Editing Brittany (section)

===Capital cities===
[[File:Château de Nantes 3.jpg|thumb|The [[Château des ducs de Bretagne]] in [[Nantes]], permanent residence of the last dukes]]
Brittany has several historical capital cities. When it was an independent duchy, the [[Estates of Brittany]], which can be compared to a parliament, met in various towns: [[Dinan]], [[Ploërmel]], [[Redon]], [[Rennes]], [[Vitré, Ille-et-Vilaine|Vitré]], [[Guérande]], and, most of all, [[Vannes]], where they met 19 times, and [[Nantes]], 17 times. The Court and the government were also very mobile, and each dynasty favoured its own castles and estates. The dukes mostly lived in [[Nantes]], [[Vannes]], [[Redon]], [[Rennes]], [[Fougères]], [[Dol-de-Bretagne]], [[Dinan]] and [[Guérande]]. All these towns except Vannes and Guérande are located in [[Upper Brittany]], thus not in the Breton speaking area.

Among all these towns, only [[Nantes]], [[Rennes]] and [[Vannes]], which were the biggest ones, could really pretend to the capital status. The dukes were crowned in Rennes and they had a large castle there; it was however destroyed during the 15th century. Vannes, on its side, was the seat of the Chamber of Accounts and of the Parliament until the union with France. The Parliament was then transferred to Rennes, and the Chamber of Accounts to Nantes. Nantes, nicknamed "the city of the Dukes of Brittany", was also the permanent residence of the last dukes. The [[Château des ducs de Bretagne]] still stands in the city centre. Nowadays, [[Rennes]] is the only official capital of the [[region of Brittany]]. It is also the seat of an [[ecclesiastical province]] encompassing Brittany and the [[Pays de la Loire]] region.