The city of Reims (alternative English spelling Rheims; pronounced in English and in French) lies in the Champagne-Ardenne region in northeastern France 129 km (80 miles) east-northeast of Paris.
Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire.
Reims played a very important role in French history, as the traditional site of the crowning of the kings of France. Thus, the Cathedral of Reims (damaged by the Germans during the First World War but restored since) played the same role in France as Westminster Abbey did in England. It was there that was kept the Holy Ampulla (Sainte Ampoule) containing the Saint Chrême (chrism), which was said to have been brought by a white dove (the Holy Spirit) at the baptism of Clovis in 496, and was used for the anointing, the most important part of the coronation of French kings.
Some sources regard Reims as the capital of the province of Champagne, given its size as by far the largest city in the region.
The 2008 census recorded 188,078 inhabitants (Rémoises (feminine) and Rémois) in the city of Reims proper (the commune), and 291,735 inhabitants in the whole metropolitan area (aire urbaine).
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[edit] Administration
Reims functions as a sous-préfecture of the Marne département, in the Champagne-Ardenne administrative région. Although by far the largest commune in both the Champagne-Ardenne region and the Marne département, Reims looks in administration terms to Châlons-en-Champagne as the capital and préfecture of both.
[edit] Geography
Reims stands in a plain on the banks of the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne, and on the Canal de l'Aisne à la Marne linking Aisne and Marne rivers. South and west rise the Montagne de Reims and vine-clad hills.
[edit] History
For the ecclesiastical history, see Archbishopric of Reims
Saint Remigius, Bishop of Reims, begging of Clovis the restitution of the Sacred Vase taken by the Franks in the pillage of Soissons. — Costumes of the court of Burgundy in the fifteenth century. — Facsimile of a miniature in a manuscript of the History of the Emperors (Library of the Arsenal).
Before the Roman conquest of northern Gaul, Reims, as Durocortōrum, served as the capital of the tribe of the Remi — whose name the town would subsequently echo. The Remi made voluntary submission to the Romans, and by their fidelity throughout the various Gallic insurrections secured the special favour of their conquerors.
Christianity had become established in the town by the middle of the 3rd century, at which period Saint Sixtus of Reims founded the Reims bishopric. The consul Jovinus, an influential supporter of the new faith, repulsed the barbarians who invaded Champagne in 336; but the Vandals captured the town in 406 and slew St Nicasius, and Attila the Hun afterwards put it to fire and sword.
In 496, ten years after Clovis, King of the Salian Franks, won his victory at Soissons (486), Remigius, the bishop of Reims, baptized him using the oil of the sacred phial — purportedly brought from heaven by a dove for the baptism of Clovis and subsequently preserved in the Abbey of Saint-Remi. For centuries the events at the crowning of Clovis I became a symbol used by the monarchy to claim the divine right to rule.
Meetings of Pope Stephen II (752-757) with Pepin the Short, and of Pope Leo III (795-816) with Charlemagne (died 814), took place at Reims; and here Pope Stephen IV crowned Louis the Debonnaire in 816. Louis IV gave the town and countship of Reims to the archbishop Artaldus in 940. Louis VII gave the title of duke and peer to William of Champagne, archbishop from 1176 to 1202, and the archbishops of Reims took precedence of the other ecclesiastical peers of the realm.
By the 10th century Reims had become a centre of intellectual culture, Archbishop Adalberon (in office 969 to 988), seconded by the monk Gerbert (afterwards (from 999 to 1003) Pope Silvester II), having founded schools which taught the "liberal arts". Adalberon was also one of the prime authors of the revolution which put the Capetian dynasty in the place of the Carolingians.
