Vitré is a French commune located in the department of
Ille-et-Vilaine (Brittany region). Its inhabitants are the Vitréens
and the Vitréennes. The city had 18,037 inhabitants in 2017, making
it the 14th largest city in the region and the 522nd in France. It
is at the heart of the agglomeration community of Vitré Communauté.
Sub-prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine until 1926, Vitré is today the
capital of the canton. It occupies the Marche region in Upper
Brittany. In 2008, the city celebrated its first millennium of known
history, although its past is much older. Its important medieval and
classical heritage has earned it the City of Art and History label
and inclusion in the list of the Most Beautiful Detours in France.
Vitré is the 37th French commune with the most historical monuments
and includes 14% of the historical monuments of the department. It
was promoted to “Ville fleurie”, obtained four flowers in the 2018
winners of the competition for cities and villages in bloom and has
two stars in the Michelin Green Guide. Vitré is also concerned by
urban sprawl and by cyanobacteria pollution of the Valière pond.
The heritage of Vitré is one of the Breton cities best preserved
in its original form. With its houses with porches or with wooden
walls, its ramparts, its religious heritage, its old streets, its
train station, Vitré is an example of a 500-year-old city.
Castle Museum (Musée du Château de Vitré): outdoor area; Paintings,
carpets, sculptures and natural history museum
Saint-Nicolas
Museum (500 m from the château): religious goldsmith's art from the
late 19th and early 20th centuries (unique in France)
Rochers-Sévigné Museum (7km from Vitré, towards
Argentré-du-Plessis): Breton residence of the Marquise de Sévigné,
where she wrote numerous letters to her daughter. French style
garden.
Museum du Manoir de la Faucillonnaie in
Montreuil-sous-Pérouse (6 km from Vitré, direction Fougères): rural
art of the Pays de Vitré (furnishings, cooking utensils, traditional
costumes, stable restored, etc.)
Museum l'Abeille Vivante
(industrial area of briquettes)
Church of Notre-Dame (15th/16th
century, late Gothic)
Saint Martin Church
Sainte Croix Church
Protestant Church
Hôtel Ringues de la Troussanais (Renaissance
Breton-style mansion)
Benedictine convent (court)
city walls
and corner towers
Old streets (Beaudrairie, Poterie, d'Embas
etc.) and squares (Marchix, train station, castle, Notre-Dame etc.)
Train station (Neo-Gothic limestone and red brick "castle")
Château-Marie Castle (17th century, ceiling with painted beams)
Park Garden (Le Jardin du Parc) (kiosk, statue of Mme de Sévigné,
diverse and rare botanical plants)
origins
It seems that Vitré was occupied since the Gallo-Roman
era. The name Vitré could derive from the Gallo-Roman anthroponym Victor
or Victrix, the name of a Gallo-Roman estate located in the region.
Around the year 1000, the Duke of Brittany Geoffroy I appointed his
henchman Riwallon Le Vicaire (“Riwallon the Vicar”) as the first Baron
of Vitré and entrusted him with guarding this strategic region, which
became the buffer zone of the “Breton March”. . A small wooden castle
was built on the Sainte-Croix hill. It burned down several times and was
then bequeathed to the Benedictine monks of Marmoutier.
Another
stone castle, a sign of the relative wealth of the feudal lord, was
built by Robert I in 1070 on its current site on a rock overlooking the
Vilaine. Some parts of it are still visible today. A Romanesque portal
still exists, made of alternating blue-black slate and red granite. The
granite comes from a quarry 15 km from the city, a long distance at the
time. On the portal is an ornate marigold, symbol of the baron's power.
In the 13th century the castle was enlarged and powerful towers and city
walls were added. Like Philippe Auguste's castles, it takes on the
triangular shape of the rock on which it was built.
The old town
(Vieil Bourg) with the Church of Notre-Dame on the eastern plateau was
also built at this time. The city was thus surrounded by the castle
walls and the outer chasms, and the closed city took on its present
form. At the same time, the “privileged neighborhoods” (bourgs
privilégiés) emerged. H. the suburbs, around the closed city at the
Baron's request. They are mostly in a straight layout, following the
course of the street that connects these neighborhoods. Since the 13th
century, Vitré has brought together all the elements of a medieval town:
castle, religious buildings (church, collegiate church) and suburbs.
