Créteil () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...

. It is located from the centre of Paris. Créteil is the ''

préfecture In France, a prefecture (french: préfecture) may be: * the ''chef-lieu de département'', the commune in which the administration of a department is located; * the ''chef-lieu de région'', the commune in which the administration of a region is ...

'' (capital) of the

Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a ...

department as well as the seat of the

Arrondissement of Créteil The arrondissement of Créteil is an arrondissement of France in the Val-de-Marne department in the Île-de-France region. It has 16 communes. Its population is 321,066 (2019), and its area is . Composition The communes of the arrondissement of C ...

. The city is, moreover, the seat of a

Roman Catholic diocese As of October 5, 2021, the Catholic Church in its entirety comprises 3,171 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including over 652 archdioceses and 2,248 dioceses, as well as apostolic vicariates, apostolic exarchates, apostolic administrations, apos ...

and of one of France's 30 nationwide ''académies'' (districts) of the Ministry of National Education.

Name

The name Créteil was recorded for the first time as ''Cristoilum'' in the

martyrology A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by n ...

written by a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

named Usuard in 865. The name ''Cristoilum'' is made of the

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

word ''ialo'' (meaning "clearing, glade", "place of") suffixed to a pre-Latin radical ''crist-'' whose meaning is still unclear. Some believe ''crist'' is a Celtic word meaning "ridge", a cognate of

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

''crista'' and modern French ''crête'', in which case the meaning of ''Cristoilum'' would be "clearing on the ridge" or "place on the ridge." A more traditional etymology was that ''crist'' referred to

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

, due to the very ancient presence of Christianity in Créteil and the veneration of Saint Agoard and Agilbert of Créteil, martyred in Créteil around AD 400.

Geography

Créteil is a city in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris. It is watered by the Marne river which carries out its last loop before the junction with the

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/ Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributa ...

at the Charenton-le-Pont. The area is an alluvial plain eroded by the action of the Marne and the Seine. Bordering communes include Maisons-Alfort,

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés Saint-Maur-des-Fossés () is a commune in Val-de-Marne, the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. History The abbey Saint-Maur-des-Fossés owes its name to Saint-Maur Abbey founded in 638 by Queen Nant ...

, Bonneuil-sur-Marne,

Limeil-Brévannes Limeil-Brévannes () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Geography Climate Limeil-Brévannes has a oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification ''Cfb''). The average annual tem ...

Valenton Valenton () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It extends over of which are green spaces. The most important public green space is the Plage Bleue Park where different events are ...

Choisy-le-Roi Choisy-le-Roi () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. Geography Choisy-le-Roi is located southeast from the center of Paris, on both banks of the river Seine. The neighbouring co ...

and Alfortville.

Climate

The climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

system, Créteil has a marine west coast climate, abbreviated "Cfb" on climate maps.

History

Some rare flints from the

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

age are still being found in modern times in the area. It is, however, a two-

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

-era polishing machine that is the prehistoric pride of Créteil. The first documents referring to Créteil are from the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gaul ...

era, when it was known as ''Vicus Cristoilum The name comes from the prefix ''crist'' and ''oilum''. These two terms are thought to be Gallic: "clearing" for ''oilum'' and "ridge" for ''crist''. The "clearing" of the "ridge" of the Mont-Mesly is on the road connecting Paris and Sens (Trunk Road 19 today). In 1406, the place name "Créteil" makes its appearance after successive deformations from ''Cristoill'' (1278), ''Cristeuil'', ''Cresteul'' then ''Creteuil''. During the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mil ...

(1567), the

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster B ...

plundered the church and burned the local charters. New disorders in 1648 forced the evacuation of the inhabitants of Créteil. The end of

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

's reign was marked by a great food shortage throughout the whole of France after a terrible winter in 1709 that resulted in 69 recorded deaths in Créteil. Registers of grievances from the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

in 1789 mention Créteil 15 times. At the beginning of the 18th century, construction of the first middle-class "Parisian" houses began. In 1814, the east of Créteil was taken by Russian troops. The bridge which spans the Marne between Creteil and Saint-Maur-des-Fossés was inaugurated on 9 April 1841, replacing an ancient ferry. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was particularly cruel for Créteil. The borough was plundered and left in ruins by the Prussians, while the nearby battle of Mont-Mesly on 30 November 1870, left 179 dead. Créteil gave up its pastoral character after World War II. The population subsequently rose from 13,800 in 1954 to 30,654 in 1962. L'

