Melun () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region, north-central France. It is located on the southeastern outskirts of Paris, about from the kilometre zero. Melun is the prefecture of Seine-et-Marne, and the seat of one of its . Its inhabitants are called Melunais.
History
Meledunum began as a
Gauls town;
Julius Caesar noted Melun as "a town of the
Senones, situated on an island in the Seine"; at the island there was a wooden bridge, which his men repaired.
[ Gallic War vii. 58, 60.] Roman Meledunum was a
mutatio where fresh horses were kept available for official couriers on the
Roman road south-southeast of Paris, where it forded the Seine.
[Meledunum appears in the Antonine Itinerary almost halfway between Lutetia (Paris) and Rennes ( 'Meledunum").] Around 500 A.D,
Clovis I granted Melun to a Gallo-Roman magnate, Aurelianus, who had fought for Clovis several times and apparently influenced his conversion to Christianity.
The Normans sacked it in 845. The castle of Melun became a royal residence of the Capetian kings. Hugh Capet (See also: House of Capet) gave Melun to Bouchard, his favorite. In the reign of Hugh's son, Robert II of France, Eudes, the count of Champagne, bought the city, but the king took it back for Bouchard in 999. The chatelain Gautier and his wife, who had sold the city, were hanged; Eudes escaped. Robert died there in July 1031.
Robert of Melun (c. 1100 – 27 February 1167) was an English scholastic Christian theologian who taught in France, and later became Bishop of Hereford in England. He studied under Peter Abelard in Paris before teaching there and at Melun, which gave him his surname.
In July 1415, Melun was besieged by King Henry V of England, who had recently signed the Treaty of Troyes with King Charles VI of France. The town was in the hands of the Dauphin, later Charles VII of France, who had been dispossessed by the treaty. The defenders were led by Arnaud Guillaume, seigneur de Barbazan, and fought off the besiegers for fourteen weeks before capitulating.
The Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1848.
Counts of Melun
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Aurelianus (c. 500)
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Donatus (?-834)
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Bouchard I (956/967–1005), also Count of Vendôme and Count of Paris
Viscounts of Melun
The early viscounts of Melun were listed by 17th and 18th century genealogists, notably Père Anselme. Based on closer reading of the original documents, Adolphe Duchalais constructed this list of viscounts in 1844:
[Adolphe Duchalais, "Charte inedité de l’an 1138, relative à l’histoire des viscomtes de Melun" (Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes vol. 6 no. 6, 1845).]
-
Salo (c. 993; possibly legendary)
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Joscelin I (c. 998)
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William (possibly c. 1000)
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Ursio (c. 1067–1085)
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William the Carpenter (c. 1094)
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Hilduin, Garin, Ursio II, Jean (unknown dates, possibly not viscounts)
-
Adam (c. 1138–1141; married Mahaut, daughter of his predecessor)
-
Joscelin II (c. 1156)
The title eventually became an honorary peerage. Such viscounts include Honoré Armand de Villars and Claude Louis Hector de Villars.
Population
Climate
Transport
Melun is served by the Gare de Melun, which is an interchange station on Paris
RER D, on the Transilien R suburban rail line, and on several national rail lines.
Main sights
The Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame, Melun was the original home of the
Melun Diptych.
The nearby château of Vaux-le-Vicomte is considered a smaller predecessor of Palace of Versailles.
The officers' school of the French Gendarmerie is located in Melun.
Notable people
Melun is the birthplace of:
-
Morgan Ciprès (born 1991), pair skater
-
Jérémie Bela (born 1993), footballer
-
Willy Boly (born 1991), footballer
-
Pierre Certon (c.1510-1520-1572), composer of the Renaissance (probably born in Melun)
-
Jacques Amyot (1513–1593), writer
-
Chimène Badi (1982–), singer
-
Samir Beloufa (1979–), professional footballer
-
Raphaël Desroses (born 1980), basketball player
-
Khamis Digol (born 1998), footballer
-
Stéphane Dondon (born 1977), basketball player
-
Grégory Guilvert (born 1982), racing driver
-
Judah of Melun (13th century), French rabbi and Tosfot
-
Yvan Kibundu (born 1989), footballer
-
Godson Kyeremeh (born 2000), footballer
-
Edmé-François Mallet (1713–1755), theologian and encyclopédiste
-
Steven Mouyokolo (born 1987), footballer
-
Granddi Ngoyi (born 1988), footballer
-
Yrétha Silété (born 1994), figure skater
-
Oumar Solet (born 2000), footballer
-
Bertrand Grospellier (born 1981), poker player
-
William the Carpenter, viscount of Melun in the 11th century
-
Jean-Baptiste Djebbari (born 1982), politician and former Minister of Transport
-
Werenoi (1994–2025), rapper of Cameroonian descent
Education
A campus of the École nationale de l'aviation civile (French civil aviation university) is located in Melun.
Public high schools/sixth form colleges:[" Liste des établissements scolaires ." Melun. Consulté le 29 août 2016.]
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Lycée Léonard-de-Vinci
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Lycée Jacques-Amyot
-
Lycée George-Sand
There is one private high school/sixth form college:[
]
Twin towns – sister cities
Melun is town twinning with:
-
Crema, Italy
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Spelthorne, England, United Kingdom
-
Vaihingen (Stuttgart), Germany
See also
-
Communes of the Seine-et-Marne department
Sources
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Initial text from the "Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters 2001" Compiled by John R. Carpenter.
-
The Viscounts and Counts of Melun are listed in Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln, Neue Folge, Volume VII, Tafels 55 & 56.
External links