In the 15th century, with the advancement of artillery, such as the
construction of loopholes for cannons, the castle was transformed from a
defensive structure into a comfortable residence for Jeanne de
Laval-Châtillon and her daughter Anne de Laval. At the same time, the
city developed and wooden-walled houses and (non-royal) mansions were
built in the city centre. The inner city was accessed by 3 gates
(Gâtesel in the south, Enbas in the east and Enhaut in the west) and a
postern, the postern being a narrow passage through which the city wall
could be passed (Poterne Saint-Pierre in the north).
The urban
characteristics of these medieval neighborhoods are evident in the high
density and winding dark streets and alleyways that connected each
block. These streets benefited between the alternation of sunshine and
shade. The streets were narrow and opaque to make attacks more
difficult. The facades of the houses were made of wood or stone. The
cantilevers (projection of the higher floors above the street) allowed
an increase in space and offered pedestrians protection from storms.
Rainwater was collected in a central gutter to prevent contamination of
the wooden walls. The same applies to houses with porches, suitable for
gaining space but also for displaying merchandise in the sheltered
galleries. The street names are often derived from the guild that
determined these public spaces. Examples in Vitré are Rue de la
Baudrairie, where leather was worked, and Rue de la Poterie (pottery).
The historic city center contains only one actual square: la Place
du Marchix. Typically, the squares open up to the religious, political
or legal places of power. As the name suggests, the marketplace was near
the Benedictine monastery. The current palace square was the forecourt
and thus part of the castle. The Place Notre-Dame was occupied by a hall
referred to as the Halle aux Toiles ("Cloth Hall"). The presence of
halls is synonymous with growth. Vitré, a prosperous town since the 15th
century, founded a guild in 1472 that allowed international textile
trade. The heyday of Vitré led to the prosperity of the Renaissance.
Vitré was one of the most prosperous towns in the Duchy. Expansion
continued in the closed city and suburbs, culminating in the 16th
century when the overseas traders' guilds sold their hemp fabrics and
samplers throughout Europe. This trade passed through the port of
Saint-Malo, where trade was conducted between the South American
counties and the European counties, particularly the Hanseatic League
(large and powerful merchant association of northern Europe in the
Middle Ages). This explains the houses, the large mansions and the
elements of the Renaissance in the closed city (Hôtel Ringes de la
Troussannais or also the ring of chapels of the castle). This continued
to establish the wealth of these tradesmen who formed guilds.
The
first Frenchman to circumnavigate the world was Pierre-Olivier Malherbe
from Vitréen; another sign of the city's openness to the world. Henry IV
came to Vitré in 1598 and was impressed by the lavish lifestyle of the
bourgeois society. During the Huguenot Wars at the end of the 16th
century, the Protestant city was besieged for more than five months by
League troops commanded by Duke Philippe-Emmanuel de Lorraine. In the
years when Rennes was plagued or rebellious (1655, 1671, 1697 and 1705),
the Assemblies of the States of Brittany were held in Vitré. At the
time, Madame de Sévigné had a residence in the Vitré area: Le Château
des Rochers. She supported these states and often mentioned them in her
famous letters.
During the 17th century, the barons of Vitré
moved to the court of Versailles, which was fashionable at the time. The
city lost its notoriety and became a somewhat sleepy town within the
city walls in the midst of an active countryside. She broke ties with
the neighboring rural population, who supplied her with hemp and flax.
Thus began the decline of Vitré, both economically and urban. This
situation came to a head especially in the 18th century. There are
therefore few buildings from this period, with the exception of a few
religious buildings such as the Augustinian Convent (1620), the
Augustinian Convent (1675) or a few more city palaces such as the Hôtel
Sévigné. It was built in the 18th century on the old city walls, where
Mme de Sévigné's apartment was located in a tower. This city palace was
modeled on the Parlement de Bretagne. This situation lasted throughout
the 18th century and until the construction of the railway in the
mid-19th century. From 1793 to 1804 the peasant armed resistance
(Chouannerie) lasted, which marked the end of Vitré's rule and the
beginning of a new and important status for the city: the role of
sub-prefecture.
In the 1830s, the city decided to demolish the southern
fortifications, open up the closed city, and improve visibility. The
gates of En Haut (1835), Gâtesel (1839) and En Bas were demolished. This
allowed urbanization of the closed city to the south. It was at this
time that the major thoroughfares that are now the main access roads
into the city were laid (rue de Fougères to the north, rue de Brest to
the west leading to Rennes, boulevard de Châteaubriant to Nantes and
boulevard des Rochers to Angers).
