Rheims

Rheims, or REIMS, a city in the French department of Marne, situated on the Vesle (a tributary of the Aisne), 100 miles ENE. of Paris by rail. Strongly fortified with detached forts since the Franco-German war, when it was for a time the German headquarters, it is well built, and from the material employed in building, which is the chalk-stone of the district, and from the prevalence of the older style of domestic architecture, has a picturesque appearance. It is built on the site of Durocorotum, which is mentioned by Cæsar as the capital of the Remi, from which people it subsequently took its present name. Christianity may have found an entrance into Rheims at an earlier period, but it was not till about 360 that it became a bishop's see. Under the Frank rule it was a place of much importance, and it acquired a deeply religious interest from its having been the scene in 496 of the baptism of Clovis and his chief officers by the bishop, St Remy (c. 438-533). In the 8th century it became an archbishopric, and from 1179, when Philip Augustus was solemnly crowned here, it became the place for the coronation of the kings of France, who were anointed from a vessel of sacred oil, called the Sainte Ampoule, which a dove was said to have carried to St Remy from heaven. Joan of Arc brought the dauphin hither, and the only sovereigns in the long series, down to 1825, not crowned at Rheims were Henry IV., Napoleon I., and Louis XVIII. In 1793 the cathedral was attacked by the populace, and the sainte ampoule smashed by a sans-culotte; and in 1830 the ceremony of coronation at Rheims was abolished. The cathedral, although the towers of the original design are still unfinished, is one of the finest extant specimens of Gothic architecture. It was built between 1212 and 1430, and in 1877 the government voted £80,000 towards restoration. Its nave is 466 feet long by 99 in breadth, with a transept of 160 feet, and the height is 144 feet. Its grandest features are the west façade, which is almost unrivalled, with its magnificent doorway (figured in Vol. IV. p. 59), and the so-called Angel Tower, which rises 59 feet above the lofty roof. The stained glass is remarkable for its beauty; the organ is one of the finest in France; and two survive out of six magnificent tapestries. The Romanesque church of St Remy (mainly 1160-80), with the saint's shrine, is nearly of equal size, but of less architectural pretension. Also noteworthy are the hôtel-de-ville (1627-1880); the ancient 'Maison des Musiciens' and archiepiscopal palace; the Porta Martis, a Roman triumphal arch; the Lycée, representing a former university (1547-1793); and statues of Louis XV. and two natives, Colbert and Marshal Drouet. Rheims is one of the principal entrepôts for the wines of Champagne (q.v.), and the hills which surround the town are planted with vineyards. It is one of the great centres of the woollen manufacture in France, and its manufactures, embracing woollen goods (especially merinoes), mixed fabrics in silk and wool, &c., are known in commerce as Articles de Reims. Pop. (1872) 71,397; (1891) 101,699. See the article DOUAY; and Justinus, Rheims, la ville des sacres (1860).