Rennes (France) – Location, History, Facts

Rennes is a city in eastern Brittany, northwestern France, where the Ille and Vilaine rivers meet.

Rennes, France.

Country: France
Coordinates: 48.1142° N, 1.6808° W
Country and region: France; eastern Brittany in northwestern France
Administrative role: Prefecture of Brittany and Ille-et-Vilaine
Commune population: 230,890 inhabitants in 2023

Rennes overview

Rennes is a city in eastern Brittany, northwestern France, where the Ille and Vilaine rivers meet. It is the prefecture of both the Brittany region and the Ille-et-Vilaine department, giving it a direct administrative role at regional and departmental levels. The commune had 230,890 inhabitants in 2023 and belongs to Rennes Métropole. Its present character reflects more than two millennia of settlement, a major rebuilding after the 1720 fire, postwar industrial expansion, and the later growth of higher education, telecommunications, and high-technology industries.

Official recorded sales

Residential property prices in Rennes

The median recorded residential sale price was €3,826 per m² across 17,503 qualifying transactions in 2021–2025. This is a historical transaction measure, not a live asking price or a valuation.

Apartment median: €3,700/m²
House median: €4,863/m²
Source updated: 2026-07-17

Open the full data analysis and methodology

Rennes coordinates

Rennes is commonly mapped at approximately 48.1142° N, 1.6808° W, or 48.1142, -1.6808 in decimal degrees.

Degrees: 48.1142° N, 1.6808° W

Decimal: 48.1142, -1.6808

Where Rennes is located

The commune occupies 50.39 square kilometres in eastern Brittany, in northwestern France, at the confluence of the Ille and Vilaine rivers. Its elevation runs from 20 to 74 metres, with an average of 30 metres. The built-up area is separated from surrounding rural land by a protected green belt, while the city forms part of Rennes Métropole. Administratively, it is divided into six cantons and 12 quarters and uses the postal codes 35000, 35200, and 35700.

A prefectural seat for Brittany and Ille-et-Vilaine

Rennes performs regional and departmental prefectural functions within France.

The city is the prefecture of the Brittany region and the Ille-et-Vilaine department, placing regional and departmental administration in the same urban center. It also belongs to Rennes Métropole, the intermunicipal structure identified in the source dossier. This combination gives the commune several civic scales: it governs as an official French commune, participates in metropolitan administration, and hosts the prefectural functions of both a region and a department. The official commune record identifies it with INSEE code 35238, department code 35, region code 53, and SIREN 213502388.

A river confluence enclosed by an urban green belt

Its urban setting is defined by the Ille–Vilaine confluence, modest elevation, and a protected edge of green space.

The meeting of the Ille and Vilaine rivers provides the city’s principal geographic reference. The commune covers 50.39 square kilometres and rises from 20 to 74 metres, with an average elevation of 30 metres. Its urban form is not described as continuous expansion into the countryside: the source notes a protected green belt between the built-up city and surrounding rural areas. Internally, the municipality is divided into 12 quarters and six cantons, linking the river-based setting to a formal administrative geography.

From Condate and ducal administration to industrial expansion

Public use developed from an ancient settlement into a Breton parliamentary, administrative, and garrison center, then an industrial and technology city.

The city’s history is traced back more than 2,000 years to the Gallican settlement of Condate. It later became one of the major cities of the historic Duchy of Brittany and served as a parliamentary, administrative, and garrison city before the French Revolution. The Stamped Paper Revolt of 1675 forms another major episode in its public history. A destructive fire in 1720 led to partial rebuilding of the medieval wooden center in stone. Since the 1950s, rural flight and industrial development reshaped the city, followed from the 1980s by telecommunications and high-tech industries.

Prefecture, metropolitan government, universities, and technology sectors

Its civic life is shaped by prefectural government, Rennes Métropole, a large student population, and technology industries.

Several institutions and communities operate at overlapping scales. The prefecture connects the city to the government of Brittany and Ille-et-Vilaine, while Rennes Métropole provides an intermunicipal framework. Higher education is another major presence: the source records more than 66,000 students in 2016 and describes the campus as France’s eighth-largest university campus at that time. The economic base also changed after the 1980s, when telecommunications and high-tech industries expanded. Together, these administrative, educational, and technological institutions explain why the city serves more than its municipal population alone.

A Breton administrative capital with a protected historic record

The city represents the institutional and historical continuity of eastern Brittany while retaining evidence of earlier urban forms.

Its symbolic role rests on the combination of Breton political history and present-day public administration. The city was a major center of the historic Duchy of Brittany and later became the seat of both the Brittany regional prefecture and the Ille-et-Vilaine departmental prefecture. Its historic identity is also formally recognized through the designation City of Art and History. More than 90 buildings are listed as protected historic monuments in the source dossier. The 1720 rebuilding, which replaced part of the medieval wooden center with stone, makes that heritage a record of urban change rather than a preserved single period.