- Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
French commune|nomcommune=Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
Town hall of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
mapcaption=Paris and inner ring départements
lat_long=coord|48|47|52|N|2|30|11|E|region:FR_type:city
région=Île-de-France
département=Val-de-Marne | arrondissement= Créteil
canton=
insee=
cp= 94100 (St Maur) 94210 (La Varenne)
maire= Jean-Louis Beaumont|mandat=2001-2008
intercomm="none as of 2005"
alt moy=|alt mini= |alt maxi=
km²= 11.25
sans=
75,400
73,069
date-sans=Jan. 1, 2005 estimate)
(March 8, 1999 census|dens= 6,702|date-dens=2005|Saint-Maur-des-Fossés is a "Francilienne" commune of the
Val-de-Marne , located 11.7 km. (7.3 miles) from the center of Paris,France .The abbey
Saint-Maur-des-Fossés owes its name to an
abbey founded in638 by QueenNanthild , regent for her sonClovis II , at a place called "Fossati" inMedieval Latin , "Les Fossés" in modern French, meaning "the moats". This place, located at the narrow entrance of a loop where theMarne River made its way round a rocky outcrop, [ [http://www.saint-maur.com/default.aspx?param=histoire "Saint-Maur au fil du temps"] ] was probably named after the moats of an ancient Celticoppidum and later a Roman castrum; the site was known in medieval documents as "Castrum Bagaudarum", at a time when the maraudingBagaudae 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 [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.)] 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". In868 , KingCharles the Bald invited the monks of theAbbey of Saint-Maur de Glanfeuil (inLe Thoureil ,Maine-et-Loire , western France), who had fled their abbey due toViking invasion, to relocate to "Saint Pierre des Fossés" with their preciousrelic s ofSaint Maurus .Later in the
Middle Ages , the relics of Saint Maurus became very famous as they were supposed to healgout andepilepsy , 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. [Virginia Wylie Egbert, "St. Nicholas: The Fasting Child" "The Art Bulletin" 46.1 (March 1964:69-70) p. 69 note 4. ]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 thechâteau 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 theEdict of Saint-Maur , which prohibited all religions butCatholicism . It prompted fierce religious intolerance inParis 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 , with extensiveparterre s 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
The little settlement that grew around the abbey, known as Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, developed a market during the thirteenth century. [ [http://www.saint-maur.com/default.aspx?param=histoire "Saint-Maur au fil du temps"] ] 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, Madame de Sévigné, Madame de La Fayette,Victor Hugo ,Alexandre Dumas, père and ‘Quo Vadis’ authorHenryk Sienkiewicz .The first president of
Senegal after independence,Léopold Sédar Senghor , taught at Saint-Maur’s lycéeMarcellin Berthelot and the first lady ofTunisia ,Moufida Bourguiba , was born here in 1890.Crooner Charles Trenet , whose ‘La Mer’ has been recorded 400 times (notably as ‘Beyond The Sea’ byBobby 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 includeVanessa Paradis ,Françoise Hardy ,Raymond Devos ,Michel Jonasz ,Jean-Pierre Danel ,Eddy Mitchell , Khaled,Natalie Dessay , andMarthe 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 asMonsieur Hulot talking to a boy, in a pose echoing the movie’s poster.Geography
Saint-Maur-des-Fossés is almost entirely surrounded by a loop of the
Marne River .Demographics
Immigration
France immigration
collectivity_name=Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
census_year=1999
metropolitan_France=85.0
outside_metropolitan_France=15.0
overseas_France=0.7
foreign_French=3.6
EU-15=5.2
non-EU-15=5.5Transport
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.
Notes
External links
* [http://www.saintmaurblog.com/ Saint-Maur Blog]
* [http://www.saint-maur.com City Website]
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