Abbaye de Créteil L'Abbaye de Créteil or Abbaye group (french: Le Groupe de l'Abbaye) was a utopian artistic and literary community founded during the month of October, 1906. It was named after the Créteil Abbey, as most gatherings took place in that suburb of P ...

or Abbaye group was a utopian artistic and literary community founded during 1906 named after the Créteil Abbey near to where some members lived and where the group held meetings. At the time Créteil was still mostly pastoral, some of which remains in the forested parkland of the riverside district on and around Ile Sainte-Catherine. Although the group was short-lived, disbanding by 1908, it attracted artists, writers and philosophers to become associated with the

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

and

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...

movements such as

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist, and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye d ...

, author of the Futurist Manifesto, and

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of modernism, ...

. In 1965, the city became a Préfecture of the new department of the ''Val-de-Marne''.

The lake

Créteil Lake began as a gypsum and gravel quarry. Once the

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

was reached, forming deep ponds, the quarry was abandoned and allowed to fill with water. The lake area is now a popular recreational site attracting fishermen, boaters, wind surfers, etc...

Demographics

Population

Immigration

Health

As of 1 January 2006, 27

pharmacies Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links healt ...

, about 60 dentists, about 60 general practitioners, 10

pediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

s, and a half-dozen ophthalmologists and dermatologists constitute the general medical staff of the city. Health facilities include: *CHU Henri Mondor, a publicly owned hospital inaugurated on 2 December 1969. Conceived initially for 1,300 beds, its capacity today is 958 beds. It employs more than 3,000 people including more than 2,600 looking after patients. Its expenditure in 2004 was 241M€. *Centre hospitalier intercommunal de Créteil, inaugurated on 3 November 1937. Capacity of reception of 530 in-patients as against 264 in 1937. The construction of this establishment was decided in 1932 by grouping the communes of the Bonneuil-sur-Marne, Creteil and Joinville-le-Pont within an inter-communal syndicate. Saint-Maur-des-Fossés joined this syndicate later. Originally, a number of the hospital personnel were religious sisters. In 2004, 38,037 hospitalizations were listed, with 2,551 childbirths and 12,838 surgical interventions. ] It employs approximately 2,000 people with about 1,600 of them caring for patients in medical or other capacities. *Centre de Transfusion sanguine. The Blood Transfusion Centre of Creteil is run by the inter-communal Hospital. This service treats from 600 to 1,000 requests per day. *Albert Chenevier Hospital. A publicly owned hospital, with a 463-bed capacity. There are 118 beds in the psychiatric ward.

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools: *24 preschools *24 elementary schools *Eight junior high schools: Clément Guyard,

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

, Louis Issaurat, Amédée Laplace,

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

, Plaissance, Albert Schweitzer, and Simone-de-BeauvoirCollèges
" Créteil. Retrieved on 4 September 2016. *Four high schools: Lycée Léon Blum, Lycée Édouard Branly, Lycée Gutenberg, and Lycée Antoine de Saint-ExuperyLycées
" Créteil. Retrieved on 4 September 2016. Private schools: *

Ozar HaTorah Ozar Hatorah ( he, אוצר התורה, lit=treasure of Torah) is an organization created in 1945 to provide Orthodox Jewish education. It began by setting up schools in Mandate Palestine, and after the foundation of the modern Israeli state, it wen ...

(Jewish school, includes preschool, elementary school,Écoles maternelles et élémentaires privées
" Créteil. Retrieved on 4 September 2016. a junior high school divided into boys' and girls' schools, and a high school divided into boys' and girls' schools) *De Maillé (elementary school, junior high school) * Lycée général et technologique de l'ensemble Sainte-Marie * Lycée d'enseignement supérieur technique privé SUPTEK

Universities

The city hosts

Paris 12 Val de Marne University Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the List of cities proper by population density, 30th most den ...

, officially the Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne University, founded in 1970. Previously known as Université Paris 12 Val de Marne or Université Paris XII, the university serves more than 30,000 students and consists of seven units of formation and research (UFR), namely law, administration, literature, medicine, business & management, educational sciences and technological sciences.

Transport

Créteil is served by four stations on

Paris Métro Line 8 Paris Métro Line 8 (French: ''Ligne 8 du métro de Paris'') is one of the sixteen lines of the Paris Métro. It connects Balard in the southwestern part of Paris to Pointe du Lac station in the southeastern suburbs, following a parabolic rout ...

