The story of this place
In the 12th and 13th centuries Provins was one of the great sites of the Champagne Fairs, the international trade fairs that were the beating commercial heart of medieval Europe, where merchants from Flanders, Italy and the Mediterranean met to exchange cloth, spices and money. Under the powerful Counts of Champagne, the town swelled to some 80,000 people—vast for its day—and built the ramparts, towers and vaulted merchant cellars that survive almost intact. The 12th-century Tour César keep and the underground galleries where goods were stored still stand. When trade routes shifted, Provins was frozen in time, and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a rare complete medieval fair town.