Brittany (region of France)
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Region of Brittany Région Bretagne / Rannvro Breizh |
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| Region of France | |||
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| Country |
 France
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| Prefecture | Rennes | ||
| Departments | |||
| Government | |||
| • President | Loïg Chesnais-Girard | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 27,208 km2 (10,505 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2012-01-01) | |||
| • Total | 3,237,097 | ||
| • Density | 120/km2 (310/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| GDP (2012) | Ranked 7th | ||
| Total | €83.4 billion (US$107.3 bn) | ||
| Per capita | €25,666 (US$33,012) | ||
| NUTS Region | FR5 | ||
| Website | bretagne.bzh | ||
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Brittany (Breton: Breizh, French: Bretagne, IPA: [bʁətaɲ]) is one of the 18 regions of France. It is named after the historic and geographic region of Brittany, of which it constitutes 80%. The capital is Rennes. Bathed by the English Channel to the north and the Bay of Biscay to the south, it is located in the West of France, bordering the Normandy and Pays de la Loire regions. Bro Gozh ma Zadoù is the anthem of Brittany. It is sung to the same tune as that of the national anthem of Wales, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, and has similar words. As a region of France, Brittany has a Regional Council, which was most recently elected in 2015.
The region of Brittany was created in 1941 on 80% of the territory of traditional Brittany. The remaining 20% is now called the Loire-Atlantique department which is included in the Pays de la Loire region, whose capital, Nantes, was the historical capital of the Duchy of Brittany.
Part of the reason why Brittany was split between two present-day regions was to avoid the rivalry between Rennes and Nantes. Although Nantes was the principal capital of the Duchy of Brittany until the sixteenth century, Rennes had been the seat of the Duchy's supreme court of justice between 1560 and 1789. Rennes had also been the administrative capital of the Intendant of Brittany between 1689 and 1789, and Intendances were the most important administrative units of the kingdom of France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As for the provincial States of Brittany, a legislative body which had originally met every two years in a different city of Brittany, that had met in Rennes only between 1728 and 1789, although not in the years 1730, 1758, and 1760. Despite that, the Chambre des comptes had remained in Nantes until 1789. However, from 1381 until the end of the fifteenth century Vannes (Gwened in Breton) had served as the administrative capital of the Duchy, remaining the seat of its Chambre des comptes until the 1490s, and also the seat of the its Parlement until 1553 and then again between 1675 and 1689.
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