According to the legend, Reims was founded by Remus, Romulus? brother who founded ancient Rome. The Celtic tribe who lived in the region might have taken therefore the name of Remes.
About 80 BC, the Remes built an oppidum which they called Durocortero ( circular stronghold) After the Roman conquest, Durocortorum was integrated into the Roman province of Belgium and became its capital. At its height, with its 30 000 inhabitants, the Gallo-roman city was the most populated in the North of the Alps.
Around 260 was founded the bishopric of Reims. During the great invasions, in 407 the bishop Nicaise was killed by the Vandals in front of his church that he had got built. He was to become the patron saint of the city of Reims.

Clovis, Frankish king was baptised by Remi, bishop of Reims on Chritsmas Day 498 in a baptistery which is today situated where Notre-dame Cathedral of Reims stands. Clovis? conversion to Christianity, religion of a Church which inherited the Roman power, legitimized Clovis to a military takeover of a Gaul then still very divided. A consequence of this baptism was the bringing together of Church and State from which was born the monarchic government of the French divine right. It is also thanks to Clovis? baptism that Reims became the seat of the coronation of the kings of France.

In 816 took place the first royal coronation in Reims, the one of Louis le Pious. The ceremony which lasted generally five hours used to take place in Notre-Dame Cathedral, as long ago as the Cathedral was built. It was followed by the coronation banquet in the Tau palace and a pilgrimage to the tomb of the bishop Remi, in the Basilica which bears his name. The most memorable coronation remains the one of the Dauphin Charles VII being lead into Reims by Joan of Arc on the 17th of July 1429 after the raising of the siege of Orleans. In total, 33 kings got crowned in Reims, the last one being Charles X in 1825.

In the Middle Ages, Reims prospered with its sheets and cloth and other textile products on the fairs in the South of the region Champagne and by dealing with the Hanseatic League. The expansion of the Champagne wine from the reign of Louis XIV onwards completed the range of its productions.

Two of the most celebrated children of the City are Jean-Baptist Colbert, General Controller of Finance of Louis XIV and Jean-Baptist de La Salle, precursor of the modern pedagogy, who both were born in the XVII century.

Like everywhere else, the industrial revolution changed radically the appearance of the town which increased from 30 000 to 120 000 inhabitants within a century. Rich mansions replaced the half-timbered houses. Some of the first international air meetings took place in Reims at the beginning of the XX century. Reims is in fact one of the birthplaces of the aeronautics.

Then came the First World War. On the 4th of September 1914, a month after the beginning of the war, the German army entered Reims. It was pushed back but it took refuge in the surrounding fortresses. From there, the German canons bombed the town during three and half years. Notre-Dame Cathedral was badly hit and received almost 300 shells. The siege ended with the destruction of more than 80 % of the town and the death of more than 5 000 casualties.

The new Reims that sprang up from the ruins between the two wars, thank to the intervention of 325 offices of architects, shows a face filled with an eclectic architecture marked in particular by the Art Deco Style.

The Second World War had little effect on the town. During the conflict, Reims received the Headquarter of General Eisenhower. It was there on the 7th of May 1945 at 2h41 that the General Alfred Jodl, commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht signed the full surrender of Nazi Germany. The text drawn up in haste by the members of General Eisenhower’ staff had for objective to put an impending end to the conflict. It was ratified the next day in Berlin by the heads of the allied States.

On the 8th of July 1962, the German Chancellor Adenauer and General De Gaulle sealed the reconciliation between the German and French people in Notre-Dame Cathedral and set up Reims as a peace symbol between Germany and France.