Butte Saint-Nicaise

The Reims motto “God will guard” was translated from a vow by Louis the Debonaire during his coronation in 816, when he announced the demolition of the fortifications in order to repurpose stones, at the start of Viking raids!

Of the four walls that followed (50 B.C., then the 1st, 4th and 14th centuries A.D.), all that remains is this mound interspersed by an archway and crowned by the Puits tower. The fortification ordered by Philippe Auguste and completed in 1358 included the Saint-Remi district, its abbey and the Saint-Nicaise abbey.

It was formed of two slopes separated by a moat. The higher levee of ground on the city side was topped by a high wall punctuated by doors, towers and curtain walls.

Around 1850, Jacques-Joseph Maquart drew a romantic portrait of it before it was dismantled to make way for the canal, the train station and the large boulevards. After 1870, Reims was defended by a ring of forts built within 10 km...