Département: Ille-et-Vilaine
Rennes, situated at the junction of the canalized Ille and the Vilaine, is the chief town of the département of Ille-et-Vilaine, the see of an archbishop and a university town. The old capital of Brittany, Rennes is still its economic and
cultural center. Important elements in its economy are the foodstuff industries and car- manufacturing, and it also has a large research center (computer, video and communications technology).
Rennes is a modern town, with its streets laid out at right angles to one another. In 1720, after a great fire which burned for a week, much of the town had to be rebuilt and further reconstruction was necessary as a result of severe damage during the Second World War.
In the third century A.D. Rennes was surrounded by a massive brick wall, and in the early Middle Ages it became one of the principal Frankish frontier strongholds against the Bretons. With the Duke of Brittany's victory over Charles the Bald in the 11th century, however, Rennes fell into Breton hands, and until the union of Brittany with France in 1532 was the capital of a Grand Duchy. Under the Ancien Régime it was an administrative center and the seat of the Breton Parlement. After the great fire in 1720 it was rebuilt to the plans of the royal architect Jacques Gabriel.
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