 Very rich hours of the Essonne
- From paleolithic to the basilicas
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The occupation of the territory essonnien goes up with the paleolithic superior. From magdalelien Site of Etiolles to the Danubian houses of Cerny, while passing by the dolmen of Janville, the traces left by the first men are numerous. This early occupation is certainly due to the incomparable fertility of the grounds of the beauce and the Brie.
Put in cultures by the Celts, advanced rural civilization, the rich grounds essonniennes, obviously coveted, are conquered by the Romans in 52 front. J.-C. The Roman occupation, which lasts nearly five centuries, proves very beneficial.
By building the first farm and bridge, transportation routes, the Romans, after the Gallic, contribute to structure a prosperous territory from now on. For a time, they bring peace and stability.
From second half of IIIrd century, the great invasions put a term at this happy period. The campaigns are plundered and ruined. The populations take refuge in the rare strengthened cities.
- Châteaux et donjons
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In this atmosphere of insecurity and fear, the glances turn to large evangelists like Saint Yon and Saint Sulpice (in remembering whose will be founded the pélérinage of Saint-Sulpice-of-Favières). The territory essonnien becomes ground of evangelization and Christianity takes its first steps. It takes truly its rise at the time of the conversion of Clovis.
Abbeys are then built with Heathers-the-Chatel and Limours. Symbolic system example: according to the legend, Dagobert is crowned king in the Castle-Forest to Milly.
At the Carolingian time, the movement still develops. Etampes, Corbeil, Dourdan, Arpajon and Montlhéry become in Xth century of the counties. Structured better, these territories must also be protected.
Several strong castles and keeps are built on the road from Paris to Orleans. While Capetiens fight to sit their authority, of the monks gather to build monastic establishments.
One can still admire important chiefs of works of art Roman and Gothic, of which most notable are the basilica of Longpont, built since 1031, and Saint-Sulpice-of-Favières, to impressive dimensions.
In the tumult of the confrontations for the kingdom of France, Philippe Auguste reinforces the fortifications with Corbeil and Etampes, and orders the construction of the castle of Dourdan.
- From Black Death to the railroad
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During nearly two centuries, the Counties essonniens will pay their geopolitical position expensive, near to the Capital of the Kingdom. It is a devastated ground which will leave the Black Death of 1348, the One hundred Year old War, and still Wars of religion and the Sling.
The villages burn, the churches converted into fortified towns are destroyed, misery prevails in the campaigns. The armies English, Burgundian, the catholic troops then huguenotes take refuge in turn in the cities which like Dourdan, Etampes or Corbeil, are partially devastated.
The reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV put a term at the dark episodes which shook the area during centuries. The grounds essonniennes live now at the hour of Versailles. The roads of Fontainebleau, Chambord and Orleans cross the department. The Court follows the king. It profits to raise here and there beautiful residences where find themselves the literary celebrities (the castle of Bâville at Saint-Chéron accomodates Boileau, Racine and Madam de Sévigné). The king likes to drive out in forest of Sénart. Building sites of drainages, draining and talks of the ways are undertaken.
- Revolutions
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With the end of the XVIIIth century, new landscapes appear. The vogue is with the parks and the gardens imitating a "free" nature. These places emphasize small picturesque constructions called "factories", of which most famous is that of Méréville. In the Parisian coffees, the idea of Revolution makes its way. The king convened the States Généraux. The Essonne again connait overpopulation and certain social categories are impoverished. The people, like the noble ones and the clergy, write his Registers of grievances and remain paradoxically attached to Monarchy.
After the upheavals of 1789, one of the first revolutionary laws gives rise to the departments. The territory essonnien is attached to the department of the Seine and Oise. Versailles becomes the place chief about it. The Revolution, the Empire then the Restoration change the political aspect of the country. The socio-economic framework, it, hardly changed.
The life in the Essonne at the beginning of the XIXth century remains deeply rural. In 1840 whole changes. The arrival of the railroad devotes the first Industrial revolution and upsets gives it territorial.
The lines Corbeil-Paris (1840), Paris-Orleans (1843), and especially Paris-Lyon-Marseilles, deeply modify the environment and the ways of life. Industries multiply along the Seine.
