The story of this place
Adjoining Reims Cathedral, the Palais du Tau—named for its T-shaped ('tau') ground plan—was the residence of the archbishops of Reims and the ceremonial heart of French royal coronations. On the day of a sacre, the king was robed here in his coronation regalia, processed to the cathedral to be anointed with holy oil from the sacred Ampoule, and returned to the palace for the great coronation banquet in the vast Salle du Tau. The palace guards the crown jewels and coronation treasures, including the talisman of Charlemagne and Saint Louis's reliquary. Damaged by fire in the 1914 German bombardment that ravaged Reims, it was restored and now displays the regalia of a monarchy that ended on this very spot.