Juvisy-sur-Orge (, literally ''Juvisy on Orge'') is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.department in

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 ...

in northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It is located 18 km south-east 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 ...

, a few kilometres south of

Orly Airport Paris Orly Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Orly), commonly referred to as Orly , is one of two international airports serving the French capital, Paris, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly ...

. The site of the town has been occupied from ancient times; it is noted in

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

's book about the

Gallic Wars The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland). Gallic, Germanic, and British tribes fought to defend their homel ...

. Centuries later, it became an important place under the

French monarchy France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the firs ...

, as a royal hotel. It would also be used as a post relay, the first one on the road to

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissemen ...

. It became a major road and railway junction in the 1840s after its railway station was built in 1840, and after 1893 was the first city surrounding Paris with a bridge crossing the river

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

. Most of the city was destroyed in April 1944 by an Allied bombing as the city was the only one surrounding Paris that had such a big railway station and had railway lines going to most of France's major cities. It was then rebuilt between 1945 and the 1970s. The city is today known for Gare de Juvisy, the fourth largest and most-frequented railway station in the

Grand Paris The Métropole du Grand Paris (; "Metropolis of Greater Paris"),There is no official or widely-used English translation yet. also known as Grand Paris or Greater Paris, is a ''métropole'' covering the City of Paris and its nearest surrounding su ...

Geography

Neighboring communes: * Athis-Mons * Draveil * Savigny-sur-Orge *

Viry-Châtillon Viry-Châtillon () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Population Inhabitants of Viry-Châtillon are known as ''Castelvirois'' in French. Sports The town is home to the women's f ...

The city is located 18 km south from

, in the

. It has access from the National Road N°.7 (''

Route nationale 7 The Route nationale 7, or ''RN 7'', is a trunk road (Route Nationale (France), nationale) in France between Paris and the border with Italy. It was also known as ''Route des vacances'' (The Holiday Route), ''Route bleue'' (The Blue Route), and &md ...

'') and is 10 km north of Évry. Juvisy-sur-Orge is served by

Juvisy Juvisy-sur-Orge (, literally ''Juvisy on Orge'') is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located 18 km south-east of Paris, a few kilometres south of Orly Airport. The site of the town has been o ...

station on Paris RER (''Réseau express régional'', i.e. Regional Express Network) lines C and D.

History

Starting from 1883, Juvisy-sur-Orge is the location of astronomer Camille Flammarion's observatory, which today belongs to the

Société astronomique de France The Société astronomique de France (SAF; ), the French astronomical society, is a non-profit association in the public interest organized under French law ( Association loi de 1901). Founded by astronomer Camille Flammarion in 1887, its purpose ...

. The town is also the site of the 1740 Pyramid erected to memorialize the work of

Jean Picard Jean Picard (21 July 1620 – 12 July 1682) was a French astronomer and priest born in La Flèche, where he studied at the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand. He is principally notable for his accurate measure of the size of the Earth, bas ...

and

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Goo ...

in measuring the Earth's circumference. It is the burial site of author

Raymond Queneau Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau w ...

, also now represented by the Bibliothèque-Médiathèque Raymond Queneau.

Population

Notable people

Jean-Jacques Annaud Jean-Jacques Annaud (; born 1 October 1943) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, best known for directing ''Quest for Fire'' (1981), ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), '' The Bear'' (1988), '' The Lover'' (1992), '' Seven Years in ...

, film director *

Emmanuelle Charpentier Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier (; born 11 December 1968) is a French professor and researcher in microbiology, genetics, and biochemistry. As of 2015, she has been a director at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. In 2018, she ...

, biochemist, discovery

CRISPR CRISPR () (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments of bact ...

, Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 2020. * Christophe, singer *

Amedy Coulibaly Amedy Coulibaly (; 27 February 1982 – 9 January 2015) was a Malian-French man who was the prime suspect in the Montrouge shooting, in which municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe was shot and killed, and was the hostage-taker and gu ...

, one of three perpetrators in the

January 2015 Île-de-France attacks From 7 to 9 January 2015, terrorist attacks occurred across the Île-de-France region, particularly in Paris. Three attackers killed a total of 17 in four shooting attacks, and police then killed the three assailants. The attacks also wounded ...

* Ouparine Djoco, footballer *

Ladji Doucouré Ladji Doucouré (born 28 March 1983 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, department of Essonne in France) is a French track and field athlete. Biography Ladji Doucouré's father and mother was Malian and Senegalese respectively. Ladji Doucouré was a football p ...

, athlete *

Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion FRAS (; 26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science ficti ...

, astronomer *

Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion (née Renaudot) (31 May 1877 – 28 October 1962) was a French astronomer. She worked at the Camille Flammarion Observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, and was General Secretary of the Société Astronomique de Fra ...

(1877-1962), astronomer. * Alexandre Prémat, motor racing driver *

Ferdinand Quénisset Ferdinand Jules Quénisset (1872–1951) was a French astronomer who specialized in astrophotography. Early life and career Quénisset was born on 8 August 1872 in Paris, the son of Gatien Jules Quénisset, an assistant director of the Admin ...

(1872-1951), astronomer. * Sophian Rafai, basketball player * Habib Sissoko, footballer

References

External links