Dreux

Subprefecture and commune in Centre-Val de Loire, France

(2020–2026) Pierre-Frédéric Billet^[1]Area24.27 km² (9.37 sq mi)Population30,879 • Density1,300/km² (3,300/sq mi)Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)INSEE/Postal codeElevation75–139 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.

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

Geography

Dreux lies on the small river Blaise, a tributary of the Eure, about 35 km north of Chartres. Dreux station has rail connections to Argentan, Paris and Granville. The Route nationale 12 (Paris–Rennes) passes north of the town.

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 19 December 1562, resulting in a hard-fought victory for the Catholic forces of the duc de Montmorency.

In October 1983, the Front National won 55% of the vote in the second round of elections for the city council of Dreux, in one of its first significant electoral victories.^[3]

Population

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 5,383 —     1800 5,437 +0.14% 1806 6,037 +1.76% 1821 6,032 −0.01% 1831 6,249 +0.35% 1836 6,379 +0.41% 1841 6,367 −0.04% 1846 6,774 +1.25% 1851 6,764 −0.03% 1856 6,498 −0.80% 1861 6,940 +1.32% 1866 7,237 +0.84% 1872 7,418 +0.41% 1876 7,922 +1.66% 1881 8,254 +0.82% 1886 8,719 +1.10% 1891 9,364 +1.44% 1896 9,718 +0.74%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 9,697 −0.04% 1906 9,928 +0.47% 1911 10,692 +1.49% 1921 10,908 +0.20% 1926 11,313 +0.73% 1931 12,200 +1.52% 1936 13,361 +1.83% 1946 14,184 +0.60% 1954 16,818 +2.15% 1962 21,588 +3.17% 1968 29,408 +5.29% 1975 33,101 +1.70% 1982 33,379 +0.12% 1990 35,230 +0.68% 1999 31,849 −1.11% 2007 32,155 +0.12% 2012 31,195 −0.60% 2017 31,044 −0.10%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Source: EHESS[4] and INSEE (1968-2017)[5]

Dreux has a significant Muslim population, and is estimated to be around 35%. Dreux's Muslim population consists mainly of North Africans, Arabs, Turks, and Sub-Saharan Africans. Many Muslims in Dreux experience high levels of poverty and unemployment.^[6][7] One-in-four residents in the town are immigrants.^[8]

Sights

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 25 November 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.^[9] The duc de Penthièvre died in March 1793 and his body was laid to rest in the crypt beside his parents. On 21 November 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

• Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Dreux [fr]
• Hôtel de Montulé (16th century)
• Pavilion of Louis XVI
• Hôtel de Salvat-Duhalde (18th century)
• Renaissance Château d'Anet

Personalities

Dreux was the birthplace of:

• Kalifa Cissé, footballer
• Martin Pierre d'Alvimare (1772–1839), composer and harpist
• Charles Delescluze (1809–1871), journalist and military commander of the Paris Commune
• Siraba Dembélé, handball player
• Abdou Dieye, footballer
• Louis Victor Dubois (1837–1914), wine merchant and politician
• Léa Le Garrec, footballer for Fleury and the France national team^[10]
• Antoine Godeau (1605–1672), bishop, poet and exegete. He is now known for his work of criticism Discours de la poésie chrétienne from 1633.
• Rémi Gounelle (1967-), Protestant theologian
• Marouan Kechrid, basketball player
• Yannick Lesourd, athlete
• Jean-Louis-Auguste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (1774–1849), botanist
• Eddie London (1956–), singer
• François-André Danican Philidor (1726–1795), musician and chess player
• Jean Rotrou (1609–1650), poet and tragedian
• Issa Samba, footballer
• Adrien Trebel (1991-), footballer
• Guerschon Yabusele, basketball player

Twin towns - sister cities

Dreux is twinned with:^[11]

See also

• Communes of the Eure-et-Loir department

References

External links