Coordinates: 48°32′26″N 2°39′36″E / 48.54056°N 2.66°E / 48.54056; 2.66
Melun Shield dating from the 1400s - "Melun (Seine-et-Marne): Azure on a semy-de-lys or a castle with three towers argent. Melun was one of the original strongholds of the royal domain. Motto: fida muris usque ad mures, recalling the siege of 1420 when inhabitants had to eat rats."
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frcitdep.htm Melun is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris 25.7 miles (41.4 km) from the center. Melun is the capital of the department, as the seat of an arrondissement.
Its inhabitants are called Melunais.
[edit] History
Meledunum began as a Gaulish town; Caesar noted Melun as "a town of the Senones, situated on an island in the Seine"; at the island there was a wooden bridge, which his men repaired.[1] Roman Meledunum was a mutatio where fresh horses were kept available for official couriers on the Roman road south-southeast of Paris, where it forded the Seine.[2]
The Normans sacked it in 845. The castle of Melun became a royal residence of the Capetian kings. Hugh Capet (See also: House of Capet) gave Melun to Bouchard, his favorite. In the reign of Hugh's son, Robert II of France, Eudes, the count of Champagne, bought the city, and the king took it back for the viscount in 999. Le Chatelain and his wife, who had sold the city, were hanged. Robert died there in July 1031.
[edit] Counts of Melun
[edit] Vicounts of Melun
The early viscounts of Melun were listed by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century genealogists, notably Père Anselme. Based on closer reading of the original documents, Adolphe Duchalais constructed this list of viscounts in 1844:[3]
- Salo (c. 993; possibly legendary)
- Joscelin I (c. 998)
- William (possibly c. 1000)
- Ursio (c. 1067-1085)
- William the Carpenter (c. 1094)
- Hilduin, Garin, Ursio II, Jean (unknown dates, possibly not viscounts)
- Adam (c. 1138-1141; married Mahaut, daughter of his predecessor)
- Joscelin II (c. 1156)
The title eventually became an honourary peerage. Such viscount include Honoré-Armand de Villars and Claude Louis Hector de Villars.
[edit] Transport
Melun is served by Melun station, which is an interchange station on Paris RER line D, on the Transilien Paris – Lyon suburban rail line, and on several national rail lines.
[edit] Sights
The nearby chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte is considered a smaller predecessor of Palace of Versailles.
The officers' school of the French Gendarmerie is located in Melun.
[edit] People
Melun was the birthplace of:
[edit] International relations
[edit] Twin towns — Sister cities
Melun is twinned with:
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Initial text from the "Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters 2001" Compiled by John R. Carpenter.
- The Viscounts and Counts of Melun are listed in ES (Detlev Schwennicke, "Europäische Stammtafeln," Neue Folge) Volume VII, Tafels 55 & 56.
[edit] External links
 Communes in the metropolitan area of Paris | | | Population over 2 million | | | | Population over 75,000 | | | | Population over 50,000 | | | | Population over 25,000 | | | | Population under 25,000 | 1,459 other communes | |
