Dreux () is a commune in the

Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.department in northern France.

Geography

Dreux lies on the small river Blaise, a tributary of the

Eure Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.Chartres Chartres () is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 1 ...

. Dreux station has rail connections to

Argentan Argentan () is a commune and the seat of two cantons and of an arrondissement in the Orne department in northwestern France. As of 2019, Argentan is the third largest municipality by population in the Orne department.

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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 A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...

. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum Drocas. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, Dreux was the centre of the County of Dreux. The first count of Dreux was

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

, the son of King Louis the Fat. The first large battle of the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

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.

Population

Dreux has a significant Muslim population, and is estimated to be around 35%. Dreux's Muslim population consists mainly of North Africans,

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

, Turks, and Sub-Saharan Africans. Many Muslims in Dreux experience high levels of poverty and unemployment. One-in-four residents in the town are immigrants.

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 Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

. 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 Louis Alexandre de Bourbon (6 June 1678 – 1 December 1737), a Legitimacy (family law), legitimated prince of the blood royal, was the son of Louis XIV and of his mistress Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. At the age of five, he ...

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. 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 Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and 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 The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

* 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 * 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 Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

* Eddie London (1956–), singer *

François-André Danican Philidor François-André Danican Philidor (7 September 1726 – 31 August 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the ''opéra comique''. ...

(1726–1795), musician and

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player *

Jean Rotrou Jean Rotrou (21 August 1609 – 28 June 1650) was a French poet and tragedian. Life Rotrou was born at Dreux, city of the current department of Eure-et-Loir, in Centre-Val de Loire region. He studied at Dreux and at Paris, and, though three ye ...

(1609–1650), poet and tragedian * Issa Samba, footballer * Adrien Trebel (1991–), footballer * Guerschon Yabusele, professional basketball player

Twin towns - sister cities

Dreux is twinned with: * Todi, Italy, since 1960 * Melsungen, Germany, since 1966 *

Koudougou Koudougou () is a city in Burkina Faso's Boulkiemdé Province. It is located west of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. With a population of 160,239 (2019), it is the List of cities in Burkina Faso, third most populous city in Burkina F ...

, Burkina Faso, since 1972 *

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...

, England, UK, since 1977 *

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin (), until 1868 ''Budissin'' in German, is a town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the Bautzen (district), district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree (river), Spree river, is the eighth most ...

, Germany, since 1992 * Almeirim, Portugal, since 2018