: Créteil – L'Échat, Créteil – Université, Créteil – Préfecture and the newly opened (in 2011) Pointe du Lac.

Sport

US Créteil-Lusitanos, founded in 1936, is the city's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club. They currently play in National Championship (3rd division) and their home stadium is Stade Dominique Duvauchelle.

Notable people

* Jordan Aboki, basketball player *

Bertrand Amoussou-Guenou Bertrand Amoussou-Guenou (born May 29, 1966) is a retired French mixed martial artist and judoka. He is a trainer for his younger brother Karl of ''Team Amoussou'' and, following official recognition of mixed martial arts in France, becam ...

, mixed martial artist *

Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, and ...

, author, historian * Mathieu Bastareaud, rugby player * Herve Bazile, footballer * Maxime Biamou, footballer * Stephane Caristan, athlete *

Isaia Cordinier Isaia is an Italian menswear brand founded in Naples in 1920. The brand is recognized by its tiny red coral logo, which is a good-luck charm in Naples. Gianluca Isaia is the chief executive officer. Its brother brand is Eidos (είδος mea ...

, basketball player * Bruno Coqueran, basketball player * Eddy de Pretto, singer *

Mohamed Diamé Mohamed Diamé (born 14 June 1987), also known as Momo Diamé, is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. Though born in France, Diamé represented Senegal at international level and made 31 appearances before retiring from nati ...

, footballer *

Philippe Di Folco Philippe Di Folco (born 20 June 1964 in Choisy-le-Roi) is a French author and teacher. Biography Born and raised in Val de Marne, near Paris, France, Philippe Di Folco studied Economics and Literature at School for Advanced Studies in the Socia ...

, writer * Herve Ebanda, footballer *

Sylviane Félix Sylviane Felix (born 31 October 1977 in Créteil, France) is a track and field sprint athlete, competing internationally for France, who won the bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, G ...

, athlete * Lina Jacques-Sebastien, athlete * Madeleine Jurgens, archivist * Lahaou Konate, basketball player * Jessie Londas, footballer * Azrack Mahamat, footballer *

Axel Médéric Axel Médéric (born 29 May 1970 in Créteil, France) is a former French figure skater who competed in men's singles. In 1988, he won the silver medal at the French Figure Skating Championships and placed fifteenth at the 1988 Winter Olympics. ...

, figure skater *

Modibo Niakate Modibo or more correctlyMoodibbo in Fula or Fulfulde Orthography is a given name in some Fulɓe or Fulani regions, while in some regions it's used as a form of respect which means a learned scholar. Others are named moodibbo after one's parents or g ...

, basketball player * Michael Nkololo, footballer * Fabien Paschal, basketball player * Marc Raquil, athlete * Christopher Samba, footballer *

Camille Serme Camille Serme (born 4 April 1989 in Créteil) is a former professional squash player from France. She reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 2 in February 2017. Career As a junior player, Camille Serme won three European Junior Cham ...

, squash player * Richard Soumah, footballer * Sammy Traoré, footballer *

Dan-Axel Zagadou Dan-Axel Zagadou (born 3 June 1999) is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart. He has represented France from under-16 to under-21 levels. Club career Early career Zagadou began his car ...

, footballer

Twin towns – sister cities

Créteil is twinned with: *

Les Abymes Les Abymes () is the most populous commune in the French overseas region and department of Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles. It is located on the west side of the island of Grande-Terre, and is part of the largest metropolitan area of Guade ...

, Guadeloupe, France *

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had ...

, Scotland, United Kingdom *

Gyumri Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

, Armenia * Kiryat Yam, Israel *

Mataró Mataró () is the capital and largest town of the ''comarca'' of the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia Autonomous Community, Spain. It is located on the Costa del Maresme, to the south of Costa Brava, between Cabrera de Mar and ...

, Spain *

Loulé Loulé () is a city and municipality in the region of Algarve, district of Faro, Portugal. In 2011, the population of the entire municipality was 70,622 inhabitants, in an area of approximately . The municipality has two principal cities: Loul� ...

, Portugal * Playa (Havana), Cuba *

Salzgitter Salzgitter (; Eastphalian: ''Soltgitter'') is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven ''Oberzentren'' of Lower ...

, Germany

References

External links

Official website

Paris XII- Val-de-Marne University located in Créteil

{{DEFAULTSORT:Creteil Communes of Val-de-Marne Cities in Île-de-France Prefectures in France