Founded by theGauls, Reims became a major city in theRoman Empire.[5] Reims later played a prominent ceremonial role inFrench monarchical history as the trad site of the coronation of thekings of France. The royalanointing was performed at theCathedral of Reims, which housed theHoly Ampulla ofchrism allegedly brought by a white dove at the baptism of Frankish kingClovis I in 496. For this reason, Reims is often referred to in French asla cité des sacres ("the Coronation City").
Before the Roman conquest of northernGaul, Reims had served as theRemi tribe's capital, foundedc. 80 BC. In the course ofJulius Caesar'sconquest of Gaul (58–51 BC), the Remi allied themselves with theRomans, and by their fidelity throughout the variousGallic insurrections secured the special favour of the imperial power.[7] At its height in Roman times the city had a population in the range of 30,000–50,000 or perhaps up to 100,000.[8] Reims was first calledDurocortorum[9] inLatin, which is hypothesized to derive from aGaulish name meaning 'Door of Cortoro-'.[10] The city later took its name from theRemi tribe[11] (Rēmi orRhēmi).[12] The modern French name is derived from theaccusative case of the latter,Rēmos.[13]
Saint Remigius, Bishop of Reims, beggingClovis of the restitution of the Sacred Vase taken by the Franks in the pillage of Soissons. From the manuscript of theHistory of the Emperors (Library of the Arsenal).
In 496—ten years afterClovis, King of the Salian Franks, won his victory atSoissons (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 theAbbey of Saint-Remi.[7] For centuries the events at the crowning of Clovis I became a symbol used by the monarchy to claim thedivine right to rule.
By the 10th century, Reims had become a centre of intellectual culture. ArchbishopAdalberon (in office 969 to 988), seconded by the monk Gerbert (afterwards (from 999 to 1003)Pope Silvester II), founded schools which taught the classical "liberal arts". (Adalberon also played a leading role in the dynastic revolution which elevated theCapetian dynasty in the place of theCarolingians.)[7]
The Coronation Chalice, also known as the Chalice of Saint Remigius (Palace of Tau)
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 ofPhilippe II Augustus (anointed 1179, reigned 1180–1223) to that ofCharles X (anointed 1825). ThePalace of Tau, built between 1498 and 1509 and partly rebuilt in 1675, would later serve as the Archbishop's palace and as the residence of the kings of France on the occasion of their coronations, with royal banquets taking place in theSalle du Tau.[7]
Louis VII granted the city a communal charter in 1139. TheTreaty of Troyes (1420) ceded it to the English, who had made a futile attempt to take it by siege in 1360; French patriots expelled them on the approach ofJoan of Arc, who in 1429 hadCharles VII consecrated in the cathedral.Louis XI cruelly suppressed a revolt at Reims, caused in 1461 by thesalt tax.[citation needed]
The city was stricken with plague in 1635, and again in 1668, followed by an epidemic oftyphus in 1693–1694.[15] The construction of theHôtel de Ville dates back to the same century.[16]
In the invasions of theWar of the Sixth Coalition in 1814, anti-Napoleonic allied armies captured and re-captured Reims. "In 1852, theEastern Railways completed the Paris–Strasbourg main line with branch lines to Reims and Metz."[17] In 1870–1871, during theFranco-Prussian War, the victorious Germans made it the seat of a governor-general and impoverished it with heavy requisitions.[7] In 1874 the construction of a chain of detachedforts started in the vicinity, theFrench Army having selected Reims as one of the chief defences of the northern approaches to Paris.[a] In the meantime, British inventor and manufacturerIsaac Holden had opened plants at Reims andCroix, which "by the 1870s [...] were producing almost 12 million kilograms of combed wool a year [...] and accounted for 27 percent of all the wool consumed by French industry."[18]
A month after Blériot's crossing of the English Channel in a biplane, the aviation week in Reims (August 1909) caught special attention.
