Loing
The Loing () is a long river in central France, a left tributary of the Seine.
Its source is in Sainte-Colombe-sur-Loing, in the southwestern of the department of Yonne, and it flows into the Seine in Saint-Mammès, near Moret-sur-Loing.
It ...
'') 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
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...
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 ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
in north-central
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
Gare de Lyon
The Gare de Lyon, officially Paris-Gare-de-Lyon, is one of the six large mainline railway stations in Paris, France. It handles about 148.1 million passengers annually according to the estimates of the SNCF in 2018, with SNCF railways and RER ...
railway station in Paris station and the city of
Montargis
Montargis () is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, France.
Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, and contains light industry and farming, ...
, and many of the town's residents commute to work in Paris.
The historic monuments of the town include a church and vestiges of monastery of the
Cistercian Order
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Sain ...
from the 12th century. In the 19th and early 20th century the town was known for the creamy white limestone from the Souppes quarry, which was used to build the Basilica of Montmartre and several other monuments in Paris. The major economic enterprise of Souppes today is a large sugar mill and distillery which processes sugar beets from the surrounding farmlands.
Geography
Souppes-sur-Loing is located on the river
Loing
The Loing () is a long river in central France, a left tributary of the Seine.
Its source is in Sainte-Colombe-sur-Loing, in the southwestern of the department of Yonne, and it flows into the Seine in Saint-Mammès, near Moret-sur-Loing.
It ...
, a tributary of the Seine, and on the Loing canal. It has a municipal water park, with facilities for swimming and for kayaking and canoeing on the river. The river is also home to many varieties of birds, including swan and heron.
File:Map commune FR insee code 77458.png, A map of the Commune of Souppes-sur-Loing
History
Prehistory and the Middle Ages
The Valley of the Loing river has been inhabited since the
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 p ...
period. A group of eight ''polissoires'', large, exceptionally-hard boulders on which early inhabitants made tools and weapons, was discovered near Souppes in the 19th century, and is classified as a historic monument by the French Ministry of Culture. Traces of
Gallo-Roman
Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...
settlements have been found at Boulay, Croisiere, and Beaumoulin.
The town is first mentioned in a document dated 1090, which recorded the donation of a church called Saint-Marie de Souppes, attached to the Priory of Saint Clair. Another priory, that of Notre Dame de Boulay, was founded shortly afterwards, as was a Cistercian Abbey, Saint Marie de Cercanceaux. The present church of Souppes, also attached to the Priory of Saint Clair. was built at the end of the 12th century in the new Gothic style.
File:Souppes Saint-Clair-Saint-Léger 25.JPG, The austere Gothic church of Saint-Clair-Saint-Leger (12th century)
File:Souppes Saint-Clair-Saint-Léger 21.JPG, Parts of the 12th-century Gothic church of Souppes are vestiges of an earlier church, built in the 11th century.
File:Souppes Saint-Clair-Saint-Léger Taufbecken 703.JPG, Details of the baptismal font in the church of Souppes.
File:Souppes Saint-Clair-Saint-Léger Retabel 689.JPG, The 16th-century altar-piece in the Church of Saint-Clair-Saint-Léger, made of carved and painted wood, came from Abbey church of Saint-Marie de Cercanceauz, destroyed during the French Revolution.
River Commerce
Beginning in 1642, Souppes became a stop on the water route between
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Henry IV of France
Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch ...
had begun a canal project to connect Orleans with the capital. Boats and barges were able to travel from Orléans to
Montargis
Montargis () is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, France.
Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, and contains light industry and farming, ...
on the Loire River the Canal of Briare, but then had to be hauled, pulled by horses, up the
Loing
The Loing () is a long river in central France, a left tributary of the Seine.
Its source is in Sainte-Colombe-sur-Loing, in the southwestern of the department of Yonne, and it flows into the Seine in Saint-Mammès, near Moret-sur-Loing.
It ...
River as far as the Seine. To eliminate this difficult leg of the journey, the Loing Canal, parallel to the river, was built by the Royal Marine Regiment. It was completed in 1724 under
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...
.
The port of Souppes, on the canal, became an important shipping point for local products to Paris.
Souppes in the French Revolution
The local priest of Souppes, Anne Alexander Marie Thibault, played a small but notable role in 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 coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. He was elected to represent the clergy of the region at the meeting of the
Estates-General of 1789
The Estates General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). It was the last of the Estates General of the Kingdom o ...
. He was very active in the meeting, and, although he was not actually present for the tennis court oath which began the Revolution, Jacques-Louis David included his portrait in the famous painting of the event.
The residents of the town did not suffer greatly from the Terror, but the Revolution had a dramatic effect on the town. The church was turned into a granary from 1793 to 1795. The church of Boulay was stripped of its decoration and shut, and the Abbey was closed and sold as a national property. The Abbey church was torn down, and the other buildings were turned into a paper factory.
