Rezé

"Reze" redirects here. For the Swiss wine grape, see Rèze. For the fictional character, see Reze (Chainsaw Man).

Rezé (French: [ʁəze] ^ⓘ; Breton: Reudied, Gallo: Rezae) is a commune (municipality) and former bishopric in the Loire-Atlantique department in the Pays de la Loire region of western France. It is a southern suburb of Nantes.

Rezé Rezae (Gallo) Reudied (Breton)
Commune
City center
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Rezé
Rezé Show map of France Rezé Show map of Pays de la Loire
Coordinates: 47°11′30″N 1°34′10″W
Country	France
Region	Pays de la Loire
Department	Loire-Atlantique
Arrondissement	Nantes
Canton	Rezé-1 and 2
Intercommunality	Nantes Métropole
Government
• Mayor (2022–2026)	Agnès Bourgeais[1]
Area 1	13.78 km2 (5.32 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[2]	43,349
• Density	3,100/km2 (8,100/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	44143 /44400
Elevation	1–42 m (3.3–137.8 ft) (avg. 8 m or 26 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

It was also called Ratiate in the Middle Ages and Rezay in the High Middle Ages.

View of Rezé from the Maison Radieuse of Corbusier

History

The Hôtel de Ville

Rezé dates back to the Roman era, when it was known as Portus Ratiatus (port of Rezé) and Ratiatum Pictonum Portus (Picton port of Rezé). Being populated by the Ambilatres tribe, whose location on the south bank of the lower Loire is not established with certainty, between Armorica and Celtica Gaul.

Rezé was an important port on the south shore of the Loire, established opposite the port of Namnetes, located north of the Loire, Nantes - Contigwic of its Gaulish name - and it is experiencing rapid development, which suggests a strong power of attraction, a place for meetings and trade between the various Celtic tribes of the region (Veneti, Namnetes, Ambilatres, Andecavis and of course Pictones).

In 510 a Latin Catholic Diocese of Rezé was established on territory split off from the Diocese of Poitiers. It was suppressed 851, its territory being reassigned to the nearby then Diocese of Nantes. No incumbents or other details available.

It has ruins of Gallo-Roman settlement and a priory of Saint Lucien.

In feudal times, it was the capital of Pays de Retz which means "Land of Rezé" within the Duchy of Brittany, after the invasion of the Bretons.

The Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1989.^[3]

Geography

Location of the Rezé commune in the department of Loire-Atlantique

The commune is surrounded by the communes of Nantes, Vertou, Les Sorinières, Pont-Saint-Martin and Bouguenais. It is limited north by the Loire, east by the Sèvre Nantaise and the Ilette, west by the Jaguère and south by the boulevard périphérique of Nantes. Rezé-Pont-Rousseau station has rail connections to Pornic, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and Nantes.

Monuments

• Unité d'Habitation of Nantes-Rezé, a monumental apartment building designed by Le Corbusier

Municipal administration

Since the municipal elections of 1977, the communal council has always been filled in the first round of voting.

List of mayors before 1944

Term	Name	Political Party	Position
March 1790-January 1791	Louis Michel Dupré Villaine (1735–1806)	Royalist
April 1791-December 1792	Pierre François Huard (1755–1814)	Republican
December 1792-March 1796	Ambroise Alphonse Le Coûteux (1740–1805)	Constitutional
April 1796-August 1800	Pierre François Huard (1755–1814)	Republican
August 1800-October 1803	Pierre François Huard (1755–1814)	Republican
October 1803-August 1807	Jean-Baptiste Ertaud (1763–1840)	Republican
August 1807-April 1820	Jean François Ertaud (1769–1840)	Governmental
April 1820-August 1830	Joseph de Monti de Rezé (1766–1850)	Legitimist
August 1830-November 1844	Pierre Giraud (1789–1844)	Orléanist	General Council
December 1844-March 1848	Joseph Delaville Leroux (1775–1855)	Orléanist
March 1848-September 1848	Arsène Leloup (1803–1876)	Republican
September 1848-March 1864	Philémon Chenantais (1805–1883)	Bonapartist
March 1864-September 1870	Hippolyte Aguesse (1799–1875)	Governmental
October 1870-October 1875	Hippolyte Aguesse (1799–1875)	Governmental
October 1875-August 1876	Félix Chauvelon (1825–1888)	Republican
October 1876-May 1878	Julien Albert (1807–1878)	Republican
May 1878-January 1890	Joseph Raphaël Lancelot (1832–1890)	Republican
March 1890-May 1896	Georges Grignon Dumoulin (1845–1904)	Republican
May 1896-May 1908	Ernest Sauvestre (1849–1932)	Radical Republican
May 1908-May 1929	Jean Baptiste Vigier (1863–1940)	Republican	Conseiller d'arrondissement
May 1929-May 1935	Charles Rivière (1870–1947)	Radical Socialist
May 1935-December 1936	Léon Taugeron (1886–1961)	Radical Socialist
December 1936-March 1941	Jean Vignais (1878–1954)	Radical Socialist
March 1941-September 1944	Alexandre Le Lamer (1873–1950)	Right
Sources: Yann Vince, "Rezé, histoire municipale" éditions Hérault, 1997

List of mayors after 1944

Term	Name	Political Party	Position
September 1944-May 1945	Jean Vignais (1878–1954)	Radical Socialist
May 1945-March 1949	Arthur Boutin (1903–1980)	SFIO	General Council
March 1949-March 1959	Georges Albert Bénezet (1892–1970)	RPF
March 1959-February 1978	Alexandre Plancher (1909–1978)	SFIO	General Council
April 1978-February 1999	Jacques Floch (1938- )	PS	Deputy
1999–2014	Gilles Retière	PS
2014–2020	Gérard Allard	PS
2020–2022	Hervé Neau	DVG
2022–incumbent	Agnès Bourgeais[1]
Sources: Yann Vince, "Rezé, histoire municipale" éditions Hérault, 1997

Population

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 4,466 —     1800 3,519 −3.35% 1806 4,989 +5.99% 1821 4,756 −0.32% 1831 4,968 +0.44% 1841 5,277 +0.61% 1846 6,203 +3.29% 1851 6,644 +1.38% 1856 7,054 +1.20% 1861 7,209 +0.44% 1866 7,423 +0.59% 1872 6,946 −1.10% 1876 6,849 −0.35% 1881 7,377 +1.50% 1886 7,418 +0.11% 1891 7,431 +0.04% 1896 7,803 +0.98% 1901 8,751 +2.32%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1906 8,919 +0.38% 1911 9,424 +1.11% 1921 10,368 +0.96% 1926 11,050 +1.28% 1931 12,325 +2.21% 1936 13,499 +1.84% 1946 16,395 +1.96% 1954 19,000 +1.86% 1962 28,276 +5.10% 1968 33,509 +2.87% 1975 35,730 +0.92% 1982 33,562 −0.89% 1990 33,262 −0.11% 1999 35,478 +0.72% 2007 37,846 +0.81% 2012 39,377 +0.80% 2017 41,411 +1.01%
Source: EHESS[4] and INSEE[5]

International relations

Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Rezé is twinned with:

• Saint-Wendel (Germany) since 1973
• Aïn Defla (Algeria) since 1985
• Dundalk (Ireland) since 1990
• Villa El Salvador (Peru) since 1991
• Ineu (Romania) since 2003
• Rural Community of Ronkh, Diawar (Senegal) since 2003
• Abu Dis (Palestine) since 2007^[6]

See also

• Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department
• List of Catholic dioceses in France