Châlons-en-Champagne

"Châlons" redirects here. For other uses, see Châlons (disambiguation).

Châlons-en-Champagne (French pronunciation: [ʃɑlɔ̃ ɑ̃ ʃɑ̃paɲ]) is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the department of Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims.

Châlons-en-Champagne
Prefecture and commune
City Hall of Châlons-en-Champagne
Coat of arms
Location of Châlons-en-Champagne
Châlons-en-Champagne Châlons-en-Champagne
Coordinates: 48°57′27″N 4°21′54″E
Country	France
Region	Grand Est
Department	Marne
Arrondissement	Châlons-en-Champagne
Canton	Châlons-en-Champagne-1, 2 and 3
Intercommunality	CA Châlons-en-Champagne
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Benoist Apparu
Area 1	26.05 km2 (10.06 sq mi)
Population  (2021)	43,877
• Density	1,700/km2 (4,400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	51108 /51000
Elevation	82–84 m (269–276 ft) (avg. 83 m or 272 ft)
Website	Official website
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne, the city was officially renamed in 1995. It should not be confused with the Burgundian town of Chalon-sur-Saône.

History

The city was a Gallic and later a Gallo-Roman settlement known in Latin as Catalaunum, taking its name from the Catalauni, a Belgic tribe dwelling in the region of modern Champagne.

Châlons is conjectured to be the site of several battles including the Battle of Châlons fought in 274 between Roman Emperor Aurelian and Emperor Tetricus I of the Gallic Empire. The Catalaunian Fields was the site of the battle of Châlons in 451 which turned back the westward advance of Attila.

• 
  Châlons-en-Champagne in 1623
• 
  Hôtel de la Haute Mère Dieu in the 19th century

Population

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 12,139 —     1800 11,120 −1.24% 1806 11,089 −0.05% 1821 11,629 +0.32% 1831 12,413 +0.65% 1836 12,952 +0.85% 1841 14,100 +1.71% 1846 13,733 −0.53% 1851 15,879 +2.95% 1856 14,016 −2.47% 1861 14,786 +1.08% 1866 14,901 +0.16% 1872 15,198 +0.33% 1876 20,236 +7.42% 1881 23,199 +2.77% 1886 23,648 +0.38% 1891 25,863 +1.81% 1896 26,630 +0.59%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 26,737 +0.08% 1906 27,808 +0.79% 1911 31,367 +2.44% 1921 31,194 −0.06% 1926 31,382 +0.12% 1931 32,307 +0.58% 1936 35,530 +1.92% 1946 31,120 −1.32% 1954 36,834 +2.13% 1962 41,705 +1.56% 1968 50,764 +3.33% 1975 52,275 +0.42% 1982 51,137 −0.31% 1990 48,423 −0.68% 1999 47,339 −0.25% 2007 45,829 −0.40% 2012 45,225 −0.26% 2017 44,753 −0.21%
Source: EHESS and INSEE (1968-2017)

Main sights

Cloister Notre-Dame-en-Vaux

• Saint Etienne's cathedral, including parts of the first Romanesque cathedral built in the 12th century. Nevertheless, it was mainly rebuilt in Gothic style. The west façade (in Baroque style) and two close spans were added in the 17th century.
• Notre-Dame-en-Vaux church, part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Built between 1157 and 1217, the collegiate church had a cloister and was a place of pilgrimage in the 12th century, and Museum du Cloitre de Notre-Dame-en-Vaux 12th century.
• Saint-Alpin, possibly the oldest church of the city. It was rebuilt around 1170 in a Gothic style, but still marked by the Romanesque style.
• Hôtel de Ville (city hall): It has a façade representative of the neo-classic period of the end of the 18th century. The steps of the building are protected by four stone lions.
• Porte Sainte-Croix (Sainte-Croix Gate), previously called Porte Dauphine, this gate was one of the entries into the city. It was dedicated to Marie-Antoinette when she came via Châlons on her way to Paris to marry the future king Louis XVI of France.
• La Dernière Relève ("The Last Relief"), a war memorial next to the cathedral, with group of bronzes by French sculptor Gaston Broquet.
• Ancien Hotel des Intendants de Champagne (eighteenth century), today home to the Prefecture of the Champagne-Ardenne region and Prefecture of the Marne.
• Le Cirque, the old town circus, completed in 1899, is sheltering the Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC).

• 
  Hôtel de Ville
• 
  Châlons Cathedral
• 
  Notre-Dame-en-Vaux church
• 
  Cloister Notre-Dame-en-Vaux
• 
  Interior view of Saint-Alpin (1907).
• 
  Sainte-Croix Gate
• 
  War memorial "The Last Relief"
• 
  Old Town of Châlons

Transport

The station

The Gare de Châlons-en-Champagne railway station is served by the TGV network with service to and from Paris Gare de l'Est. Other destinations are Reims, Saint-Dizier, Nancy, Bar-le-Duc and Verdun. Additionally, Châlons is connected with the Champagne-TGV station, near Reims, with high speed trains going to Lille, Nantes, Rennes and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Châlons is located at the intersection of two major axes:

• A4 motorway, going from Paris to Strasbourg, towards Reims and Metz
• A26 motorway, going from Lille to Lyon, towards Reims, Troyes and Dijon.