- Modern times
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The defeat of 1870 comes to seize up the wheel of the progress brought by the industrial revolution. The Prussians invade the Essonne. The engagements make rage in Corbeil and Dannemois. The more so as to the pangs of the war those of the requisitions follow. The Beautiful Time is marked in the Essonne by a social dispute of great width. The proletariat is organized. The great strikes of Draveil, Vigneux or Athis-Mons mobilize thousands of workmen.
Other demonstrations take place, less protestors. The hour is with the dream of Icare. In the Essonne, one believes in the future of aviation. Aerodromes appear here and there, like those of Viry-Chatillon and Etampes-Mondésir, gathering always more amateurs and the curious one. The XXth century is for the Essonne, that of the assertion, the development and the dynamism. And this, in spite of two world wars. Whereas the Large War cuts down the department by a young and dynamic age group, the second world war places it once again in the heart of the storm.
- Birth of the Essonne
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The consequences of the exodus, the bombardments and the German occupation are heavy for the Essonne. But the dynamism already present in the many movements of resistance essonniens, will be expressed with strength in the post-war period.
In the Sixties, time accelerates. The suburban zones and the public equipment appeared in the Between-Two-Wars multiply. The hour is with the urban explosion and the birth of great sets like those of Massy and Grigny and of the new cities like Evry.
In front of such a demographic pressure, and to facilitate the organization of the territory, the department of Seine-and-Oise disappears on July 10, 1964. It gives rise to the department which we know today. A territory which will know in three decades the strongest progression of population of Island-of-France, to reach 1,134 million inhabitants at the time of the census of 1999.
With the passing of years, the new face of the Essonne takes shape: the advanced technology industries settle, the universities of reputation are established, the laboratories develop. An evolution which is worth to him today to be the first French department as regards technological innovation and the second for scientific research.
A tour in time thanks to the contest of the Departmental records of Chamarande
Information : 01 69 27 14 14
Sources : Magazine of the Essonne n° 68 of December 2005, n° 69 of January 2006 and n° 70 of February 2006.
- The medieval time :
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Witnesses of this past time, Philippe Auguste's castle to Dourdan,
one of the most beautiful fortresses to Farcheville... but also churches of St-Sulpice de Favières, St Martin d'Etampes, chapel St-Blaise des Simples to Milly la Forêt (decorated by Cocteau), the basilica Notre Dame de Longpont sur Orge, Arpajon's wooden Halle, Milly la Forêt and Méréville.
One also finds there the castle of Chamarande, Courances, Courson, Le Marais, le Saussay,
St-Jean de Beauregard, Villeconin, la Tour de Montlhéry...
Hurepoix was, between the VIIIth and the IXth century, a region cultivated, populated with turbulent Lords (Montfort-l'Amaury, Rochefort-en-Yvelines, Montlhéry, etc.), vassals of dukes-kings of
France, and was subjected at about XIIth century, after many feudal wars.
- The ecology in the 19th century :
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One speaks about ecology and about public transports. But do you know that there was a streetcar between Arpajon and Paris ?
Indeed, it's to facilitate the supply of the Halle of Paris in truck farming productions and to favor the transport of the travelers that was created the streetcar route between Paris and Arpajon, along the main road 20.
The opening was made by sections between April 27th, 1893 and May 1st, 1894. The exploitation of the line stopped in 1936.
Some vestiges of the plan remain, notably the stations of Wissous, Longjumeau, Saulx-les-Chartreux and Arpajon.
- The ecology in the 20th century :
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For some weeks, one speaks to us about posible noise pollutions, with an air line intended to Roissy, which would come to perturb our quiet region.
But please, come out that Brétigny-sur-Orge, one of the capitals of the French aeronautics, welcomed the Centre d'Essais en Vol (the Testing plant in Flight), in 1945.
please, come out that Jacqueline Auriol exceeds the sound barrier to Brétigny-sur-Orge, on August 15th, 1953, aboard his Mystère II.
Do you know that the CEV employed several hundreds of persons, and made live several thousand persons ? "employed" because the CEV was delocalized in province.
Then, having lost a reserve of employments, and the constraint of its military planes in attempts in some hundreds meters in height, one reacts to the future crossing of civil planes, between 2000 and 3000 meters in height.
For news, the flying over Paris (by the civil planes) is made in 2000 meters...
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