Saint-Maur-des-Fossés

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés

Town hall

Coat of arms

Paris and inner ring départements
Coordinates: 48°47′58″N 2°29′59″E / 48.7994°N 2.4997°E / 48.7994; 2.4997Coordinates: 48°47′58″N 2°29′59″E / 48.7994°N 2.4997°E / 48.7994; 2.4997
Country France
Region Île-de-France
Department Val-de-Marne
Arrondissement Créteil
Canton 2 cantons
Government
 • Mayor (2014–2021) Sylvain Berrios
Area1 11.25 km2 (4.34 sq mi)
Population (2010)2 74,816
 • Density 6,700/km2 (17,000/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 94068 / 94100 (St Maur), 94210 (La Varenne)
Elevation 32–53 m (105–174 ft)

1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃.moʁ.dɛ.fɔ.se]) is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 11.7 kilometres (7.3 miles) from the center of Paris.

The abbey

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés owes its name to an abbey founded in 638 by Queen Nanthild, regent for her son Clovis II, at a place called Fossati in Medieval Latin, Les Fossés in modern French, meaning "the moats". This place, located at the narrow entrance of a loop where the Marne River made its way round a rocky outcrop,[1] was probably named after the moats of an ancient Celtic oppidum and later a Roman castrum; the site was known in medieval documents as Castrum Bagaudarum, at a time when the marauding Bagaudae had developed a legendary reputation as defenders of Christians again Roman persecution. Massive foundations, sited so far from a Roman frontier, were attributed by C. Jullian[2] to a temple or a villa instead. In Merovingian times, Gallo-Roman villas in the royal fisc were repeatedly donated as sites for monasteries under royal patronage.

The abbey, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Paul and the Virgin Mary, was called Sanctus Petrus Fossatensis in Medieval Latin (Saint Pierre des Fossés in French), meaning "Saint Peter of the Moats". In 868, King Charles the Bald invited the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Maur de Glanfeuil (in Le Thoureil, Maine-et-Loire, western France), who had fled their abbey due to Viking invasion, to relocate to Saint Pierre des Fossés with their precious relics of Saint Maurus.

Later in the Middle Ages, the relics of Saint Maurus became very famous as they were supposed to heal gout and epilepsy, and Saint Pierre des Fossés became one of the most famous pilgrimage centers of medieval France. The rededication to Saint Maurus, in which abbey was renamed Saint-Maur-des-Fossés ("Saint Maurus of the Moats"), was justified by the story that during a drought in 1137, prayers to the Virgin and Saints Peter and Paul having been ineffective, prayer to Saint Maur brought the needed rainfall.[3]

The Château de Saint-Maur

The abbey was secularised in 1535, and in 1541, for Cardinal Jean du Bellay, bishop of Paris, the architect Philibert Delorme designed a château on the site, on four ranges of building around a square central court. Catherine de' Medici was a frequent visitor, preferring it to the château de Vincennes; in 1563 she acquired this "château du Bellay", and substantially rebuilt it. On September 23, 1568, her teenage son, King Charles IX, issued the Edict of Saint-Maur, which prohibited all religions but Catholicism. It prompted fierce religious intolerance in Paris and eventually led to the 1572, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Building projects at the site were only interrupted by Catherine's death (1589); the château was sold to the Condé family and was eventually completed, and furnished with extensive parterres, at the end of the seventeenth century.

The Château de Saint-Maur, still in the possession of the Condé, was nationalised during the French Revolution, emptied of its contents, and its terrains divided up among real-estate speculators. The structure was demolished for the value of its materials; virtually nothing remains.

The village

La Varenne-de-St.-Hilaire by Camille Pissarro, circa 1863

The little settlement that grew around the abbey, known as Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, developed a market during the thirteenth century.[1] The present territory also includes a formerly distinct village, La Varenne-Saint-Hilaire, against the perimeter of the nearby game preserve of Saint-Hilaire, part of the abbey's domaines.

