Châlons-en-Champagne

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Coordinates: 48°57′27″N 4°21′54″E / 48.9575, 4.365

Commune of Châlons-en-Champagne
Notre-Dame-en-Vaux
Location
Châlons-en-Champagne (France)
Châlons-en-Champagne
Administration
Country France
Region Champagne-Ardenne
Department Marne (préfecture)
Arrondissement Châlons-en-Champagne
Canton Chief town of 4 cantons
Intercommunality Communauté d'agglomération de Châlons-en-Champagne
Mayor Bruno Bourg-Broc
(2001-2008)
Statistics
Land area¹ 26.05 km²
Population²
(1999)		 47,339
 - Density 1,817/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 51108/ 51000
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).
France

Châlons-en-Champagne is a city and commune in France. It is the administrative centre (préfecture) of both the département of Marne and the région of Champagne-Ardenne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims.

Formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne, the city was officially renamed in 1998. It should not be confused with the Burgundian town of Chalon-sur-Saône.

Contents

[edit] Diocese

Main article: Diocese of Châlons

The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Châlons.[1][2][3]

[edit] History

Châlons is conjectured to be the site of the Catalaunian Fields in which the battle of Chalons, 451AD, turned back the westward advance of Attila.

[edit] Twinning

[edit] Transport

Châlons is served by the TGV network with service to and from Paris Gare de l'Est. Additionally, Châlons is connected with the Champagne-TGV station, near Reims, with high speed trains going to Lille, Nantes or Paris Airport (Charles de Gaulle).

Châlons is located at the intersection of two major axes:

Châlons is also served by an international airport devoted to shipping (Chalons Vatry Airport [1]), ranking third in France with almost 60,000 tonnes of freight which pass through each year.

Local transportation is provided by SITAC BUS buses.

[edit] Education

[edit] University level

  • 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.

[edit] Main sights

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Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (March 2008)
  • Saint Etienne's cathedral

Some Roman parts of the first cathedral built in the 12th Century still remain. Nevertheless, it was mainly rebuilt in Gothic style. The west frontage (baroque style) and the two close spans were added in the XVIIth centuty.

  • Notre-Dame-en-Vaux church

Notre Dame en Vaux is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Built between 1157 and 1217, that collegiate church had a cloister. It was a place of pilgrimage in the XIIth century.

  • Saint-Alpin church

Perhaps the oldest church of the city, Saint-Alpin church was rebuilt around 1170 in Gothic style, but still marked by the Roman style.

  • Hôtel de Ville (city hall)

Frontage representative of the neo-classic period of the end of the XVIIIth century. The steps of that building are procteted by four stoned lions. In fact, the American Unknown Soldier was designated there in 1921.

  • Porte Sainte-Croix (Ste-Croix Gate)

Called Porte Dauphine in the past, that gate was one of the entries of the city. It was dedicated to Marie-Antoinette when she came in Châlons (she was going to Paris to marry king Louis XVI).

  • Ancien Hotel des Intendants of Champagne (18th C.)

Today Prefecture of the Champagne-Ardenne region and Prefecture of the Marne. A part of the buildings and the main courtyard were built in the 18th C.

  • Le Cirque (late 19th C.)

That old town circus, completed in 1899, is sheltering the Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC).


[edit] Sport

[edit] Miscellaneous

Châlons-en-Champagne was the birthplace of:

Châlons-en-Champagne was the death location of:


Comedian Eddie Izzard mentions Châlons-en-Champagne (at the time known as Châlons-sur-Marne) on his comedy album Definite Article, as part of a comedy routine wherein he tells the story of a foreign exchange to Châlons-sur-Marne he took part in.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Diocese of Châlons from catholic-hierarchy.org
  2. ^ Official web site (in French}]
  3. ^ Châlons-sur-Marne - Catholic Encyclopedia article
  4. ^ Ilkeston Twinning Association
  5. ^ Neuss sister city link page

[edit] External links

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 Préfectures of régions of France
Strasbourg (Alsace) • Bordeaux (Aquitaine) • Clermont-Ferrand (Auvergne) • Dijon (Bourgogne) • Rennes (Bretagne) • Orléans (Centre) • Châlons-en-Champagne (Champagne-Ardenne) • Ajaccio (Corsica) • Besançon (Franche-Comté) • Paris (Île-de-France) • Montpellier (Languedoc-Roussillon) • Limoges (Limousin) • Metz (Lorraine) • Toulouse (Midi-Pyrénées) • Lille (Nord-Pas de Calais) • Caen (Basse-Normandie) • Rouen (Haute-Normandie) • Nantes (Pays de la Loire) • Amiens (Picardie) • Poitiers (Poitou-Charentes) • Marseille (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) • Lyon (Rhône-Alpes)
Overseas regions

Cayenne (French Guiana) • Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe) • Fort-de-France (Martinique) • Saint-Denis (Réunion)
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