Dreux is a town and commune in northwest France, in the Eure-et-Loir département.
Politics
Dreux came to national attention in 1983 when the National Front (Front National) party made its first electoral breakthrough, winning control of the city council and deputy mayorship. This came at a time of rising unemployment and popular resentment directed at the visible and impoverished community of immigrants, many of whom were Muslims. Françoise Gaspard, the former Socialist mayor who had lost the election to the National Front, later wrote a book, Une petite ville en France (A Small City in France), about her experience and the times.
History
In the
Middle Ages, Dreux was the centre of the
Comté de Dreux. 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.
Chapelle royale de Dreux
The
House of Bourbon-Penthièvre was one of the greatest land owning families in France before the
French Revolution. In 1775, the lands of the
comté de Dreux had been given to the
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
comte and comtesse de Toulouse, his wife,
Marie Thérèse Félicité d'Este, princesse de 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. 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, the
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.
Among the seventy-five members buried in the new chapel are:
- the comte de Toulouse,
- the comtesse de Toulouse, his wife,
- the duc de Penthièvre, their son,
- the duchesse de Penthièvre, his wife,
- the prince de Lamballe, their son,
- Mlle de Penthièvre, future duchesse d'Orléans, their daughter,
- the princesse de Condé, the duchesse d'Orléans's sister-in-law,
- Louis-Philippe, King of the French, son of the duchesse d'Orléans.
References
Miscellaneous
Victor Hugo proposed to his wife here in
1821.
Dreux is the home of one of the strongest cricket teams in France.
La feuille de Dreux is an excellent cheese of the Dreux region.
Births
Dreux was the birthplace of:
Twin towns
Dreux is twinned with:
- Todi, Italy, since 1960
- Melsungen, Germany, since 1966
- Koudougou, Burkina Faso, since 1972
- Evesham, United Kingdom, since 1977
- Bautzen, Germany, since 1992
External links
