History

Rennes is the administrative capital of the French department Ille-et-Vilaine. Before the French revolution, prior to the integration of the Duchy of Brittany into the Kingdom of France, Rennes was the capital of the duchy, with the other historical capitals of Brittany's Ducal period being Nantes and Vannes. It has a long history due to its location at the confluence of two rivers and its proximity to the bordering regions from which arose various challenges to the borders of Brittany. The eastern Armorican people of Redones founded Condate an ancient Celtic word meaning confluent at the confluence of the Ille and Vilaine rivers and made it the capital of a territory that extended to the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel. The name of the city of Redon also reflects that of the Redones. Early in the 1st century BCE, they adopted the Greek and Roman practice of issuing [1] coinage, adapting the widely imitated gold staters of Philip II of Macedon, in the characteristic Celtic coin metal alloy called billion. Without inscriptions, as the Celtic practice was, the Redones coinage features a charioteer whose pony has a human head. Large hoards of their coins were unearthed in the "treasure of Amanlis" found in June 1835 and that of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, discovered in February 1941. The museum at Rennes contains a large representative collection. They joined the Gaulish coalition against Rome in 57 BC, which was suppressed by Crassus. The following year, Roman emissaries were held hostage by the Redones, which obliged Julius Caesar to intervene in Armorica and suppress the rebels, and the following year to cross the Channel to discourage further support of the Redones by the Britons. In 52 the Redones responded to the call of Vercingetorix to furnish a large contingent of warriors

Roman era
In the Roman era, Condate became Condate Riedonum, capital of Civitas Riedonum. The oldest known Rennais is Titus Flavius Postuminus, known to us from his steles found in Rennes in 1969. As indicated by his name, he would have been born under the Flavian dynasty, under the reign ofTitus, i.e. between 79 and 81 AD. One of the steles tells us, in Latin, that he took charge over all the public affairs in the Civitas Riedonum. He was twice duumvir and flamen for life for Mars Mullo. During the Roman era, the strategic position of the town contributed to its importance. To the west the principal Roman route, via Osismii, stretched from Condate to Vorgium (modern Carhaix). In the year 275, the threat of barbarians led to the erection of a robust brick wall around Rennes. Rennes became known as the "red town". Threatened by the danger of peasant marauders called bagaudae at the end of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Armorican peninsula, including Brittany and therefore Rennes, constituted the last of the strongholds of the western Roman Empire. The invincible Armorican Romans held their ground against Clovis I, who occupied most of Alamans, then the Visigoths. Melaine, the bishop of Rennes, played an important role in the peace treaty between the Franks and the Armoricans in the year 497. He famously declared "Il faut faire la paix entre chrtiens" ("Peace must be made between Christians").

Modern era
In 1857, the Rennes train station was built, which gradually led to the southward sprawl of the town. In 1899, Alfred Dreyfus' second trial in Rennes caused a national commotion. During World War II, Rennes suffered heavy damage from just three German aircraft which hit an ammunition train parked alongside French and English troop trains and near a refugee train on the yard: 1,000 died. The next day, 18 June 1940, German troops entered the city. Later, Rennes endured heavy bombings by the US and Royal Air Forces in March and May 1943, and again in June 1944, causing hundreds of deaths. Rennes contained a German transit POW camp and a POW hospital which contained many of the paratroopers captured on D-Day. Patton's army freed the capital of Brittany on 4 August, as retreating German troops blew up the bridges behind them, adding further damage. About 50,000 German prisoners were kept in four camps, in a city of only about 100,000 inhabitants at the time. From 1954 onward, the city developed extensive building plans to accommodate upwards of 220,000 [4] inhabitants, helping it become the third fastest-growing city in France, after Toulouse and Montpellier(1999 census).

Climate
Rennes has a fresh Oceanic climate with rainfall all year round and cool temperatures.

Population
Historical population
Year 1793 1800 1806 1821 1831 1836 1841 1846 1851 Pop. 30,160 25,904 29,225 29,589 27,340 35,552 37,895 39,218 39,505 % 14.1% +12.8% +1.2% 7.6% +30.0% +6.6% +3.5% +0.7%

1856 1861 1866 1872 1876 1881 1886 1891 1896 1901 1906 1911 1921 1926 1931 1936 1946 1954 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990

45,664 45,483 48,283 52,044 57,177 60,974 66,139 69,232 69,937 74,676 75,640 79,372 82,241 83,418 88,659 98,538 113,781 124,122 151,948 180,943 198,305 194,656 197,536

+15.6% 0.4% +6.2% +7.8% +9.9% +6.6% +8.5% +4.7% +1.0% +6.8% +1.3% +4.9% +3.6% +1.4% +6.3% +11.1% +15.5% +9.1% +22.4% +19.1% +9.6% 1.8% +1.5%

1999 2009

206,229 206,604

+4.4% +0.2%

In 2009,the inner population of the city was of 206,604,and its urban area counted 663,214 inhabitants. The inhabitants of Rennes are called Rennais in French. Rennes has the third-fastest growing metropolitan area in France

Economy
Local industries include car manufacturing and telecommunications. PSA Peugeot Citron, currently the largest employer of the population of Rennes, opened a manufacturing plant at Rennes La Janais in 1961. Technicolor (ex-Thomson) employs over 1,000, and France Telecom R&D over 1,200. In few years, Rennes became one of the main centres in high tech industry. Rennes is one of first Technopoles in France that were established in an effort to stimulate the economies of regions other than Paris during the Amnagement du territoire. Rennes is the 2nd concentration of ITC firms in France after Paris (with well-known companies like Atos, SFR, Orange France Telecom, Technicolor R&D, Canon, Mitsubishi, Alcatel-Lucent, Texas Instruments, NXP, Sopra Group, Thales or Logica), and the 3rd innovation potential in agrofood French industry.
[citation needed]

Education
The Rennes agglomeration has a large student population (around 60,000). The Breton language is taught in one Diwan school, some bilingual public and catholic schools, in evening courses, and in [7] university. The city has two main universities; Universit de Rennes 1, which offers courses in science, technology, medicine, philosophy, law, management and economics and Universit Rennes 2, which has courses in the arts, literature, languages, communication, human and social sciences, sport. There are a few cole Suprieures in Rennes. The cole Normale Suprieure de Cachan has a branch on the Ker Lann campus, just outside Rennes. An cole Suprieure for political science, Institut d'tudes politiques de Rennes (site), is also based in Rennes. There is also branches of cole Suprieure d'lectricit Suplec and Telecom Bretagne in the east of the city (Cesson-Svign), a campus of the cole pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies,Ecole Suprieure de Commerce de Rennes and the grande cole Institut National des Sciences Appliques, which is next to the "cole Nationale Suprieure de Chimie de Rennes". The computer science and applied mathematics research institute, IRISA, is located on the campus of the Universit des Sciences, nearby Cesson-Svign. The Dlgation Gnrale pour l'Armement(defense procurement agency) operates the CELAR research center, dedicated to electronics and computing, in Bruz, a neighboring town.