REIMS CIVITAS

Reims has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the CITY OR CIVITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

Reims is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. It was founded centuries B.C. during the La tène culture age by the Celts Remi tribe, whose name was used in 52 A.D. by the Romans when conquered the region and built a castra of the Roman Res Public, near the confluence of the Vesle and Ains rivers, called Durocortorum and inhabited by Celts together with Italics. The Civitas Reims was a station at the crossing point of the Aquitania way, starting in Cologne and passing through the civitas of Paris, Tours, Bordeaux and Toulouse to end in Narbonne, with the Flavia III way starting in Chalon-sur-Saône to connect the Britannia way and provinces over the English Channel.

Within the reform of Augustus (see Roman Empire), Reims was included in the Gallia Belgica province and obtained many public building, because it was one of the first christian community of Europe elevated Diocesi already in 260 A.D.! With the reform of Constantine I (see Christian Empire), Reims became part of the Galliarum Diocesi starting the evangelization of Gallia and Germany provinces under the bishopric founded in IV century A.D.. Before the falling of the Western Roman Empire, the city was already inhabited by Franks and included into the Neustria Regna founded in 511 A.D. and Reims became the official seat of crowning of the Merovingian dinasty: all began when king Clovis I was baptized in the church cathedral of Saint-Remi by the bishop Saint Remigius with "sacred oil" brough from heaven in a phial by a dove, a rite continued until the end of the French monarchy!

With the renovatio imperii of Charlemagne Reims was honoured by the Carolingian dinasty and with the 843 A.D. Treaty of Verdun was elevated archibishop and 'peer of the realm' of the regna Francorum ruled by the emperor's families for more than a century, making the ancient city Abbey the symbol of their power. The Reims cathedral continued holding the kings crowning ceremony and when the sceptre passed to the Capetingian dinasty it was rebuilt with gothic style (became the symbol of Reims) and founded the Basilica of Saint-Remi (over the chapel where the patron was buried) as the largest Romanesque church in northern France. In that period Reims had become a centre of intellectual culture thanks to Archibishop Adalberon and his assistant, the future Pope Silvester II who founded a schools which taught the classical liberal arts: in 1548 A.D. had been founded the U.R.C.A. (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne), today a multidisciplinary ateneo developing innovative, fundamental, and applied research, for example in the wine industry that in Reims has a main centre for the Reims Champagne production, or in the aviation field of the wool sector where Reims was leader during the Industrial Revolution.

Reims had obtained a communal chart in 1139 A.D under the protecton of the kings, remaining in the Catholic League during the French religious war in XVI century A.D. and always privileged coronation seat, directly connected to Paris and the near strategic provinces of Alsace-Lorraine. So the city followed the history and destiny of the France kingdom even in Modern era, when Reims remained the principle bishopric in northern France and a strategic fortress opposed to the II Reich and together with Metz was basis for the Maginot Line built during the First World War and for that reason bombed with several damages to the cathedral and many buildings.

Today Reims is rich of historical, cultural and architectural treasury hosting buildings of different architectonic styles, from the Romanesque to Gothic, from Reinassance to the Art-decò, such as Reims Cathedral, the adjacent Palace of Tau and the Abbey of Saint-Remi that are enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage. Reims is a medium size town in the north-east of France near the borders with Belgium and included in the Grand Est region, whose patron is Saint Remigius an ancient bishop of the city who crowned the Christian king of the Merovingian dinasty.

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