DREUX (the Durocassar, or Durocasinum-Castrum, of the Romans), the chief-lieu of an arrondissement in the department of Eure-et-Loir. The town lies at the foot of a hill crowned by the ruins of the old castle of the counts of Dreux. In the middle of these ruins Louis-Philippe erected a chapel with splendid vaults as a burying-place for the members of his family.
The antiquity of Dreux is considerable. In 1188 it was taken and burnt by the English; and at the close of the sixteenth century it formed the scene of a bloody battle between the Catholics and Calvinists. In 1593 the town was taken by Henry IV., after an obstinate siege of eighteen days. The walls were razed, and Dreux thenceforth entirely lost its political importance. Dreux contains tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a communal college. Pop. (1852) 6250.