Corbeil-Essonnes () on the

River 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 p ...

is a commune in the southern suburbs of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Although neighboring Évry is the official seat of the

Arrondissement of Évry An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, and certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissement ...

, the

sub-prefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefectures. ...

building and administration are located inside the commune of Corbeil-Essonnes.

History

Traces of human presence in the area date to the

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

and

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

ages; later it was a Gallo-Roman settlement on the main road from Paris to

Sens Sens () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yonne Departments of France, department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France, 120 km southeast from Paris. Sens is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture and the second la ...

. The name Corbeil is derived from the Latin ''Corbulium'', from the

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

''cor beel'', meaning "holy house". Since the time of Aymon, comte de Corbeil (died 957), to the 12th century it was the chief town of a powerful county, which passed to Mauger, son 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, Europäische S ...

William de Corbeil William de Corbeil or William of Corbeil (21 November 1136) was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury. Very little is known of William's early life or his family, except that he was born at Corbeil, south-east of Paris, and that he had two brot ...

(died 1136) became

archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

, but nothing is known for certain about his parentage. The Gothic church was built in the tenth century and rebuilt in the fifteenth century. Before the expulsion of the Jews Corbeil had a flourishing Jewish community, which numbered thirteenth-century scholars Isaac ben Joseph of Corbeil and

Perez ben Elijah Perez ben Elijah of Corbeil (died about 1295) was a French tosafist, son of the Talmudist Elijah of Tours. In Talmudic literature he is designated by the abbreviations RaP (= Rabbeinu Perez), RaPaSh (= Rabbeinu Perez, may he live), and MaHaRPaSh ( ...

Peter of Corbeil Peter of Corbeil (died 3 June 1222), born at Corbeil, was a preacher and canon of Notre Dame de Paris, a scholastic philosopher and master of theology at the University of Paris, ca 1189. He is remembered largely because his aristocratic student ...

(died 1222) was the teacher of Lotario de' Conti, who became pope as

Innocent III Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216. Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...

. Representatives of the king of France signed two treaties of Corbeil in the town, the

Treaty of Corbeil (1258) The Treaty of Corbeil was an agreement signed on 11 May 1258, in Corbeil (today Corbeil-Essonnes, in the region of Île-de-France) between Louis IX of France and James I of Aragon. The French king, as the heir of Charlemagne, renounced the claim ...

between France and Aragon and the

Treaty of Corbeil (1326) The Treaty of Corbeil (1326) renewed the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland. It confirmed the obligation of each state to join the other in declaring war if either was attacked by England. The deputation (delegation) from Scotland (then u ...

between France and Scotland. Corbeil was besieged by the Duke of Burgundy in 1418. The Protestants of France attacked it in 1562 amidst the religious war called the First Civil War. In 1590 General Alessandro Farnese, who had come to the assistance of the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

s in France, fought at Corbeil. The composer

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano ...

lived in Corbeil for some years of his youth in the 1830s. The Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1906. The commune of Corbeil-Essonnes was created on 10 August 1951 by the merger of the commune of Corbeil with the commune of Essonnes. Inhabitants of Corbeil-Essonnes are known as ''Corbeil-Essonnois''.

Population

The population data given in the table and graph below for 1946 and earlier refer to the former commune of Corbeil.

Economy

In the 19th century, Corbeil-Essonnes was a centre of the flour-milling industry. Essonnes also had notable papermills. Today, X-Fab France SAS is headquartered here and operates a

semiconductor fabrication plant In the microelectronics industry, a semiconductor fabrication plant, also called a ''fab'' or a ''foundry'', is a factory where integrated circuits (ICs) are manufactured. The ''cleanroom'' is where all fabrication takes place and contains th ...

