Last modified: 2025-10-25 by olivier touzeau
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Flag of Châtillon-sur-Marne - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 23 October 2025
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Châtillon-sur-Marne (621 inhabitants, 1,169 ha) is a commune in the Marne department. Surrounded by the Parc Naturel de la Montagne de Reims, it lies in the historic province of Champagne.
The village was once fortified. The narrow streets and their layout
attest to this.
Around 948-950, the village was attacked by Renaud, Count of Roucy. It
is the historic fiefdom of the House of Châtillon, who were great
lords of Champagne; it must have previously belonged to the Counts of
Champagne: in 1082, Thibault I stayed there with his family.
Eudes of Châtillon was born in 1042 in the village. He became Pope in
1088 under the name Urban II. He preached the First Crusade in 1095
and died in Rome in 1099.
Here was also born Reynald of Châtillon, called "Le Loup" (the Wolf)
by Muslims, who went to the Holy Land on the Second Crusade and
remained there for the rest of his life. In 1181, he raided the Red
Sea, aiming to attack Mecca and Medina, and attacked again in 1183,
forcing a counterattack from Saladin, who captured Jerusalem in 1187,
setting the stage for the Third Crusade.
In 1205, Pope Innocent III stated that the Counts of Champagne were vassals of the Archbishop of Reims, for Épernay, Fismes, Châtillon-sur-Marne, Vertus, and Vitry-en-Perthois. Thibault IV granted the inhabitants a right of commune in 1231. The town of Châtillon was burned in 1544 by Charles V and its castle destroyed. It had just recovered when the German Calvinists, coming to the aid of the Grand Condé, captured Châtillon and ravaged the banks of the Marne as far as Dormans. Established as a duchy for his brother by Charles IX, it passed into the hands of the Dukes of Bouillon, who exchanged it for the Principality of Sedan in 1642. During the War of 1870, the commune had to shelter enemy troops - three thousand men and five hundred horses - for three days, then an occupying force: a battalion of Prussians from May 16 to June 3, 1871.
A statue of Pope Urban II was erected on the feudal mound that supported the castle keep. As early as 1876, the Archbishop of Reims, Benoît Langénieux, taking up an idea put forward at the Congress of Mechelen, began studying the project of a monument to glorify Urban II, the great pope of the Crusades. Five years later, on July 14, 1881, Leo XIII proclaimed the legitimacy of the immemorial cult of Urban. The monument, designed by the architect Édouard Deperthes, was built in 1887 and is 25 meters high. On July 21, 1887, the inauguration of the gigantic statue of Urban II, designed by the sculptor Louis Auguste Roubaud, on the plateau of Châtillon-sur-Marne, where he was born, gave rise to imposing solemnities: Bishop Freppel sang the glories of the illustrious pontiff before Cardinal Benoît Langénieux, surrounded by twenty bishops and a huge crowd. It is worth noting that an interior staircase provides access under various arms to admire the landscape. It has been closed for several years, pending work to create an emergency exit. For the 2017 festival, the statue was renovated and can be visited.
Olivier Touzeau, 23 October 2025
The coat of arms is blazoned:
Gules three pallets vair, the chief Or a martlet Sable.
The flag, observed near the statue and in front of the city hall, is
white with the coat of arms and the name of the commune above: photo (2025), photo (2023), photo (2023), photo (2021).
Nota: a flag of Champagne could be seen near the statue instead of the current flag of Châtillon before 2017: photo (2017), video (2016).
Olivier Touzeau, 23 October 2025