RENNES, a town of western France, formerly the capital of Brittany and now the chief town of the department of Ille-et Vilaine. Pop. 78,693. Rennes is situated at the meeting of the Ille and the Vilaine and at the junction of several lines of railway connecting it with Paris (232 m. E.N.E.), St. Malo (51 m. N.N.W.), Brest (155 m. W.N.W.). Rennes, the chief city of the Redones, was formerly (like some other places in Gaul) called Condate (hence Condat, Conde), probably from its position at the confluence of two streams. In Roman times it was in Lugdun ensis Tertia, and became the centre of Roman roads. The oldest chronicles named it Urbs Rubra from the bands of red brick in the foundations of its first circuit of walls. Conan le Tort, count of Rennes (late loth century), subdued the whole province, and his son and successor Geoffrey first took the title duke of Brittany. The dukes were crowned at Rennes, and before entering the city by the Mordelaise gate they had to swear to preserve the privileges of the church, the nobles and the commons of Brittany. In 1356 57 Bertrand du Guesclin saved it from capture by the English. The parlement of Brittany, founded in 1551, held its sessions at Rennes from 156r, they having been previously shared with Nantes. Henry IV. entered the city in state on May 9, 1598. In 1675 an insurrection at Rennes, caused by the taxes imposed by Louis XIV. was cruelly suppressed. The parlement was banished to Vannes till 1689, and the inhabitants punished. At the be ginning of the Revolution Rennes was again the scene of blood shed, caused by the discussion about doubling the third estate for the convocation of the states-general. In Jan. 1789 Jean Victor Moreau (afterwards general) led the law-students in their demonstrations on behalf of the parlement against the royal gov ernment. It was the centre of the operations of the Republican army against the Vendeans. The bishopric, founded in the sth
century, in 1859 became an archbishopric, a rank to which it had previously been raised from 1790 to 1802.
The town was for the most part rebuilt of dark granite on a regular plan after the seven days' fire of 1720. The old town or Ville-Haute occupies a hill bounded on the south by the Vilaine, on the west by the canalized Ille. The Vilaine flows in a deep hollow bordered with quays and crossed by six bridges leading to the new town or Ville-Basse on its left bank. The cathedral of Rennes was rebuilt between 1787 and 1844 on the site of two churches dating from the 4th century. The Renaissance west facade has twin towers. The archbishop's palace occupies in part the site of the abbey of St. Melaine. The Mordelaise gate is a curious example of 5th-century architecture, and preserves a Latin inscription of the 3rd century, a dedication by the Redones to the emperor Gordianus. The finest building in Rennes is the 17th century parliament house, now the law-court.
Rennes is the seat of an archbishop and a prefect, headquarters of the X. army corps and centre of an academie (educational di vision). Its university has faculties of law, science and letters, and a preparatory school of medicine and pharmacy. The town is also the seat of a court of appeal, of a court of assizes, of tribunals of first instance and commerce, of a board of trade arbitrators and of a chamber of commerce. Tanning, iron-found ing, timber-sawing and the production of furniture and wooden goods, flax-spinning and the manufacture of tenting and other coarse fabrics, bleaching and various smaller industries are carried on. Trade is chiefly in butter made in the neighbourhood, and in grain, flour, leather, poultry, eggs and honey.