République Square

Just like other Republique squares in France, it is the city’s most central place. The eye catching building standing majestically in front of you, is the Palace of trade. This is the former Rennes stock exchange, built at the end of the 19th century in the fine neoclassical style, typical of that time. After the stock exchange, the palace lent its walls to the municipal library, the Regional School of Fine Arts, then to the music conservatory, before becoming the post office that the people of Rennes know today. It is decorated with beautiful mosaics by the artist Odoricco.  If you look at the arches above the Legion of Honor passageway, you’ll see two statues on either side. They are allegories of 4 towns of the “Ille-et-Vilaine” county: Vitré, Fougères, Saint-Malo and Redon. The square’s peculiar shape is due to the fact that the Vilaine river flows beneath your feet. The Roman city of Condate now Rennes, was built at the crossroads of two rivers: the Ille and the Vilaine. A  strategically advantageous position for the economy of the city but no so fortunate for the lower town, which was regularly flooded by the Vilaine. There was a real difference between the upper and lower town. Lower town was the poor, damp district. This is where the craftsmen settled. Tanners, drapers, dyers, etc. were all to be found there. The upper town, protected from the flows, was richer. This was the district of the nobility and the churches.  However in the Age of Enlightenment, focus is on open-mindedness and modernity. People started to go against this social division. Hence, while the city was being renovated following the great fire of 1720, plans were drawn up for a major reconstruction of the lower town, diverting the Vilaine, draining its canals and filling in the ditches. However, in reality, it was very expensive, and Rennes was already covered in debt! The end result wasn’t to be seen until the  19th century, meaning that not so long ago, you’d have been wading through the mud. République Square marks the spot where the Vilaine still splits the two parts of the town. On one side, you have the former upper town, rebuilt with great pomp and now the bourgeois center, and the suburbs to the South, the more modest part of town. Now walk across the square, leaving the Palace of Trade behind you, and continue straight ahead on Orléans street, to the Opera.