Chantilly, Oise

Chantilly
Château de Chantilly
Chantilly
Administration
Country	France
Region	Picardy
Department	Oise
Arrondissement	Senlis
Canton	Chantilly
Intercommunality	Aire Cantilienne
Mayor	Eric Woerth (2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation	35–112 m (115–367 ft)
Land area1	16.19 km2 (6.25 sq mi)
Population2	10,902  (1999)
- Density	673 /km2 (1,740 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	60141/ 60500
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.

Coordinates: 49°12′00″N 2°28′00″E / 49.2000°N 2.4667°E / 49.2000; 2.4667

Chantilly (French pronunciation: [ʃɑ̃.ti.ji]) is a small city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune in the department of Oise.

It is in the metropolitan area of Paris 38.4 km. (23.9 miles) north-northeast from the centre of Paris.

Chantilly and six neighbouring communes form an urban area of 36,474 inhabitants (1999 census).

The Château de Chantilly was home of the princes of Condé, cousins of the kings of France. It now houses the Musée Condé.

Chantilly is also known for its horse racing track, the Chantilly Racecourse, and the Living Museum of the Horse, with stables built by the Princes of Condé. In 1995, Chantilly was twinned with the racing town of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England.

Chantilly gave its name to Chantilly cream, popularised by the "maître d'hôtel" of the princes of Condé, François Vatel.

The Great Stables

Geography

The city is located in the Parisian basin at the south end of the region of Picardie and the north end of the Parisian metropolitan area. It belongs to the historic region of Valois. Chantilly lies 39 km southwest of Beauvais, 79 km south of Amiens, and 38 km north of Paris.

Chantilly is the center of an urban area that includes the communes of Avilly-Saint-Léonard, Boran-sur-Oise, Coye-la-Forêt, Gouvieux, Lamorlaye, and Vineuil-Saint-Firmin.

History

The city grew out of the chateau. In 1673, Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, known as le Grand Condé built a new road called Gouvieux, now the rue du Connétable. The land ceded on both sides of this road formed the embryo of the new town, in the form of guesthouses, workshops for the artisans of the chateau, and lodgings for domestics. This embryo was divided between the parish of Gouvieux in the diocese of Beauvais and the parish of Saint-Léonard in the diocese of Senlis.

Le Grand Condé stipulated in his will that a parish church should be built near the chateau. Henri Jules de Bourbon-Condé fulfilled his father's wish in 1692 by building the church of Notre-Dame and creating a parish dependent on the Bishop of Senlis superseding all existing parishes. Chantilly was thus established as autonomous.

His grandson, Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, can be called the founder of the city, having drawn the first plans. He rationalized the town design and renamed the Rue Gouvieux the Grande Rue. After the start of construction of the Great Stables in 1721, he created a development in 1727 with housing for his officers. The architectural plans were drawn by Jean Aubert, architect of the Great Stables. This housing was built between 1730 and 1733. In 1723, the Hospice de la Charité was built at the end of the Grande Rue.

In the second half of the 18th century several economic activities were furthered by the princes: lacemaking which had started in the 17th century but now reached its apogee, manufacture of porcelain which started in 1726 and was established in the Rue de la Machine in 1730. Industrial buildings were built in 1780 at the end of the Grand Canal to take advantage of power provided by the waterfall.

Thomas Muir connection

Thomas Muir

The Scottish political reformer Thomas Muir had been banished to Botany Bay for 14 years for the crime of Sedition in 1793. He managed to escape having only spent 13 months there. An adventurous journey followed that eventually brought Muir as a Citizen of France to Paris.

Muir became in time the principal intermediary between the Directory and the various republican refugees in Paris. He was aware that his movements were under scrutiny by Pitt’s agents. Accordingly, in his last known communication with the Directory in October 1798, he requested permission to leave Paris for somewhere less conspicuous, where his crucial negotiations with the Scots emissaries could be conducted in safety.

Thus it was that sometime in the middle of November 1798, Muir moved incognito to the little Île-de-France village of Chantilly to await the arrival of his Scots compatriots. There on 26 January 1799 he died, suddenly and alone, with only a small child for company. So close had his efforts for security been that not even the local official knew of his presence or identity. No identifying documents or papers were found on his person and his name was discovered only when the postman remembered delivering newspapers to him addressed to ‘Citoyen Thomas Muir’. When several days later the news of Muir’s passing finally reached Paris, a brief obituary notice was inserted in Le Moniteur to the effect that he had died from a recurrence of his old wounds.

"We have achieved a great duty in these critical times. After the destruction of so many years, we have been the first to revive the spirit of our country and give it a National Existence."

Thomas Muir 1798.

Economy

The local economy is mostly tourism.

Transport

Chantilly is served by Chantilly – Gouvieux station on Paris RER line D and on regional rail lines.

Places of interest

• The surrounding Chantilly Forest
• The Château de Chantilly
• The Chantilly Racecourse
• The Musée Condé

Twin cities

• Watermael-Boitsfort, Belgium
• Überlingen, Germany
• Epsom and Ewell, UK

See also

France portal

• Chantilly lace
• Communes of the Oise department

References

• INSEE

External links

• Chantilly's portal (in French)
• Museum of the Horse
• Chantilly photo gallery (in English)
• Businesses in Chantilly)