Rennes City Hall

Rennes City Hall (French: Mairie de Rennes, Hôtel de ville de Rennes) is the seat of the city council in the French city of Rennes. It has been classed by the French government as a monument historique since 1962.[1]

History

The baroque building was designed by Jacques Gabriel, who was tasked with rebuilding many building in Rennes after a fire in 1720. Gabriel chose to break with the past and build a new city worthy of the Age of Enlightenment. The city hall was placed on a newly built square. The south wing held the council and the north wing held a court, while in the middle there was a bell tower with a statue of Louis XV, which would be destroyed during the French Revolution.[2] The statue of the monarch was in honour of his support for rebuilding the city.[3]

From 1840 to 1855, the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Rennes was based in the north wing, hosting academics such as the chemistry professor Faustino Malaguti.[4] Emmanuel Le Ray refurbished the City Hall in the early 20th century, including the Panthéon rennais memorial to the victims of the First World War.[5][6] The names of great French generals are inscribed on the ceiling, though the name of Philippe Pétain – later the head of state of the collaborationist Vichy France – has been removed.[3]

The niche where the statue of Louis XV stood was later occupied by a Jean Boucher sculpture of Anne of Brittany, the last sovereign ruler of the duchy, marrying Charles VIII of France. On 7 August 1932, during festivities for the 400th anniversary of the Union of Brittany and France, it was destroyed by a bomb laid by Breton nationalists; nothing has since replaced it on the plinth.[7]

References
  1. "Hôtel de ville" (in French). Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  2. "Jacques Gabriel, le bâtisseur du centre-ville" [Jacques Gabriel, the builder of the city centre]. Ouest-France (in French). 14 August 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  3. "Connaissez-vous vraiment l'hôtel de ville ?" [Do you really know the city hall?]. Ouest-France (in French). 19 August 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  4. Rolland, Jacques; Domi, Bernard (1 January 2017). "Une histoire de la faculté des sciences de Rennes, place Pasteur". Cahier de Rennes en Sciences (in French) (1): 8–9.
  5. Guéné, Hélène; Loyer, François (1995). L'église, l'état et les architectes: Rennes, 1870-1940 (in French). EDITIONS NORMA. ISBN 978-2-909283-16-6. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  6. "Rennes. Une classe Mémoire et histoire découvre le panthéon" [Rennes. A Memory and History class discover the Pantheon]. Ouest-France (in French). 10 March 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  7. "1932 : les Français découvrent le nationalisme breton" [1932: the French discover Breton nationalism]. Le Télégramme (in French). 8 March 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2022.

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