Hostilities inWorld War I greatly damaged the city.German bombardment and a subsequent fire in 1914 did severe damage to thecathedral.[20] The ruined cathedral became one of the central images ofanti-Germanpropaganda produced in France during the war, which presented it, along with the ruins of theYpres Cloth Hall and theUniversity Library in Louvain, as evidence that German aggression targeted cultural landmarks of European civilization.[21] Since the end of World War I, an international effort to restore the cathedral from the ruins has continued.[20]
DuringWorld War II, the city suffered additional damage. On the morning of 7 May 1945, at 2:41,General Eisenhower and the Allies received theunconditional surrender of the GermanWehrmacht in Reims. GeneralAlfred Jodl, German Chief-of-Staff, signed the surrender at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) as the representative for German PresidentKarl Dönitz.
Rue de Vesle is the main commercial street (continued under other names), traversing the city from southwest to northeast through thePlace Royale.[7] The economy of Reims is driven by the wine and Champagne industries and innovation in the bio-economic field.[25]
TheBasilica of Saint-Remi, founded in the 11th century "over the chapel of St. Christophe whereSt. Remi was buried",[26] is "the largestRomanesque church in northern France, though with later additions."[26]
The Church of Saint-Jacques dates from the 13th to the 16th centuries. A few blocks from the cathedral, it stands as of 2009[update] in a neighbourhood of shopping and restaurants. The churches of Saint-Maurice (partly rebuilt in 1867), Saint-André,[7] and Saint-Thomas (erected from 1847 to 1853, under the patronage ofCardinal Gousset, now buried within its walls[7]) also draw tourists.
TheHôtel de Ville, erected in the 17th century and enlarged in the 19th, features apediment with an equestrian statue ofLouis XIII (reigned 1610 to 1643).[7]
Narcisse Brunette was the architect of the city for nearly 50 years in the 19th century. He designed theReims Manège and Circus, which "combines stone and brick in a fairly sober classical composition."[27]
ThePalace of Tau contains such exhibits as statues formerly displayed by the cathedral, treasures of the cathedral from past centuries, and royal attire from coronations of French kings.
TheMusée Saint-Remi, formerly the Abbey of Saint-Remi, contains tapestries from the 16th century donated by the archbishop Robert de Lenoncourt (uncle of thecardinal of the same name), marble capitals from the fourth century AD, furniture, jewellery, pottery, weapons and glasswork from the sixth to eighth centuries, medieval sculpture, the façade of the 13th-century musicians' House, remnants from an earlier abbey building, and also exhibits of Gallo-Roman arts and crafts and a room of pottery, jewellery and weapons from Gallic civilization, as well as an exhibit of items from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic periods. Another section of the museum features a permanent military exhibition.
TheAutomobile Museum Reims-Champagne, established in 1985 byPhilippe Charbonneaux, houses a collection of automobiles dating from 1903 to the present day. The museum has five collections: automobiles, motorcycles and two-wheelers, pedal cars, miniature toys, and enamel plaques.[30]
TheMuseum of Fine Arts is housed in the former Abbey of Saint-Denis. Part of the former Collège des Jésuites has also become a contemporary art gallery: the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne.[31]
The Museum of the Surrender
The Museum of the Surrender is the building in which on 7 May 1945,General Eisenhower and the Allies received the unconditional surrender of the GermanWehrmacht.
At the beginning of the year, the FARaway - Festival des Arts à Reims is a two-week event of music, dance, theatre, exhibitions, and installations at various cultural venues around the city.[32]
Every year in June, theFêtes Johanniques commemorate the entrance of Joan of Arc into Reims in 1429 and the coronation of Charles VII of France in the cathedral.
In August and September there are regular evening light shows called Regalia projected onto the Reims Cathedral. It has a duration of 15 minutes and is free of charge. Regalia is an open-air multimedia show telling the story of the French coronations in a dramatic and whimsical fashion. Pets are welcome.
AChristmas market was held on the parvis of Reims Cathedral (Place du Cardinal-Luçon). It has since been moved in front of the Reims train station. In takes place in the month before Christmas, in 2023 this will be November 24th until December 24th. The Christmas market in Reims is the 3rd largest Christmas market in France. There are 150 different stalls each with various regional crafts, gifts, foods and specialities. This includes a famous poutine stand. The market last year was open on Mondays from 2pm to 8pm, Tuesday to Thursday from 10:30am to 10pm, Friday from 10:30am to 10pm, Saturday from 10am to 10pm, and Sundays from 10pm to 8pm. Access to the Christmas market is free and it is accessible to people with reduced mobility. Dogs are welcome if they are on a leash. Close by, there is a large traditional Christmas tree.[33]
Restaurants and bars are concentrated around Place Drouet d'Erlon in the city centre.