Vitré was also a railway
junction, as a first connection was opened on April 15, 1857 on the
Paris–Brest line. A second was opened in 1867 towards Fougères, and
finally a third in 1874 towards La Guerche-de-Bretagne. The station was
completed in 1855 and takes the form of a small neo-gothic style castle.
It is right in the center of the city, south of the closed city.
Nevertheless, various designs were considered in advance. The first
thought was to build the station north of Vitré - above the medieval
suburbs of Rachapt - to get closer to the industrial town of Fougères.
Then plans were made to build it in the south, in the countryside, to be
closer to the road to La Guerche-de-Bretagne. But the mayor of Vitré and
his deputy chose the city center. Although the station was easily
accessible, it also had a massive impact on the urban structure. In
fact, the city is completely divided in two by the influence of the
railway lines. The construction of the station allowed the arrival of a
military garrison on July 14, 1867. Ten years later, they were housed in
barracks with an architecture similar to that of the Mac Mahon barracks
in Rennes. The garrison was the 70th Infantry Regiment. From this time
on, urban development took place south of the railway line.
In 1900, Albert Robida described Vitré as a quaint, somewhat
underdeveloped town set in thriving surroundings. The city lost its
status as a sub-prefecture in 1926. This situation lasted until the end
of World War II. Some quarters with houses from the first half of the
20th century can be found mainly in the immediate vicinity of the closed
city and south of the railway line. Some of them are related to villas
in the city of Dinard. The two world wars also claimed victims in Vitré:
the local war memorial contains the names of 315 who died in World War I
and 47 who died in World War II. Vitré was largely spared the Second
World War and has preserved its historical heritage; in contrast to
Fougères which was heavily bombed in June 1944 and as a result lost much
of its historical heritage. Only a few boulevards were hit, such as
Boulevard Saint-Martin in 1937 between the train station and
Saint-Martin church, built in 1868. Seven members of Jewish families
from Vitré were deported and murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau
concentration camp. On April 29, 1944, members of the FTP Résistance,
led by Louis Pétri, carried out an attack on Vitré prison, freeing
around 50 political prisoners and killing a collaborator.
After
the war, Vitré was not exempt from the economic prosperity experienced
by France and the other capitalist countries. Considerable development
and expansion occurred in the 1950s. From 1945 to 1973, like many other
French cities, Vitré was affected by the rural exodus phenomenon.
Numerous settlements were built along the axes in the districts to the
west, east, north and, above all, south of the city. Most of the homes
built are single-family homes. However, larger residential areas such as
the Maison Rouge area, consisting of small houses of four to six floors,
were built in 1965 in place of the refugee barracks. Other residential
buildings were built as part of urban developments such as the Rue de
Strasbourg in 1954 or the Rue du 70e RI in the 1960s.
In the
outskirts there are large companies from the fields of agriculture,
textiles, shoes or fine chemicals with more than 100 employees and also
large supermarkets. At present, the development of industrial areas
continues (mainly in the south and east, but also in the countryside).
In the 1970s, the construction of a four-lane expressway, which runs 7
km to the south, accelerated the city's economic boom with the influx of
numerous industries. The unemployment rate is very low in a regional
comparison and even lower in a national comparison. However, this
economic boom hides a large proportion of jobs in industry, of the order
of 40%, with many precarious jobs. All the more so since the economic
area of Vitré is increasingly suffering from the relocation of companies
abroad. Currently, the city continues to expand through areas of
single-family homes and industrial areas in the periphery. In the center
there is a certain urban renewal in the form of small groups based in
the old quarters.
Vitré is the city-center of a territory
of 98,849 inhabitants which extends, in part, over 4 cantons (Vitré,
La Guerche-de-Bretagne, Janzé and Châteaugiron).
Vitré is an
urban center with 15,502 jobs in 2008. The urban unit corresponds to
the city center, that is to say that there is no agglomeration with
the neighboring municipalities, which are too far away. In the sense
of INSEE, Vitré is therefore an isolated city.
The urban area
of Vitré, made up of twelve peripheral municipalities, had 29,456
inhabitants in 2016, 61% of whom reside in the city center. Since
2002 Vitré has occupied the center of an urban community of 80,000
inhabitants, Vitré Community. In addition, since October 1, 2010,
the former district of Vitré is no longer attached to that of Rennes
but that of Fougères, the latter being sub-prefecture of the
department of Ille-et-Vilaine.
