Vitry-le-François
Vitry-le-François is a commune in the Marne department in northeastern France. It is located on the river Marne and is the western terminus of the Marne–Rhine Canal. Vitry-le-François station has rail connections to Paris, Reims, Strasbourg, Metz, Dijon and several regional destinations.
History
The present town is a relatively recent construction, having been built in 1545 at the behest of King Francis who wished to replace, on a new site, Vitry-en-Perthois, which, in 1544, had been entirely destroyed as part of the backwash from the king's Italian War of 1542–46. The new Vitry was to be a modern city, constructed according to a plan produced by Girolamo Marini. The king's role in its creation resulted in Vitry-le-François receiving the king's name as part of its own name.At the beginning of World War I in August 1914, Joseph Joffre established the Grand Quartier Général at the Place Royer-Collard.
In 1961, a terrorist attack took place on a train going between Strasbourg and Paris.
Features
- Its church of Notre-Dame is a 17th-century building with fine 18th-century monuments.
- A convent of the Récollets was later converted to contain the town hall, the court-house, a library and a small museum.
- There is a bronze statue of Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, the politician and philosopher, a native of the district.
Twin towns
Vitry-le-François is twinned with:- Tauberbischofsheim, Germany, since 1961
Personalities
- René Gateaux, mathematician
- Guy Georges, serial killer
- René Herbin, classical pianist
- Abraham de Moivre, mathematician
- Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, proto-communist philosopher
- Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry, Talmudist