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]
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]
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]