In Breton history, Vitré is
part of the Pays Rennes (Bro-Roazhon in Breton) and the traditional
cultural country of Vendelais (Gwennel in Breton).
In great
circle distance, Vitré is located at:
275 km from Paris
244 km
from Brest
132 km from Caen
105 km
from Le Mans
104 km from Nantes
87 km from Angers
62 km
from Mont-Saint-Michel
40 km from Laval
35 km from Rennes
Vitré benefits from a very slightly degraded oceanic climate (Cfb
type according to the Köppen classification). The city is located in the
Breton "South-East" climatic zone, which includes the part located to
the south and east of the Vilaine. Winters are wet and on average mild,
but occasionally the temperature can be negative (40 days per year
between 0°C and −5°C) with sometimes severe frosts (4 days per year at
−5°C and below) . The days without thaw are of the order of 2 days per
year. Summers are relatively dry, moderately hot and sunny (40 days per
year of summer temperatures above 25°C). On average, so-called hot
temperatures exceed 30°C on 9 days a year and there are few years when
this threshold is not reached. Torrid temperatures, greater than or
equal to 35°C, are infrequent but can occur every one or two years. The
city benefits from exactly 1,700 hours of annual sunshine on average for
the period 1981-2010, but this varies greatly from one year to another
(about 2,000 hours in 2003, 2010 and 2018 for example).
It is
located in a region with relatively high relief, well exposed to
south-westerly winds, consequently more humid with annual precipitation
heights of between 800 and 1,000 mm (≈ 900 mm in 2001, 2002 and 2013,
between 600 and 800 mm between 2003 and 2006). In terms of temperatures,
it is little differentiated from the Rennes basin in the valleys, around
12.5°C. It becomes more so on the heights with an annual average of
temperatures dropping to 10°C and a certain rigor in winter with strong
exposure to the winds. On average, there are 130 days of rain per year,
70 days of fog, 15 days of thunderstorms, 9 days of snow and 6 days of
hail.
The continental influence, due to a relative distance from
the coast, leads to an increase in the thermal amplitude compared to the
west of Brittany. This phenomenon results in more marked extremes (−15°C
on January 19, 1985 and 40.5°C on July 18, 2022 at the Rennes
Saint-Jacques station).
On June 18, 2022, Vitré recorded the
highest temperature ever recorded in the Brittany Region with 41.6°C
around 4:40 p.m. (local time). A month later on July 18, 2022 during the
second heat wave of summer 2022, this value is equaled in Bléruais (35)
with 41.6°C and considered as the regional record because this station
is part of the secondary network of Météo France.
weather
stations
Vitré benefits from data from an educational weather station
in partnership with Météo France but not part of the national and
secondary network. It is located within the Bertrand d'Argentré high
school, in the city center at an altitude of 106 m above sea level. The
archives have been open since January 1, 2014.
7 km northwest of
Vitré near the Château du Bois-Cornillé in Val d'Izé, another
meteorological station is located at a place called "La Mesrie" at an
altitude of 106 m and commissioned on May 1, 1972 It is part of the
secondary network of Météo France (registration number 35347001). This
automatic station is of type 2 for the acquisition of rainfall and
temperature data in real time, with an expertise period of D+1. Hourly
and daily data are available from the following day at 8 a.m.
The
automatic weather station at Arbrissel, near La Guerche-de-Bretagne, is
type 1 for the Extended Meteorological Data Acquisition and Observation
Network (RADOME).
Vitré is an industrial city employing 12,000 people. The unemployment
rate (about 5%) is the lowest in Brittany and means almost full
employment.
Agriculture is underrepresented with 1.3% of the
workforce. Industry employed 4643 people in 1999, which corresponds to
41.1% of the active population.
The tertiary sector employs 5890
people, i. H. 52.1%, distributed mainly in trade and company services.
Large companies from Vitré are institutions because of their regional
origin and their importance in terms of the number of employees. Some
examples of the main employers are:
SVA (Société Vitréenne
d'Abattage): 1000 - 1999 employees (agriculture)
Cooper Standard
Automotive France: 700 – 799 employees (rubber and plastics)
Texier:
400 – 499 employees (textiles, leather, clothing)
Oberthür Cards
Systems: 300 – 399 employees (electricity – electronics)
Société
Laitière de Vitré: 200-299 employees (agriculture).