Reims, along withÉpernay andAy, functions as one of the centres of champagne production. Many of the largestchampagne-producing houses, known asles grandes marques, have their headquarters in Reims, and most open for tasting and tours. Champagne ages in the many caves and tunnels under Reims, which form a sort of maze below the city. Carved fromchalk, some of these passages date back to Roman times.
As of 2021[update], the football clubStade Reims, based in the city, competed in theLigue 1, the highest tier of French football.Stade Reims became the outstanding team of France in the 1950s and early 1960s and reached the final of theEuropean Cup of Champions twice in that era.
In October 2018, the city hosted the secondTeqball World Cup.[36]
Reims is served by two main railway stations:Gare de Reims in the city centre, the hub for regional transport, and the newGare de Champagne-Ardenne TGV 5 kilometres (3 miles) southwest of the city with high-speed rail connections to Paris, Metz, Nancy and Strasbourg. There are two other railway stations for local services in the southern suburbs:Franchet d'Esperey andReims-Maison-Blanche. The motorwaysA4 (Paris-Strasbourg),A26 (Calais-Langres) andA34 intersect near Reims.
Paris Gate, Basses Promenades
Public transport within the city consists of buses and atramway, the latter opened in 2011. There is also a bikeshare program, Zébullo.[37]
Next to the main train station, there is the Hautes Promenades, which is a park equipped with leisure facilities such as swings, hammocks, acarousel, in-ground trampolines, and a water park.
Smaller gardens and parks are also peppered throughout Reims, such as Jardin Le Vergeur, Parc Léo-Lagrange, and the Parc Saint-Remi which next to the Basilica of Saint-Remi.
TheInstitut d'Études politiques de Paris, the leading French university in social and political sciences, also known as SciencesPo Paris, opened a new campus in the formerJesuit College of Reims in 2010. It hosts both the Europe-Africa and Europe-America Program[38] with more than 1,500 students in the respective programs. Aside from its Jesuit architecture, the campus also features the oldest grape vines in France,[39] which are harvested every year by the City of Reims and are not at the disposal of students or visitors. In 2012 the first ReimsModel United Nations was launched, which gathered 200 international students from all the Sciences Po campuses. Daniel Rondeau, the ambassador of France toUNESCO and a French writer, is the patron of the event.
TheURCA (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne) was founded in 1548. This multidisciplinary university develops innovative, fundamental, and applied research. It provides more than 18,000 students in Reims (22,000 in Champagne-Ardenne) with a wide initial undergraduate studies program which corresponds to society's needs in all domains of the knowledge. The university also accompanies independent or company-backed students in continuing professional development training.
NEOMA Business School (formerReims Management School) is also one of the main schools in Reims. The Advanced Business School of Reims was created in 1928. It took the name Reims Management School in 2000.
Reims has anoceanic climate (KöppenCfb), influenced by its inland position. This renders that although the maritime influence moderates averages, it nevertheless is prone to hot and cold extremes in certain instances. Reims has a relatively gloomy climate due to the said maritime influence and the dominance of low-pressure systems for much of the year. In spite of this, the amount of precipitation is fairly limited.
^Atop the ridge of St Thierry stands a fort of the same name, which with the neighbouring work ofChenay closes the west side of the place. To the north the hill ofBrimont has three works guarding theLaon railway and the Aisne canal. Farther east, on the old Roman road, stands theFort de Fresnes. Due east, the hills of Arnay are crowned with five large and important works which cover the approaches from the upper Aisne.Fort de la Pompelle, which hosts aWorld War I museum featuring a rich collection of German uniforms, andMontbré close the southeast side, and the Falaise hills on the southwest are open and unguarded. The perimeter of the defences measures just under 22 miles, and the forts are at a mean distance of 6 miles (10 km) from the centre of the city.[7]
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