Explorar Reims

The Porte de Mars is a Roman triumphal arch from the 3rd century, the only survivor of the four gates of Durocortorum, Roman Reims. It is 32 metres long and 13 metres high, with three archways whose vaults carry reliefs of Romulus and Remus, Leda and the swan and scenes of farm work. Walled into the town ramparts in the Middle Ages, it was cleared again in the 19th century.

Reims Cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims, is the Gothic cathedral where French kings were traditionally crowned. Built mainly in the 13th century after a fire in 1210, it has a west front covered in sculpture, including the Smiling Angel, and windows by Marc Chagall. It was heavily damaged in the First World War and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.

The Musée Saint-Remi occupies the former buildings of the Abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims, beside the basilica. Its 17 rooms trace the history of Reims and its region from prehistory to the Renaissance, with Gallo-Roman finds such as the marble sarcophagus of Jovinus, a Romanesque chapter house and ten tapestries of the life of Saint Remi completed in 1531.

Champagne Taittinger is a champagne house in Reims, founded in 1734, whose cellars lie beneath the site of the former Saint-Nicaise Abbey. Guided tours go 18 metres underground through remains of the 13th-century abbey and Gallo-Roman chalk pits dug in the 4th century, where the wines age, and end with a tasting.

The Basilica of Saint-Remi is the former abbey church of Saint-Remi in Reims, built over the tomb of Saint Remigius, the bishop who baptised the Frankish king Clovis, and consecrated by Pope Leo IX in 1049. Its Romanesque nave leads to a Gothic choir from the 12th century. Badly damaged in the First World War, it was restored by the architect Henri Deneux.

Champagne Pommery is a Champagne house in Reims whose estate on the Saint-Nicaise hill was built from 1868 under Louise Pommery in a neo-Gothic style inspired by Elizabethan England. Visits lead down a 116-step staircase into about 18 kilometres of cellars 30 metres underground, linking Gallo-Roman chalk pits, with carved bas-reliefs and contemporary art installations.