Elbeuf () is a commune in the

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Infér ...

department in the

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

in northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Geography

A light industrial town situated by the banks of the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plate ...

some south of

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

at the junction of the D7, D321 and the D313 roads. The commune's territory is largely residential to the north but the southern section is covered by thick

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

. Its position by a

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ban ...

of the Seine leaves the town susceptible to flooding.

History

The first written record of the town was in the 10th century, on a map of

Richard I of Normandy Richard I (28 August 932 – 20 November 996), also known as Richard the Fearless (French: ''Richard Sans-Peur''; Old Norse: ''Jarl Rikard''), was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996.Detlev Schwennicke, '' Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln ...

, under the name "Wellebou". It passed into the hands of the houses of Rieux and

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of G ...

, and was raised to the rank of a duchy in the

peerage of France The Peerage of France (french: Pairie de France) was a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 in the Middle Ages. The prestigious title and position of Peer of France (french: Pair de France, links=no) was ...

by Henry III in favour of Charles de Lorraine. The last duke of Elbeuf was Charles Eugène of Lorraine.

Heraldry

Population

Places of interest

* The mairie, also housing the

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...

. * Two seventeenth-century churches. * Some sixteenth-century houses. *Elbeuf corp headquarters. * A fifteenth-century stone cross. * The theatre (1890), renovated in the late twentieth century.

Notable people

* Raoul Grimoin-Sanson, cinematography inventor, was born here. * André Maurois (né Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog), novelist, member of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

David Vigor David Bernard Vigor (26 June 1939 – 9 April 1998) was a member of the Australian Senate, representing the Australian Democrats and the Unite Australia Party. Born in Elbeuf, France to an English mother and French father, the infant Vig ...

was born here and was a member of the Australian Senate, representing the Australian Democrats and the

Unite Australia Party The Unite Australia Party (UAP) was a short-lived Australian political party that existed in the late 1980s. In December 1986, Senator John Siddons, former deputy leader of the Australian Democrats, quit the Democrats to form the UAP, arguing th ...

Twin towns

Lingen,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...