300 years ago, a gigantic fire ravaged Rennes

On this Sunday, December 22, 1720, all is calm in Rennes. The city, one of the most important of the kingdom of France with its 40.000 inhabitants, thanks in particular to the establishment of the Parliament of Brittany in the XNUMXth century, presents a half-timbered architecture with dense and winding streets.

Rue Tristin, an artery in the city center that has now disappeared, a fire starts from a carpenter's workshop. Quickly, the fire got out of hand. But why was it not contained as it has been elsewhere?

"We prepared for the winter period: in the houses, there is a lot of firewood but also highly flammable foodstuffs such as fat, lard, tallow ...", suggests Gilles Brohan, heritage coordinator at the Rennes tourist office.

Night has fallen and it is Sunday, a nonworking day where we sometimes have the habit of drinking more than we should ... No real help is to wait for help, the fire brigade does not yet exist .

Fanned by a strong wind, a "sea of ​​fire", according to testimonies, consumes the city. After a few days, the steward, ancestor of the prefect, even ordered the destruction of houses to create firewalls.

At the end of December, the long-awaited rain finally falls. The fire was brought under control on the 30th. If the human toll was limited to a dozen victims - most of the inhabitants having had time to escape - the center is nothing more than a heap of smoking ruins: a thousand houses destroyed, or 40% of the city, while around thirty streets are wiped off the map.

"In Europe, in modern times, the fire in Rennes was an exceptional event. If urban fires were far from rare, very few caused such significant destruction", notes the Australian historian David Garrioch, quoted in "Rennes 1720. the fire" (PUR).

1720, annus horribilis

Now it's time to rebuild the city. After having dispatched a soldier in the person of Isaac Robelin to tackle it, an appointment which may echo that of General Jean-Louis Georgelin for the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris, it is finally the architect of the King Jacques Gabriel who is appointed, a decision which flatters the ego of Breton notables.

The reconstruction, which will last until 1760, is based on an orthogonal plan, "with islets which intersect at right angles", forming "a rational city which contrasts with the medieval interweaving", underlines Mr. Brohan.

"Gabriel's tour de force is that he will densify while ventilating the city, which will gain in healthiness, light, public spaces, with two royal squares, designed in the spirit of the Enlightenment of the XNUMXth century", adds- he does.

In order not to relive the trauma of the fire, the people of Rennes, very pious in this city where convents and congregations are numerous, will symbolically protect themselves: the virgin niches, many of which are still visible, are multiplying.

But Rennes has not yet completely finished with the flames. In 1994, following a demonstration by fishermen, the Parliament of Brittany, the most emblematic monument of the Breton capital, burned down ... although it had been almost miraculously spared in 1720.

And where in London, "The monument", an impressive Doric column, recalls the terrible fire of 1666, it was not until 1993 that a commemorative monument was inaugurated in Rennes: the fountain by the Italian artist Claudio Parmiggiani, installed in a place where the fire has been stopped.

Still, this fire punctuated an "absolutely appalling year 1720", recalls the historian Georges Provost, with in addition a major financial crisis and the plague in Provence. An "annus horribilis" 300 years before that of 2020 marked by a global epidemic, an economic crisis and Islamist attacks.