofs, a curved pediment is decorated armorial bearings of the abbey stamped of a royal crown and allegories of Justice and Peace. It accommodates services of the city today. The setting in light of the building, at the fallen night, emphasizes the elegance of the rate/rhythm of the high surmounted arcades of 2 micaceous chalk stages. The Opera, one century after the construction of the Town hall, Charles Millardet answers the curved party of the XVIIIe century by the rotundity of the theater. Placed under the vigilance of the Muses posed with the ridge of its frontage and carved by F. Lanno, it presents a ceiling, decorated by Lemordant in 1913, which appears the round of small Breton. The Town hall, following the fire of December 23rd, 1720, the heart of the east city to be rebuilt. After Isaac Robelin, it is Jacques Gabriel (1667-1742) who in with the load. May 23rd, 1730, its project “to build a public edifice for immortality” is accepted. It gathers in only one construction, on a new place, the Town hall in the south, the présidial in north and the tower of the clock in the center.     top page

But you will also see that to trust of its cultural identity, the Museum of Brittany opens its doors and recalls through its regional collections the Breton anchoring of the city. As for the museum of Beautiful arts, it will surprise you by the quality of its works emanating of the large Masters of European painting.

But Rennes it is also a city which acquired an international reputation as regards cultural events of avant-garde. Each year for more than twenty years, Transmusicales of Rennes have revealed the large artists rock'n'roll of tomorrow while the Festival des Tombées de la Nuit became a major pole for the most various contemporary creations.

Rennes these is 2000 years of history, which made of this place, a city with the many faces going of the Middle Ages to the Contemporary, a city with the innumerable richnesses, a place of relaxation also thanks to its green areas and a place of user-friendliness with its many markets.     top page

Do not stop you there that only one day, you will not have time all to see. Take the time of discovered… Rennes is worth the sorrow of it.

Thanks to the tourist office of Rennes for the photographs

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