Châlons-en-Champagne

Administrative centre of the département of Marne and of the Champagne-Ardenne region in northeast France, 150 km/93 mi east of Paris on the right bank of the River Marne; population (1999) 50,300. Industries include champagne production, brewing, electrical engineering, and textiles manufacture. Châlons was formerly known for its worsted cloth. Tradition has it that Attila the Hun was defeated near here in his attempt to invade France at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 AD by the Roman general Aëtius and the Visigoth Theodoric.

The town is the site of an important railway junction, and is a centre of the wine trade of Champagne.

History From the 10th century to the 14th century the town was governed by its bishops. It suffered at the hands of the English in the Hundred Years' War, and in 1589 Henry IV transferred the parliament of Paris here when the town sided with him. It was taken by the Germans in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, when MacMahon withdrew from the famous camp of Châlons-sur-Marne (formed by Napoleon III in 1856). It was again in German hands for a short period during World War I. The town, including the 13th-century cathedral, was severely damaged in World War II. However, many old houses plus a 12th-century church with a carillon of 56 bells, Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, remain.