Fontainebleau, together with the neighbouring commune ofAvon and three other smaller communes, form an urban area of 36,724 inhabitants (2018). This urban area is a satellite of Paris.
Fontainebleau is renowned for the large and scenicForest of Fontainebleau, a favourite weekend getaway for Parisians, as well as for the historicChâteau de Fontainebleau, which once belonged to thekings of France. It is also the home ofINSEAD, one of the world's most elite business schools.
Inhabitants of Fontainebleau are calledBellifontains.
Fontaine Belle-Eau, the spring which gave its name to Fontainebleau
According to the official chateau history, "Fontainebleau" took its name in the 16th century from the "Fontaine Belle-Eau", a natural fresh water spring located in the English garden not far from the chateau. The name means "Spring of beautiful water". In the 19th century the spring was rebuilt to flow into an octagonal stone basin.[4][5]
Before the 16th century, Fontainebleau was recorded in the Latinised formsFons Bleaudi,Fons Bliaudi, andFons Blaadi in the 12th and 13th centuries, and asFontem blahaud in 1137. In the 17th century it was also sometimes called by the fanciful LatinFons Bellaqueus.[6] This the origin of the nameBellifontains sometimes used for residents.
A popular legend says that the spring and forest took their names from a favourite hunting dog ofKing Louis IX named "Blaud" or "Blau". According to the legend, during a hunt the dog became separated from the King, who finally found him by the spring.[7]
According to another source, the name comes from the medieval compound noun offontaine, meaning spring and fountain, andblitwald, consisting of the Germanic personal name Blit and the Germanic word for forest.[8]
This hamlet was endowed with a royal hunting lodge and a chapel byLouis VII in the middle of the twelfth century. A century later,Louis IX, also called Saint Louis, who held Fontainebleau in high esteem and referred to it as "his wilderness", had a country house and a hospital constructed there.
Philip the Fair was born there in 1268 and died there in 1314. In all, thirty-four sovereigns, fromLouis VI, the Fat, (1081–1137) toNapoleon III (1808–1873), spent time at Fontainebleau.
The connection between the town of Fontainebleau and the French monarchy was reinforced with the transformation of the royal country house into a true royal palace, thePalace of Fontainebleau. This was accomplished by the great builder-king,Francis I (1494–1547), who, in the largest of his many construction projects, reconstructed, expanded, and transformed the royal château at Fontainebleau into a residence that became his favourite, as well as the residence of his mistress,Anne, duchess of Étampes.
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, every monarch, fromFrancis I toLouis XV, made important renovations at the Palace of Fontainebleau, including demolitions, reconstructions, additions, and embellishments of various descriptions, all of which endowed it with a character that is a bit heterogeneous, but harmonious nonetheless.
On 18 October 1685,Louis XIV signed theEdict of Fontainebleau there. Also known as theRevocation of the Edict of Nantes, this royal fiat reversed the permission granted to theHuguenots in 1598 to worship publicly in specified locations and hold certain other privileges. The result was that a large number of Protestants were forced to convert to the Catholic faith, killed, or forced into exile, mainly in the Low Countries, Prussia and in England.[9]
The 1762Treaty of Fontainebleau, a secret agreement between France and Spain concerning the Louisiana territory in North America, was concluded here. Also, preliminary negotiations, held before the 1763Treaty of Paris was signed, ending theSeven Years' War, were at Fontainebleau.
During theFrench Revolution, Fontainebleau was temporarily renamed Fontaine-la-Montagne, meaning "Fountain by the Mountain". (The mountain referred to is the series of rocky formations located in the forest of Fontainebleau.)
Place de l'Etape aux Vins before 1914, showing thetramway
On 29 October 1807,Manuel Godoy, chancellor to the Spanish king,Charles IV andNapoleon signed theTreaty of Fontainebleau, which authorized the passage of French troops through Spanish territories so that they might invade Portugal.
On 20 June 1812,Pope Pius VII arrived at the château of Fontainebleau, after a secret transfer fromSavona, accompanied by his personal physician, Balthazard Claraz. In poor health, the Pope was the prisoner of Napoleon, and he remained in his genteel prison at Fontainebleau for nineteen months. From June 1812 until 23 January 1814, the Pope never left his apartments.
On 20 April 1814,Napoleon Bonaparte, shortly before his first abdication, bid farewell to theOld Guard, the renownedgrognards (grumblers) who had served with him since his first campaigns, in the "White Horse Courtyard" (la cour du Cheval Blanc) at the Palace of Fontainebleau. (The courtyard has since been renamed the "Courtyard of Goodbyes".) According to contemporary sources, the occasion was very moving. The1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau stripped Napoleon of his powers (but not his title asEmperor of the French) and sent him into exile onElba.
Until the 19th century, Fontainebleau was a village and a suburb ofAvon. Later, it developed as an independent residential city.
Historical reenactment in Fontainebleau of the bicentenary of Napoleon's Farewell to the Old Guard, 20 April 2014. Napoleon is going down the famous stairs of Fontainebleau castle to meet with the Old Guard.
In July and August 1946, the town hosted the Franco-Vietnamese Conference, intended to find a solution to the long-contested struggle for Vietnam's independence from France, but the conference ended in failure.
Fontainebleau also hosted the general staff of the Allied Forces in Central Europe (Allied Forces Center or AFCENT) and the land forces command (LANDCENT); the air forces command (AIRCENT) was located nearby atCamp Guynemer. These facilities were in place from the inception ofNATO until France's partial withdrawal from NATO in 1967 when the United States returned those bases to French control. NATO moved AFCENT toBrunssum in theNetherlands and AIRCENT toRamstein inWest Germany. (The Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, also known as SHAPE, was located atRocquencourt, west of Paris, quite a distance from Fontainebleau).
In 2008, the men's World Championship ofReal Tennis (Jeu de Paume) was held in the tennis court of the Chateau. The real tennis World Championship is the oldest in sport and Fontainebleau has one of only two active courts in France.
Theforest of Fontainebleau surrounds the town and dozens of nearby villages. It is protected by France'sOffice National des Forêts, and it is recognised as a French national park. It is managed in order that its wild plants and trees, such as the rareservice tree of Fontainebleau, and its populations of birds, mammals, and butterflies, can be conserved. It is a former royal hunting park often visited byhikers andhorse riders. The forest is also well regarded forbouldering and is particularly popular amongclimbers, as it is the biggest developed area of that kind in the world.
The RoyalChâteau de Fontainebleau is a large palace where the kings of France took their ease. It is also the site where the French royal court, from 1528 onwards, entertained the body of new ideas that became known as the Renaissance.
The European (and historic) campus of theINSEADbusiness school is located at the edge of Fontainebleau, by the Lycee Francois Couperin. INSEAD students live in local accommodations around the Fontainebleau area, and especially in the surrounding towns.
From 1896 to 1953, Fontainebleau and its surrounding area were served by theFontainebleau tramway.
Fontainebleau is served by several bus lines of theÎle-de-France bus network: lines 1, 3, 4, 8, 20, 21, 23, 43, 45, 112, 202, 208, 210 of the Fontainebleau – Avon bus network and lines 7A, 7B, 34 of theLoing Valley – Nemours bus network.
Lin Fengmian, Chinese painter who advocated the synthesis of Western techniques and Eastern traditions and later became known as the father of modern Chinese painting, brushed up on his French in Fontainebleau before moving on to study art at theEcole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris
.svg)
_(2935087125).jpg)
.jpg)
.svg)
