The oldest monument in Rheims is the Mars Gate (so called from a temple to Mars in the neighbourhood), a triumphal arch 108 feet in length by 43 in height erected by the Remi in honour of Caesar and Augustus when Agrippa made the great roads terminating at the town. In its vicinity a curious mosaic measuring 35 feet by 26, with thirty-five medallions representing animals and gladiators, was discovered in 1861. But by far the most interesting architectural feature of the town is the cathedral of Notre Dame, where the kings of France used to be crowned. It replaced an older church burned in 1211, which had been built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by St Remigius.

The whole cathedral, with the exception of the façade, was completed by 1231; but it has undergone numerous alterations. The present façade was erected in the 14th century after 13th-century designs,—the nave having in the meantime been lengthened so as to afford room for the vast crowds that attended the coronations. In 1481 a terrible fire destroyed the roof and also the spires, which have never been restored to their original state. In 1875 the National Assembly voted £80,000 for repairs of the façade and balustrades. This façade is the finest portion of the building, and one of the most perfect masterpieces of the Middle Ages. The portals and the rose window are laden with statues and statuettes; the ‘ ‘ gallery of the kings” above has the baptism of Clovis in the centre, and also has statues of Charlemagne and his father Pippin the Short. The towers, 267 feet high, were originally designed to rise 394 feet; that on the south contains two great bells, one of which, named by Cardinal de Lorraine in 1570, weighs more than 11 tons. The transepts are also decorated with sculptures,—that on the north with statues of the principal bishops of Rheims, a representation of the last judgment, and a figure of Christ, while that on the south side has a beautiful rose window with the prophets and apostles. Of the four towers which formerly flanked the transepts nothing remains above the height of the roof since the fire of 1481. Above the choir rises an elegant bell-tower in timber and lead, 59 feet high, reconstructed in the 15th century. The interior of the cathedral is 455 feet long, 98⅜ feet wide in the nave, and 125 feet high in the centre. It has a profusion of statues similar to those of the outside, and is further adorned with stained glass of the 13th century and with tapestries. The rose window over the main portal and the gallery beneath are of rare magnificence. Forty pieces of tapestry bestowed in 1530 by Robert de Lenoncourt, and devoted to the history of the Virgin, are remarkable for the richness of colour and the variety of costume they display. Of six pieces presented by Cardinal de Lorraine in 1570, only three have been preserved; one of them representing the coronation of Clovis and the battle of Soissons affords valuable evidence relating to the military costumes of the 16th century. Archbishop Henry of Lorraine also presented seventeen large pieces of tapestry representing the life of Christ, in 1633; they are called Pepersack’s tapestries after the maker, a celebrated tapestry weaver oi Charleville. The Canticles tapestries, four pieces representing scenes in Louis XIV.’s youth, originally belonged to the castle of Hauteville. In the right transept are two great Gobelins tapestries executed after Raphael’s designs, and dealing with the life of St Paul. The left transept contains a fine organ in flamboyant Gothic with 3516 pipes and 53 stops. The choir clock is ornamented with curious mechanical devices. Several paintings, by Titian, Tintoretto, Nicolas Poussin, and others, and the carved woodwork and the railings of the choir, also deserve to be mentioned; and among the numerous objects of antiquarian interest in the cathedral “treasury” is the reliquary of the sacred phial which contained the oil used in anointing the kings, but was broken during the Revolution. The archiépiscopal palace, built between 1498 and 1509, and in part rebuilt in 1675, was occupied by the kings on the occasion of their coronation. The saloon chamber, where the royal banquet was held, has an immense stone chimney of the 15th century, medallions of the archbishops of Rheims, and portraits of fourteen kings crowned in the city. Among the other rooms of the royal suite, all of which are of great beauty and richness, is that now used for the meetings of the Rheims Academy; the building also contains a library of 16,000 volumes. The chapel of the archiépiscopal palace consists of two stories, the upper of which still serves as a place of worship, while the lower is occupied by an antiquarian museum, in which is preserved the marble cenotaph (almost entire) of the consul Jovinus, who in the 4th century led his fellow-townsmen at Rheims to embrace Christianity. After the cathedral the most celebrated church is that of St Remi, built in the 11th and 12th centuries on the site of an older place of worship. The valuable monuments with which it was at one time filled were pillaged during the Revolution, and even the tomb of the saint is a modern piece of work; but there still remain the 13th-century glass windows of the apse and tapestries representing the history of St Remigius. The churches of St Jacques, St Maurice (partly rebuilt in 1867), St André, and St Thomas (erected in 1847, under the patronage of Cardinal Gousset, now buried within its walls), as well as the chapels of the lycée and of several monasteries, are all more or less interesting. There are also in the city two Protestant churches and a synagogue.

The town-house, erected in the 17th century and enlarged in 1880, has a pediment with an equestrian statue of Louis XV. and a tail and elegant campanile. It contains a picture gallery, a natural history museum, and a library of 60,000 volumes and 1500 MSS. Of the many curious old houses which still exist in the town it is enough to mention the House of the Musicians, so called from the seated figures of musicians which decorate the front. Rheims is the seat of an academy of science, arts, and literature, founded in 1841 and composed of forty-five members, a preparatory school of medicine and pharmacy, several hospitals, and a modern theatre. It is the headquarters of one of the divisions of the 6th corps d’armée (Chalons). Colbert’s statue adorns the Cours; Louis XV.’s (in bronze) stands in the centre of the handsome Place Royale; and Marshal Drouet d’Erlon’s is in another of the public squares.

History.— Rheims (Durocortorum), an important town in the time of Caesar, made voluntary submission to the Romans and by its fidelity throughout the various Gallic insurrections secured the special favour of its conquerors. Christianity was introduced about the middle of the 4th century. Jovinus, already mentioned as 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 everything to fire and sword. Clovis, after his victory at Soissons (486), was baptized at Rheims in 496 by St Remigius (q.vA. From this period the see acquired new lustre. The kings of the second and third dynasties desired to be consecrated at Rheims 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. Historical meetings of Pope Stephen III. with Pippin the Short, an<l of Leo III. with Charlemagne, took place at Rheims; and there Louis the Débonnaire was crowned by Stephen IV. In the 10th century Rheims had become a centre of intellectual culture, Archbishop Adalberon, seconded by the monk Gerbert (Sylvester IL), 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 Carlovingians. The archbishops of Rheims held the temporal lordship of the city and coined money till the close of the 14th century. But their most important prerogative was the consecration of the king,—a privilege which was regularly exercised from the time of Philip Augustus to that of Charles X. Louis VII. granted the town a communal charter in 1139. Councils met within its walls in 1119 and 1148. 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 duly consecrated in the cathedral. A revolt at Rheims 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 captured and recaptured; in 1870-71 it was made by the Germans the seat of a governor-general and impoverished by heavy requisitions.