Troyes is one of the most alluring and interesting medieval towns in France. For those of us who love fashion, Troyes has a surprise in store! Given its historic relationship with the champagne district, the centre of Troyes is appropriately shaped like the cork of a champagne bottle, with a rectangular outline defined by avenues of trees and a rounded top encircled by the Seine.
In prehistoric times, the area was settled by a local tribe called the Tricasses and the Romans named it Augustobona Tricassium. The Romans appreciated its strategic location, being the central point between several Roman routes, including the Agrippa Way, connecting Milan to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Of the Gallo-Roman town of the early Empire, some scattered remains have been found, but no public monuments, other than traces of an aqueduct. Troyes has long been a prosperous town. This was the age when the town, as capital of the Champagne District, and under the protection given to merchants by the Counts of Champagne, hosted two vital annual fairs, in July and November, relating to the cloth trade.
The Foires de Champagne fairs were one of the earliest manifestations of a linked European economy in the High Middle Ages. It began with eight days for the merchants to set up, followed by the days allotted for the cloth fair, then the days of the leather fair, and lastly, the days for the sale of spices and other commodities sold by weight avoirdupois.
In the last four day period of the fairs, accounts were settled. The long-distance trade, together with the more extensive use of coinage and credit, were the main drivers of the medieval economy of Troyes. On 21 May , the Treaty of Troyes was signed in the city, which at that time was still under the control of the Burgundians. A fire in destroyed much of the medieval city, which by this time was a centre for hosiery as well as cloth making.