In 1791, part of the territory of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés was detached and became the commune of La Branche-du-Pont-de-Saint-Maur, later renamed Joinville-le-Pont.

After the abbey itself was abandoned, its church providing building materials in the town. During the French Revolution, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés was temporarily renamed Vivant-sur-Marne (meaning "Lively upon Marne") in a gesture of rejection of religion.

After the Revolution, the official name of the commune was simply Saint-Maur; it is only in 1897 that "des-Fossés" was re-added to the name, probably to conform to the historical name and also to distinguish Saint-Maur-des-Fossés from other communes of France also called Saint-Maur. In 1924, a few vestiges of the abbey were collected in the newly established Musée du vieux Saint-Maur.

Famous residents

Among the writers who lived in Saint-Maur are: François Rabelais, La Rochefoucauld, Boileau, Raymond Radiguet, Madame de Sévigné, Madame de La Fayette, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, père and ‘Quo Vadis’ author Henryk Sienkiewicz.

The first president of Senegal after independence, Léopold Sédar Senghor, taught at Saint-Maur’s lycée Marcelin Berthelot and the first lady of Tunisia, Moufida Bourguiba, was born here in 1890.

Crooner Charles Trenet, whose ‘La Mer’ has been recorded 400 times (notably as ‘Beyond The Sea’ by Bobby Darin), was a longtime resident: the bronze hat at the foot of the lovers' statue on the Quai Winston Churchill is dedicated to him. Other French stars who have lived in Saint-Maur include Vanessa Paradis, Françoise Hardy, Raymond Devos, Michel Jonasz, Eddy Mitchell, Khaled, Natalie Dessay, and Marthe Mercadier.

However, it is Jacques Tati for whom Saint-Mauriens hold the strongest affection. The quirky moviemaker filmed much of his 1958 "My Uncle" ("Mon Oncle"), in Saint-Maur, using many of the locals as extras. It went on to win the best foreign language film Oscar. In Place de la Pelouse stands a bronze statue of Tati as Monsieur Hulot talking to a boy, in a pose echoing the movie’s poster.

Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian thief who stole the Mona Lisa on 21 August 1911, died in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés.[4]

Philippe Diolé (1908 – 1977), diver, writer and explorer, was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés.[5]

Geography

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés is almost entirely surrounded by a loop of the river Marne.

12th-14th century St Nicolas Church in the historical center of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés.

Demographics

Immigration

Place of birth of residents of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés in 1999
Born in Metropolitan France Born outside Metropolitan France
85.0% 15.0%
Born in
Overseas France 		Born in foreign countries with French citizenship at birth¹ EU-15 immigrants² Non-EU-15 immigrants
0.7% 3.6% 5.2% 5.5%
¹This group is made up largely of former French settlers, such as pieds-noirs in Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), and to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. Note that a foreign country is understood as a country not part of France in 1999, so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics.
²An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants.

Transport

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés is served by four stations on Paris RER line A: Saint-Maur – Créteil, Le Parc de Saint-Maur, Champigny, and La Varenne – Chennevières.

Culture

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés organize a Short Subject Festival. Prizes (2008) : "The Note" by Jon Greenhalgh and Anne-Elisabeth Blateau as best actress.

International relations

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés is twinned with:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Saint-Maur au fil du temps" Archived October 12, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ C. Jullian discussed the medieval reputation of Bagaudes and the archaeology of the Saint-Maur site in Revue des Études Anciennes 22 (1920:07-17), noted by Sidney J. Deane, "Archaeological Discussions", American Journal of Archaeology 25.2 (April 1921:195.)
  3. ↑ Virginia Wylie Egbert, "St. Nicholas: The Fasting Child" The Art Bulletin 46.1 (March 1964:69-70) p. 69 note 4.
  4. ↑ (Italian) Mio padre, il ladro della Gioconda
  5. ↑ Philippe Diolé, BNF official record
  6. ↑ "British towns twinned with French towns [via WaybackMachine.com]". Archant Community Media Ltd. Archived from the original on 5 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-20.

External links

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