Synagogue in Reims

Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral is known to have been the site of almost all the coronations of the kings of France since the 11th century. It was here that Clovis, the first king of the Franks, was baptized at the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries, an event retrospectively considered to be the foundation of the French monarchy. The current Gothic cathedral was built from the 13th to 14th centuries, on a site where cathedrals have been built since the 5th century. The building was severely damaged during the First World War, but has been rebuilt and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.

Built at the end of the 17th century on the site of the old village church according to the wishes of the Count of Avaux Jean-Jacques de Mesmes. Of an extravagant form, designed by a talented architect: the Dominican friar François Romain and by Fleury, an architect who lived on the spot, the shell was completed in 1683. The church was completed, received and blessed in 1685. A very original plan which is compared to the shape of a viol. Entirely built in brick, its architecture with colonnades, domes and cupolas is truly audacious. None of the walls of the building follow a straight line.

The church suffered greatly during the Hundred Years War (1336-1453). However, two arches of the nave, of a very primitive Gothic style, allow us to suppose that they are the remains of an old collegiate church, from the ruins of which Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I, had the present church built.