Rennes is a city in northwestern France, where it is the capital of the Brittany region. Historically, it was known as Condate in the Roman Empire, and it was fortified in the year 275 due to many tensions and battles in the region. Over many centuries, the dominion over the city and Brittany changed. In the 13th century, Rennes was subject to France for a transition, but the peace was not over, and it came to a war of succession in Brittany in the mid-1400s.

The English were eventually expelled from the region, and a separate parliament functioned in Rennes. In 1491, however, Brittany was submitted to the French crown, and Rennes and the region formally became part of France in 1532. Rennes then grew as a trade town. In 1720, a fire destroyed large parts of the city, and today’s city plan is partly the result of a subsequent reconstruction.

Today, there are many sights in Rennes’ cozy streets and large squares. You can start at the Place de la Mairie, where you can see Rennes’ town hall on the western side of the square. It is a Baroque building from 1734-1743, which Jacques Gabriel designed as part of the reconstruction after the fire in 1720. In the niche under the town hall tower, there was originally a statue of King Louis XV, but it was destroyed during the French Revolution.

Opposite the beautiful town hall building you can see Rennes’ opera house, which was opened in 1836 in Italian style. Close to this is the beautifully landscaped square, Place du Parlement-de-Bretagne, where the historic parliament building of the region of Brittany is located. The mansion dates from 1655 and houses a court today.

In the street Rue Saint-Georges you can see some examples of the half-timbered houses of which old Rennes had so many before the fire in 1720. After the fire, they rebuilt using stone houses, and therefore only a small number of houses of this type have been preserved. At the end of the street to the east is the Palais Saint-Georges, which was built in 1670 as a monastery. South of the mansion is a beautiful little park that belongs to the former monastery.

From the park you can go to the Église Saint-Germain, which was built as a merchants’ church mainly in the 15th and 16th centuries. The church’s architecture spans both the Gothic and the Renaissance, and the bell tower has a special history, as it originally functioned as a watch tower before it was handed over to the parish and converted into a church tower.

In the western part of the city center you can see Rennes’ great cathedral, which has a long construction history. There has been a cathedral on this site since the 5th century, and the current one was built from the 12th century. Several times, however, the building collapsed or was partially demolished, so the facade and towers date from the 16th and 17th centuries, while the rest of the church was built from 1787 to 1845. On that occasion, it was decided to decorate the interior considerably, and therefore it is a beautiful sight that greets visitors today.

You can also see several half-timbered houses in the street Rue du Chapitre, which is just south of the cathedral. To the west of the cathedral, you can also see the remains of the Portes Mordelaises city gates and the Tour Duschesne tower, both of which formed part of the fortress walls that surrounded Rennes from the 200s until the first demolitions in the 16th century.

In the northwestern part of Rennes, Place Sainte-Anne is located as one of the city’s large and atmospheric squares. Here you can see some preserved half-timbered houses, but also other of Rennes’ attractions like the basilica Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle, which as a relatively new church was built 1884-1904 as a replacement for an older church. Historically, there was an icon of the Virgin Mary painted on wood here, which was miraculous.

Next to the great basilica is the great Jacobin abbey of Rennes, founded in 1369. From here you can walk east along Rue Saint-Melanie to another of Rennes’ great churches, the Église Notre-Dame en Saint-Melaine, whose history goes back to the 11th century. The church had the status as cathedral in the years 1803-1844. Behind the church, you can enjoy a stroll in the Parc du Thabor and enjoy a French garden, an English garden, a botanical garden, a rosary, an orangery and a music pavilion.