The archbishops held the important prerogative of the consecration of the kings of France — a privilege which they exercised, except in a few cases, from the time of Philippe II Augustus (anointed 1179, reigned 1180-1223) to that of Charles X (anointed 1825). Louis VII granted the town a communal charter in 1139. The Treaty of Troyes (1420) ceded it to the English, who had made a futile attempt to take it by siege in 1360; but they were expelled on the approach of Joan of Arc, who in 1429 caused Charles VII to be consecrated in the cathedral. Louis XI cruelly suppressed a revolt at Reims, caused in 1461 by the salt tax. The town sided with the Catholic League (1585), but submitted to Henri IV after the battle of Ivry (1590).
In the invasions of the War of the Sixth Coalition in 1814, allied armies captured and recaptured Reims; in 1870–1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, the victorious Germans made it the seat of a governor-general and impoverished it with heavy requisitions.
In August 1909 Reims hosted the first international Aviation meet. Major aviation personages such as Glenn Curtiss, Louis Blériot and Louis Paulhan participated.
Hostilities in World War I greatly damaged the city. German bombardment and a subsequent fire in 1914 did severe damage to the cathedral. The ruined cathedral became one of the central images of anti-German propaganda produced in France during the war, citing it, along with the ruins of the Cloth Hall at Ypres and the University Library in Louvain, as evidence that German aggression targeted the cultural landmarks of European civilization. After the war, the cathedral was rebuilt from the ruins in the course of the next 40 years. The Palace of Tau, St Jacques Church and the Abbey of St Remi also were protected and restored. The collection of preserved buildings and Roman ruins remains monumentally impressive.
During World War II the town suffered additional damage. But in Reims, at 2:41 on the morning of May 7, 1945, General Eisenhower and the Allies received the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht. General Alfred Jodl, German Chief-of-Staff, signed the surrender at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) as the representative for Chancellor Karl Dönitz.
[edit] Sights
Façade of Notre-Dame de Reims
[edit] Streets and squares
The principal squares of Reims include the Place Royale, with a statue of Louis XV, and the Place Cardinal-Luçon, with an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc. The Rue de Vesle, the chief street, continued under other names, traverses the town from southwest to northwest, passing through the Place Royale.
Place Drouet d'Erlon in the city centre contains many lively restaurants and bars, and several attractive statues and fountains. During the summer it fills with people sitting outside the many cafés enjoying the summer sun, and in December it has a lively and charming[citation needed] Christmas market.
[edit] Roman remains
The oldest monument in Reims, the Porte de Mars ("Mars Gate", so called from a temple to Mars in the neighbourhood), a triumphal arch 108 ft. in length by 43 in height, consists of three archways flanked by columns. Popular tradition tells that the Remi erected it in honour of Augustus when Agrippa made the great roads terminating at the town, but it probably belongs to the 3rd or 4th century. The Mars Gate was one of 4 Roman gates to the city walls, which were restored at the time of the Norman Invasion of northern France in the 9th century. In its vicinity a curious mosaic, measuring 36 ft. by 26, with thirty-five medallions representing animals and gladiators, was discovered in 1860.
Note too the Gallo-Roman sarcophagus, said to be that of the consul Jovinus (see below), preserved in the archaeological museum in the cloister of the abbey of Saint-Remi.
[edit] Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims
Main article: Notre-Dame de Reims
Many people know Reims for its cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims, the place of coronation of former kings of France. The cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991, along with the former Abbey of Saint-Remi and the Palace of Tau.
[edit] The Palace of Tau
The archiepiscopal palace, built between 1498 and 1509, and in part rebuilt in 1675, served as the residence of the kings of France on the occasion of their coronations. The salon (salle du Tau), where the royal banquet took place, has an immense stone chimney from the 15th century. The chapel of the archiepiscopal palace consists of two storeys, of which the upper still (As of 2009[update]) serves as a place of worship. Both the chapel and the salle du Tau are decorated with tapestries of the 17th century, known as the Perpersack tapestries, after the Flemish weaver who executed them. The palace has been opened to the public in 1972 as a museum containing such exhibits as statues formerly displayed by the cathedral, treasures of the cathedral from past centuries, and royal attire from coronations of French kings.
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