File:Le Serment du Jeu de paume.jpg, The curé or local priest of Souppes was a delegate to the
Estates-General of 1789
The Estates General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). It was the last of the Estates General of the Kingdom o ...
, and was included in the famous painting of the event by Jacques-Louis David, though he was not actually present.
19th and 20th century - the stone of Souppes
The first industry established in Souppes was a mill and workshop for making steel, built by the river in 1773. The workshop is gone, but the channel of water used for the mill can still be seen.
A refinery for making sugar out of sugar beets was opened in 1873, and, rebuilt and modernized, is still in operation.
The main industry of Souppes in the 19th century was the quarrying of creamy white building stones for the buildings and monuments of Paris. The layer of white stone crosses the Souppes Valley from east to west, and the local stone had been used for centuries; the presence of a quarry at l'Endurcy is recorded in 1750. With the completion of the canal linking Souppes with the Seine and with Paris, providing building stone for Paris buildings and monuments became a major activity of the town. The Arc de Triomphe was built of stone from the quarry at Chateau-Landon, south of Souppes. The stone for the statue of Saint Genevieve and the Pont de la Tournelle (1928) on which it stands both came from the quarry of Souppes. All of the quarries of the valley were engaged in providing stone for the Basilica of Sacré Coeur on
Montmartre
Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...
at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The quarries were a major industry until the 1950s. Two quarries are still active.
File:Souppes sucrerie.jpg, The sugar mill, next to the Loing canal, was founded in 1873 and is the largest business enterprise in Souppes.
File:Souppes-s-Loing carrière du Boulay.jpg, The stone quarries of Souppes-sur-Loing provided the white stone for many Paris landmarks in the 19th and 20th century.
File:France Paris Pont de la Tournelle 01.JPG, The Pont de la Tournelle (1928) in Paris is built of the white stone of Souppes.
File:Sacre-coeur-paris.jpg, The
Basilica of Sacre-Coeur
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...
in Paris was also built with the stone of Souppes.
Souppes in the Second World War
Souppes played a small but important part in the liberation of France during the Second World War. In August 1944 the
U.S. Third Army
The United States Army Central, formerly the Third United States Army, commonly referred to as the Third Army and as ARCENT, is a military formation of the United States Army which saw service in World War I and World War II, in the 1991 Gulf Wa ...
, led By General George Patton, had circled around the German lines in Normandy and was racing toward the gap between Paris and Orleans. Orleans was liberated on 16 August, the lower Seine was crossed at Mantes on the 19th, and on 19 August General Eisenhower gave orders for the Third Army to reach the upper Seine River south of Paris. On the same day, an uprising by the French resistance began in Paris.
The objective of the 4th Armored Division was to cross the Loing River at
Montargis
Montargis () is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, France.
Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, and contains light industry and farming, ...
, fifteen miles south of Souppes. and get as far as town of Sens, on the
Yonne
Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is l ...
River. However, Hitler had given orders to strongly defend the town of Montargis. When the 4th Division reached Montargis, they found the Germans were there in force and that the bridges over the Loing had been destroyed. A U.S. reconnaissance team discovered that the bridge over the Loing at Souppes had been damaged but was still usable. The 4th Division and the 137th Infantry regiment of the 35th Division crossed the bridge on 21 August and sped to Sens, where they took the Germans completely by surprise. German officers in parade uniform were strolling in the park. By the 24th the Third Army had reached the upper Seine and established four bridgeheads on the other side. On 25 June U.S. and Free French forces entered the center of Paris, and the German forces in the city surrendered.
Floods
The widespread flooding of Ile-de-France in June 2016 was devastating for Souppes. The town center was inundated with water, waist-deep in places, forcing roughly 800 residents to flee and forcing closure of many businesses. Almost a year later, in May 2017, many shops remained closed. A group of flood victims instigated a claim for damages against the organization that operates the canal system in France, the VNF, accusing it of mismanagement of the Canals du Loing and de Briare, and failure to protect Souppes and other towns along the Loing.
Population
Inhabitants of Souppes-sur-Loing are called ''Sulpicien(ne)s'' in French.
Gallery
File:Église Saint-Clair-Saint-Léger de Souppes-sur-Loing.jpg, The Church of Saint-Clair-Saint-Leger in Souppes-sur-Loing, originally part of a Cistercian monastery (12th century).
File:Souppes école.jpg, The public school of Souppes (1906), located on the town square across from the church.
File:Souppes-sur-Loing - River Loing.JPG, The River Loing at Souppes-sur-Loing
File:Souppes-sur-Loing channel.JPG, A channel of the Loing River passes through the town of Souppes near the church.
File:Souppes-sur-Loing Lake.JPG, The lake in the public park of Souppes-sur-Loing
File:Souppes-sur-Loing - Park.JPG, The public park beside the Loing River in Souppes-sur-Loing