Provins

Provins lies south-east of Paris in the former lands of the Counts of Champagne. In Roman Gaul it stood where two regional roads crossed, and Charlemagne sent his envoys, the missi dominici, to the town. Under the protection of the counts it became one of the towns of the Champagne fairs, which carried much of the trade of medieval Europe.

The upper town held a fair twice a year, in May and November, and the lower town a yearly market in September. The fairs ran from 1120 to 1320, alongside a thriving wool industry. The 12th-century walls and the Tour César, and the upper-town houses that served merchants as homes, shops and counting houses, still show a town built to host the fairs. Count Henry I of Champagne built the collegiate church of Saint-Quiriace to display the head of Saint Cyriacus, which he had brought from Jerusalem.

In the late 13th century King Philip IV burdened the town with heavy taxes, ending its prosperity and driving residents away. Between the 14th and 16th centuries it was besieged many times and changed hands often. Largely untouched by the Industrial Revolution, it remained a small market town through the 19th century. Of the four Champagne fair towns it is the only one that keeps much of its medieval character, and it was inscribed in 2001.