Fulgence Bienvenüe

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Fulgence Bienvenüe in front of the entrance to Monceau station

Fulgence Bienvenüe (January 27, 1852 - August 3, 1936) was a civil engineer, best known for his role in the construction of the Paris Metro.

A native of Uzel in Brittany, he graduated as a civil engineer in 1872. His first assignment was the construction of various railway lines in the Mayenne area. In the course of this work, his left arm was crushed in a construction accident and had to be amputated. He relocated to Paris in 1886 and became chief engineer for the Paris Metro in 1896. He would supervise its construction for more than three decades, finally retiring on December 6, 1932.

On June 30, 1933, Avenue du Maine station on the Metro was renamed Bienvenüe in his honor. The naming ceremony took place in his presence; there was a famous last-minute scramble to repaint the station's new nameboards when it was discovered that the unusual dieresis in his name had been omitted (making the French word for "welcome"). In 1942 the station was linked to the adjacent Montparnasse station, forming a single station named Montparnasse-Bienvenüe.