Redon

Redon, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, 45 m. S.S.W. of Rennes by rail. Pop. (1906) 5170. Redon is situated on the right bank of the Vilaine, above the confluence of the Oust and on the canal from Nantes to Brest. The Church of St Sauveur, formerly belonging to an abbey, has a Romanesque central tower, square in form but with rounded angles. A fine tower of the 14th century with a stone spire stands isolated from the church, from which it was separated owing to the destruction of part of the nave by fire in 1782. The choir, with ambulatory and radiating chapels, forms one of the most remarkable examples of 13th-century architecture in Brittany. The abbey has been converted into an ecclesiastical college. Some 16thcentury timbered houses have interesting carvings. The industries include the manufacture of emery and polish, agricultural implements and boat-building, tanning, brewing and flour-milling. The port is accessible at high tides for vessels of 600 to 700 tons. Redon grew up round a monastery founded in the first half of the 9th century. In the 14th century Jean de Treal, one of the abbots, surrounded the town with walls, of which a remnant is still to be seen.