REIMS (RHEIMS), a city of north-eastern France, chief town of an arrondissement of the department of Marne, 98 m. E.N.E. of Paris, on the Eastern railway. Pop. (1931) 106,662. Reims stands in a plain on the right bank of the Vesle, a tributary of the Aisne, and on the canal which connects the Aisne with the Marne. South and west rise the "montagne de Reims" and vine clad hills.
Before the Roman conquest Reims, as Durocortorum, was capital of the Remi, from whose name that of the town was subsequently derived. The Remi made voluntary submission to the Romans, and by their fidelity secured the special favour of their conquerors. Christianity was established in the town by the middle of the 3rd century, at which period the bishopric was founded. 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. Nicasus, and Attila afterwards put it to fire and sword. Clovis, after his victory at Soissons (486), was baptized at Reims in by St. Remigius. Later kings desired to be consecrated at Reims with the oil of the sacred phial which was believed to have been brought from heaven by a dove for the baptism of Clovis and was preserved in the abbey of St. Remi. Meetings of Pope Stephen III. with Pippin the Short, and of Leo III. with Charle magne, took place at Reims; and here Louis the Debonnaire was crowned by Stephen IV. Louis IV. gave the town and countship of Reims to the archbishop Artaldus in 94o. 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.
In the loth century Reims had become a centre of intellectual culture, Archbishop Adalberon, seconded by the monk Gerbert (afterwards Pope Silvester II.), having founded schools where the "liberal arts" were taught. Adalberon was also one of the prime authors of the revolution which put the Capet house in the place of the Carolingians. The most important preroga tive of the archbishops was the consecration of the kings of France—a privilege which was exercised, except in a few cases, from the time of Philip Augustus to that of Charles X. 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 136o; but they were expelled on the approach of Joan of Arc, who in 1429 caused Charles VII. to be consecrated in the cathedral. A revolt at Reims, caused by the salt tax in 1461, was cruelly repressed by Louis XI. The town sided with the League (1585), but submitted to Henry IV. after the battle of Ivry. In the foreign invasions of 1814 it was cap tured and recaptured; in 187o-71 it was made by the Germans the seat of a governor-general and impoverished by heavy re quisitions.
damaged, especially on the south-west side. The work of restora tion of the cathedral, to the cost of which there was a large American contribution, took many years to complete. The statue of St. Joan of Arc, which stood in front of the cathedral, was removed during the war for safety, and replaced in 1921; many of the art treasures, tapestries, etc., were also saved.
The oldest monument in Reims is the Mars Gate (so called from a temple to Mars in the neighbourhood), a triumphal arch o8 ft. in length by 43 in height, consisting of three archways flanked by columns. It is popularly supposed to have been erected by the Remi in honour of Augustus when Agrippa made the great roads terminating at the town, but probably belongs to the 3rd or 4th century. In its vicinity a curious mosaic, measur ing 36 ft. by 26, with thirty-five medallions representing animals and gladiators, was discovered in 1860. To these remains must be added a Gallo-Roman sarcophagus, said to be that of the consul Jovinus and preserved in the archaeological museum in the cloister of the abbey of St. Remi.
The cathedral of Notre Dame, where the kings of France used to be crowned, replaced an older church (burned in 1211) built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by St. Remigius. The cathedral, with the exception of the west front, was completed by the end of the 13th century. That portion was erected in the 14th century after 13th-century designs—the nave having in the meantime been lengthened to afford room for the crowds that attended the coronations. In 1481 fire destroyed the roof and the spires. The facade was one of the most perfect masterpieces of the middle ages. The three portals are laden with statues and statuettes. The central portal, dedicated to the Virgin, was surmounted by a rose-window framed in an arch itself decorated with statuary. The rose-window, the statue of the smiling angel, the still more famous "Beau Dieu" statue were all severely damaged in the World War. The gallery of the kings above the rose-window survived but the angel spire was destroyed.
The archiepiscopal palace, built between 1498 and 1509, and in part rebuilt in 1675, was almost completely destroyed. The church of St. Remi (I th, 12th, 13th and 15th centuries) still re tains intact its facade and two Romanesque towers ; the nave and choir were ruined, and the mausoleum of St. Remigius containing the reliquary of the saint, behind the high altar, had to be reconstructed.
Reims is the seat of an archbishop, a court of assize and a sub-prefect, and a tribunal and a chamber of commerce. It is an important centre for the combing, carding and spinning of wool and the weaving of flannel, merino, cloth and woollen goods of all kinds. The manufacture of and trade in champagne are also very important. The wine is stored in large cellars tunnelled in the chalk. Other manufactures are linoleum, safes, capsules, bottles, casks, candles, soap and paper. The town is well known for its cakes and biscuits.