Châlons is also served by an international airport devoted to shipping (Châlons Vatry Airport [1]), with an average of 16,0000 tons of freight passing through each year.

Local transportation is provided by SITAC BUS buses.

Education

University level

The Arts et Métiers ParisTech (1806).

• Arts et Métiers ParisTech (ENSAM), a national engineering graduate school. This teaching and research center was established in 1806. Students can attend courses focused on mechanical and industrial engineering.
• Centre national des arts du cirque (CNAC), which is a Circus Arts Learning Centre created in 1985. Each year about twenty students learn all the disciplines of modern circus arts.
• Institut Universitaire Technologique (IUT) of Reims, Châlons, Charleville, a branch of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)
• Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres (IUFM), a branch of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)

Sport

ESPE Basket Châlons-en-Champagne is a Châlons' basketball team. A temporary firing range was used for some shooting events at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Châlons-en-Champagne is twinned with:

• Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
• Ilkeston, England, United Kingdom
• Mirabel, Canada
• Neuss, Germany
• Razgrad, Bulgaria
• Wittenberge, Germany

Camp de Mourmelon

The Camp de Mourmelon (formerly known as Camp de Châlons) is a military camp of circa 10,000 hectares located near Mourmelon-le-Grand 22 kilometres (14 miles) north. It was created at the behest of Napoleon III and opened 30 August 1857 during the Second French Empire.

The initial purpose was simply for practising military manoeuvres, but it quickly turned into a showcase of the French Imperial Army, a theatrical propaganda display, where French citizens could meet the army and watch parades. Each year the camp was transformed into a town of tents and wooden chalets.

The camp survived the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, but changed into a training camp and a departure point for troops engaging in overseas operations.

The camp is used for military manoeuvres, and cavalry training, along with the neighbouring, 2,500 hectare, Camp de Moronvillers. Firing of live ordnance (rockets, missiles) is prohibited.

Births

Châlons-en-Champagne was the birthplace of:

• Martin Akakia (1497–1551)
• Thierry Beschefer (1630–1711), Jesuit missionary
• David Blondel (1591–1655), Protestant clergyman
• Claude D'Espence (1511–1571) French theologian
• Jean Talon (1626–1694), first Intendant of New France
• Antoine de Chézy (1718–1798), hydraulics engineer
• Nicolas Appert (1749–1841), inventor of "appertisation" for the preservation of food
• Jean-Baptiste Charbonnier (1764–1859), composer and organist
• Joseph-François Mangin (1764–1818), designer of the St. Patrick's Old Cathedral and the New York City Hall
• Madeleine Chapelle (1782–1849), wife and model of the painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
• Henri Dagonet (1823–1902), psychiatrist
• Adolphe Willette (1857–1926), painter
• Maurice Renard (1875–1939), writer
• Etienne Oehmichen (1884–1955), engineer, considered father of the helicopter
• Robert Louis Antral (1895–1939) painter
• Jacques Massu (1908–2002), paratrooper, general
• Cabu (1938–2015), comic strip artist and caricaturist
• Maryvonne de Saint-Pulgent (born 1951), senior civil servant and musicologist
• Mano Solo (1963–2010), singer
• Xavier Bertrand (born 1965), politician
• Camille Brunel (born 1986), journalist and a writer

Deaths

Châlons-en-Champagne was the death place of:

• Jean-Baptiste Charbonnier (1764–1859), composer and organist
• George Canning, 1st Baron Garvagh (1778–1840), diplomat and Fellow of the Royal Society of London, nephew to British Prime Minister George Canning (1770–1827)
• Clyde Fitch, American dramatist

In popular culture

• It is the setting of the last operetta of Johann Strauss II, Die Göttin der Vernunft (The Goddess of Reason), (1897).
• The town is also mentioned in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown as where Snoopy crashes his doghouse/"Sopwith Camel" in territory held by the Imperial German Army, after losing an imaginary aerial dogfight against the Red Baron.

Image

Panoramic view of Hôtel de ville place in Châlons-en-Champagne.

See also

• Diocese of Châlons
• French wine
• Champagne Riots
• The works of Antonin Mercié

Further reading

• Mark W. Konnert, Civic Agendas and Religious Passion: Châlons-sur-Marne during the French wars of religion, 1560–1594 (Kirksville, MO, Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1997) (Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies, 35).
• Jean-Paul Barbier and Michel Bursaux, The Bonapartes in Châlons en Champagne (Les Bonaparte à Châlons en Champagne), Marnaise Studies (Etudes Marnaises), SACSAM, 2009.

External links

• Official website (English/French/German)
• History and photographs of Camp Chalons
• "Châlons-sur-Marne" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.