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 16th-century 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 .