Vitré (Breton: Gwitreg) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France.
Vitré, a sub-prefecture until 1926, is the seat of a canton of around 16,834 inhabitants (2010). It lies on the edge of Brittany, near Normandy, Maine, and Anjou. The town has been designated a ville d'art et d'histoire, a town of artistic and historic significance, by the Ministry of Culture in recognition of its rich cultural inheritance. Vitré is the 37th French city with the most historic buildings and has 14% of the historical monuments of the department.
"If I was not King of France, I want to be bourgeois from Vitré!" Henry IV, King of France, surprised by the richness of the city in 1598.
"The good fortune to see a Gothic city entire, complete, homogeneous, a few of which still remain, Nuremberg in Bavaria and Vittoria in Spain, can readily form an idea; or even smaller specimens, provided that they are well preserved, Vitré in Brittany, Nordhausen in Prussia." Victor Hugo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Book third, Chapter 2, A bird's eye view of Paris, 1831
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