. The site includes 25000 square meters of

cleanroom A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space that maintains a very low concentration of airborne particulates. It is well-isolated, well-controlled from contamination, and actively cleansed. Such rooms are commonly needed for scientifi ...

s and a design center. The fab had been founded by

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

in 1964. In 1999 it was transferred into a joint venture between IBM and

Infineon Infineon Semiconductor solutions is the largest microcontroller manufacturer in the world, as well as Germany's largest semiconductor manufacturer. It is also the leading automotive semiconductor manufacturer globally. Infineon had roughly 58,0 ...

, operating under the name ''Altis Semiconductor''^{( fr)}. In 2010 it was sold to Yazid Sabeg for one symbolic Euro. X-Fab acquired the assets of insolvent Altis in 2016.

Safran Aircraft Engines Safran Aircraft Engines, previously Snecma (''Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation'') or Snecma Moteurs, is a French aerospace engine manufacturer headquartered in Courcouronnes and a subsidiary of Safran. It de ...

has a plant in Corbeil.

Transport

Corbeil-Essonnes is served by Corbeil-Essonnes station which is an interchange station on Paris RER line D. Corbeil-Essonnes is also served by Essonnes-Robinson station and by Moulin-Galant station on Paris RER line D. The town is crossed by the

EuroVelo EuroVelo is a network of 17 long-distance cycling routes criss-crossing Europe, with 2 more in early construction across various stages of completion. When completed, the EuroVelo network's total length will be almost . more than were in place. ...

3 track.

Education

There are about 40 schools in Corbeil-Essonnes. Junior high schools: * Collège Chantemerle * Collège La Nacelle * Collège Louise Michel * Collège Saint-Spire * Collège Sédar Senghor Senior high schools/Sixth-form colleges: * Lycée Robert Doisneau * Lycée polyvalent Saint Léon

Notable people

* Nigel Atangana, footballer * Jean-Sylvain Babin, footballer * Dylan Bahamboula, footballer * Demba Diagouraga, footballer * Claude Dauphin, actor * Damien Mozika, footballer *

Félicien Rops Félicien Victor Joseph Rops (; 7 July 1833 – 23 August 1898) was a Belgian artist associated with Symbolism (arts), Symbolism, Decadence, and the Parisian , a member of the Les XX group. He was a painter, illustrator, caricaturist and a proli ...

(1833–1898) Belgian artist and illustrator * Hadi Sacko, footballer * PNL, French rappers * MMZ, French rappers *

, medieval Archbishop of Canterbury *

Walid Regragui Walid Regragui (; born 23 September 1975), sometimes known as Hoalid or Oualid Regragui, is a professional football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He is the head coach of the Morocco national team. He made history when h ...

, French-Moroccan football coach *

Breakbot Thibaut Jean-Marie Michel Berland (; born October 5, 1981), known professionally as Breakbot, is a French musician, record producer and a DJ who has been signed with Ed Banger Records since May 2009. Career Breakbot studied at Supinfocom, a co ...

, French musician, DJ and music producer * Yohanan Elihai (Jean Leroi) (1926–2020) – Israeli linguist, lexicographer, arabist and teacher, Catholic monk, born in France Musaf Shabbat
– weekend supplement of the journal ''

Makor Rishon ''Makor Rishon'' ( lit. "Firsthand Source") is a semi-major Israeli newspaper associated with Religious Zionism and the educated liberal-conservative right-wing. History ''Makor Rishon'' was founded as a weekly magazine in July 1997 in order ...

'', in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Twin towns

* Alzira, Spain, since 1991 * Belinho e Mar (Esposende), Portugal, since 2000 *

Bishopbriggs Bishopbriggs (; ) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the northern fringe of Greater Glasgow, approximately from the Glasgow city centre, city centre. Shires of Scotland, Historically in Lanarkshire, the area was once part of ...

, Scotland, since 1989 *

Sindelfingen Sindelfingen ( Swabian: ''Sendlfenga'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg in south Germany. It lies near Stuttgart at the headwaters of the Schwippe (a tributary of the river Würm), and is home to a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant. The current mayor ...

, Germany, since 1961