Dreux

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For the saint of this name, see Saint Drogo.
Dreux
Saint-Pierre church

Coat of arms
Dreux
Coordinates: 48°44′14″N 1°21′59″E / 48.7372°N 01.3664°E / 48.7372; 01.3664Coordinates: 48°44′14″N 1°21′59″E / 48.7372°N 01.3664°E / 48.7372; 01.3664
Country France
Region Centre
Department Eure-et-Loir
Arrondissement Dreux
Intercommunality Drouais
Government
 • Mayor (2008–2014) Gérard Hamel
Area
 • Land1 24.27 km2 (9.37 sq mi)
Population (2008)
 • Population2 31,212
 • Population2 Density 1,300/km2 (3,300/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 28134 / 28100
Elevation 75–139 m (246–456 ft)

1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Dreux (French pronunciation: ​[dʁø]) is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.

History

Dreux was known in ancient times as Durocassium, the capital of the Durocasses Celtic tribe. Despite the legend, its name was not related with Druids. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum Drocas.

In the Middle Ages, Dreux was the centre of the County of Dreux. The first count of Dreux was Robert, the son of King Louis the Fat. The first large battle of the French Wars of Religion occurred at Dreux, on December 19, 1562, resulting in a hard-fought victory for the Catholic forces of the duc de Montmorency.

Population

Historical population
Year Pop.  ±%  
1793 5,383—    
1800 5,437+1.0%
1806 6,037+11.0%
1821 6,032−0.1%
1831 6,249+3.6%
1836 6,379+2.1%
1841 6,367−0.2%
1846 6,774+6.4%
1851 6,764−0.1%
1856 6,498−3.9%
1861 6,940+6.8%
1866 7,237+4.3%
1872 7,418+2.5%
1876 7,922+6.8%
1881 8,254+4.2%
1886 8,719+5.6%
1891 9,364+7.4%
1896 9,718+3.8%
1901 9,647−0.7%
1906 9,928+2.9%
1911 10,692+7.7%
1921 10,908+2.0%
1926 11,313+3.7%
1931 12,200+7.8%
1936 13,361+9.5%
1946 14,184+6.2%
1954 16,818+18.6%
1962 21,588+28.4%
1968 29,408+36.2%
1975 33,101+12.6%
1982 33,379+0.8%
1990 35,230+5.5%
1999 31,849−9.6%
2008 31,212−2.0%

Sights

Chapelle royale de Dreux

Main article: Chapelle royale de Dreux

In 1775, the lands of the comté de Dreux had been given to the Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre by his cousin Louis XVI. In 1783, the duke sold his domain of Rambouillet to Louis XVI. On November 25 of that year, in a long religious procession, Penthièvre transferred the nine caskets containing the remains of his parents, the Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse and Marie Victoire de Noailles, comtesse de Toulouse, his wife, Marie Thérèse Félicité d'Este, Princess of Modène, and six of their seven children, from the small medieval village church next to the castle in Rambouillet, to the chapel of the Collégiale Saint-Étienne de Dreux.[1] The duc de Penthièvre died in March 1793 and his body was laid to rest in the crypt beside his parents. On November 21 of that same year, in the midst of the French Revolution, a mob desecrated the crypt and threw the ten bodies in a mass grave in the Chanoines cemetery of the Collégiale Saint-Étienne. In 1816, the duc de Penthièvre's daughter, Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, duchesse d'Orléans, had a new chapel built on the site of the mass grave of the Chanoines cemetery, as the final resting place for her family. In 1830, Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, son of the duchesse d'Orléans, embellished the chapel which was renamed Chapelle royale de Dreux, now the necropolis of the Orléans royal family.

Other sights

  • Renaissance Château d'Anet
  • Hôtel de Montulé (16th century)
  • Pavilion of Louis XVI
  • Hôtel de Salvat-Duhalde (18th century)

Personalities

Dreux was the birthplace of:

International relations

Dreux is twinned with:

See also

References

  1. ↑ G. Lenotre, Le Château de Rambouillet, six siècles d'histoire, Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 1930, reprint: Denoël, Paris, 1984, (215 pages), chapter 5: Le prince des pauvres, pp. 78-79

External links

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