Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The building located 11 Place du Parlement-de-Bretagne in Rennes was one of the buildings built after the great fire of 1720, which ravaged much of the city. These buildings, characteristic of the first half of the eighteenth century, were designed to restore a modern and harmonious face to the city centre. Their granite facades, decorated with arcades in the middle of the corner, house commercial ground floor, entresols and two floors, crowned by a floor of Mansart attic, typical of French classical architecture. The ionic pilasters, separating the spans, reinforce the symmetrical elegance of the ensemble.

The Palace Square (now the seat of the British Parliament) thus became a symbol of the Rennes reconstruction, mixing urban utility and aesthetic ambition. The facades on the square and the roofs, classified as Historic Monument by decree of 6 November 1959, illustrate the desire to preserve this architectural heritage. The building, like its neighbours, testifies to the adaptation of local constructive techniques (Bretton Granit) to imported conventional cannons, while meeting the needs of a city in the midst of economic revival after the disaster.

No information is available on original owners or architects who led the work. However, the uniform style of buildings suggests central planning, perhaps driven by the municipal authorities or the Parliament of Brittany, which was then a major institution in Rennes. The absence of precise archival documents in the source text limits the knowledge of technical details or discussions surrounding this reconstruction.

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