Troyes

Troyes, a town of France, the capital formerly of the province of Champagne and now of the department of Aube, on the left bank of the river Seine, 104 miles ESE. of Paris by rail. In spite of modernisations it is still an old-fashioned place, with many quaint timbered houses. The principal buildings are the cathedral, a splendid specimen of Flamboyant Gothic, founded in 872, and rebuilt between the 13th and 16th centuries; the churches of St Urban, the Madeleine, St Pantaléon, and St Rémi, the Hôtel de Ville (1624-70), and a public library, containing 110,000 vols. and 5000 MSS. Troyes carries on cotton, linen, and woollen manufactures, and, as the centre of a rich agricultural region, has a large transit trade. Pop. (1872) 38,113; (1891) 49,808. The capital of the Celtic Tricassii, Troyes was called by the Romans Augustobona, later Civitas Tricassium, and then Trece, whence the modern name. Under the Counts of Champagne it rose in the 12th century to great importance, and so late as the close of the 16th century had upwards of 60,000 inhabitants. Here the treaty was concluded (1420) between Henry V. of England and Charles VI. of France. See Boutiot's Histoire de Troyes (5 vols. 1870-80).