Rennes, FR

Saint-Sauveur Basilica

Behind its 18th-century façade in the Gesu style, this church of recollection displays numerous devotional ex-voto's, in particular one dating from the fire of 1720, and remarkable furniture such as canopies, pulpit, baptismal font and organs from the 17th and 18th centuries.

About this building

The Saint-Sauveur church, which had become too cramped, was rebuilt from 1703 under the direction of the architect Huguet, who was finishing the towers of the cathedral at the time. In 1719, the choir and transept were almost finished, but the building was damaged by fire in 1720, and work slowly resumed, still under Huguet's direction until his death in 1730, and then under Forestier's direction. It is to him that we owe the Italian-style façade, built around 1755. The work was completed in 1764.

Visitors information

  • Level access to the main areas
  • Car park at the building
  • Café within 500m
  • Space to secure your bike

Other nearby buildings

Wikimedia Commons/Pymouss

Rennes Cathedral

The current site of the cathedral has been used as the seat of a bishopric since the 6th century. It is likely that it was built in place of an older sanctuary. The old building was completely replaced by a Gothic church in the 12th century. In 1490, the tower and the western facade of the Gothic church collapsed. An endless reconstruction of the western massif was undertaken, which lasted 163 years and resulted in the granite facade that we know today, which is largely in the classical style.

Monique Chevrel Cosnier

Church of Saint-Etienne

The church left by the Augustinians reflects both their pastoral ambition and the poverty of their means. At 52 m long and 26 m wide, it is one of the great churches of the Ancien Régime in Rennes, more spacious for example than the church of the Jesuits or that of Saint-Sauveur.

Wikimedia Commons

Church of Saint-Germain

The Church of St. Germain was rebuilt from the 1450s in a flamboyant Gothic style, of which it is a particularly accomplished example, with contrasting voids and solids, play of light, extreme thinness of the pillars, a broken barrel vault panelled in a continuous interior space. The reconstruction lasted more than a century. Around 1610, it was extended by the reconstruction of the southern transept.

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