Mantes-la-Jolie (, often informally called Mantes) 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

Yvelines Yvelines () is a Departments of France, department in the western part of the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.department in the

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 ...

of north-central

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 to the west 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 ...

, from the centre of the capital. Mantes-la-Jolie is a

subprefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefectures. ...

; in 2016, it had a population of 44,231.

History

Mantes was halfway between the centres of power of the dukes of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

and the

Kings of France 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 fir ...

at Paris. Along with most of northern France, it changed hands frequently in the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...

Philip Augustus Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French m ...

died at Mantes, 14 July 1223.

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

instituted the manufacture of musical instruments in Mantes, and it was chosen as the centre of

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wi ...

and

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and re ...

instrument manufacture. In the 19th century, painters were attracted to the town, particularly

Corot CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly th ...

, whose paintings of the bridge and the cathedral are celebrated.

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...

spent the summer of 1920 there orchestrating the ballet ''

Chout ''Chout'', Op. 21 (pronounced "shoot"), is the usual English-language title of a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev, written in two versions between 1915 and 1921. It is sometimes known as "The Tale of the Buffoon", or simply "The Buffoon". There also ...

''. Originally officially called Mantes-sur-Seine (meaning "Mantes upon

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

"), Mantes merged with the commune of Gassicourt in 1930 and the commune born of the merger was called Mantes-Gassicourt. Mantes was the location of the

first allied bridgehead across the Seine General George Patton's Third Army's Seine River Crossing at Mantes-Gassicourt was the first allied bridgehead across the Seine River in the aftermath of Operation Overlord, which allowed the Allies to engage in the Liberation of Paris. During ...

on 19 August 1944, by

General Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...

's 3rd Army. Major rebuilding was needed after the war. On 7 May 1953, the commune of Mantes-Gassicourt was officially renamed Mantes-la-Jolie (meaning "Mantes the pretty"), allegedly in reference to a letter of King Henry IV addressed to his

mistress Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a d ...

Gabrielle d'Estrées Gabrielle d'Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux (; 157310 April 1599) was a mistress, confidante and adviser of Henry IV of France. She persuaded Henry to renounce Protestantism in favour of Catholicism in 1593. L ...

who resided in Mantes: "I am on my way to Mantes, my pretty" ().

Art

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot - Le pont de Mantes

At the end of the 19th century, Impressionist painters like

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, feminine sensuality ...

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bor ...

and

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

came to paint the Seine River which crosses the town. Jean Batiste Corot painting of the Old Mantes bridge is shown at the Louvres

Population

Inhabitants are called ''Mantais'' in French. The city had a total of 44,299 inhabitants in 2017. The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Mantes-la-Jolie proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Mantes-la-Jolie absorbed the former communes of Gassicourt in 1930. The city is divided into four districts each with a characteristic urban form: * Centre-ville: city center, a dense and commercial area * Gassicourt: residential area * Val Fourré: large housing district * Hautes Garennes: a non-urbanized area

Sights

The main monument in Mantes is the church of Notre-Dame dating back to 12th century. A previous church was burnt down by

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

together with the rest of the town, at the capture of which he lost his life in 1087. Modern bridges link Mantes with the town of

Limay Limay, officially the Municipality of Limay ( tl, Bayan ng Limay), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Bataan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 78,272 people. Limay is accessible via the Bataan Provin ...

on the other side of the river.

Economy

Mantes is home to small businesses working on concrete and chemical processing, but is inevitably drawn into the economic area of nearby Paris. It is historically and at present a center of musical instrument manufacturing. The well known

Buffet Crampon Buffet Crampon SAS is a French manufacturer of wind instruments based in Mantes-la-Ville, Yvelines department. The company is the world market leader in the production of clarinets of the Boehm system. Its subsidiary, Buffet Crampon Deutsc ...

woodwind factory is located in the neighbourhood city of

Mantes-la-Ville Mantes-la-Ville () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center. Mantes-la-Ville is located at the confluence of the Seine and t ...

Transportation

Mantes-la-Jolie is served by two stations on the

Transilien Paris-Saint-Lazare Transilien Paris-Saint-Lazare is one of the sectors in the Paris Transilien suburban rail network. The trains on this sector depart from Gare Saint-Lazare in central Paris and serve the north and north-west of Île-de-France region with Transilien ...

and Transilien Paris-Montparnasse suburban rail lines: and . The Mantes-la-Jolie station is also served by

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

trains towards Le Havre, and Cherbourg.

Education

The municipality has nineteen public preschools, sixteen public elementary schools, six public junior high schools, two public senior high schools/sixth form colleges, and a private secondary school. Public junior high schools: *Collège

André Chénier André Marie Chénier (; 30 October 176225 July 1794) was a French poet of Greek and Franco-Levantine origin, associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was a victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precur ...

*Collège

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

*Collège

Jules Ferry Jules François Camille Ferry (; 5 April 183217 March 1893) was a French statesman and republican philosopher. He was one of the leaders of the Moderate Republicans and served as Prime Minister of France from 1880 to 1881 and 1883 to 1885. He ...

*Collège

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

*Collège de Gassicourt *Collège

Georges Clemenceau Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...

Public senior high schools: * Lycée Saint-Exupéry * Lycée Polyvalent Jean Rostand Private secondary schools: * Collège-Lycée Notre-Dame Colleges and universities: * University Institute of Technology of Mantes en Yvelines *

Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (, ''UVSQ'') is a French public university created in 1991, located in the department of Yvelines and, since 2002, in Hauts-de-Seine. It is a constituent university of the federal Paris-Saclay Un ...

International relations

Mantes-la-Jolie is twinned with: *

Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civ ...

, England, United Kingdom * Maia, Portugal *

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

, Germany

Notable people

Nicolas Bernier Nicolas Bernier (28 June 1664 – 5 September 1734) was a French Baroque composer. Biography He was born in Mantes-sur-Seine (now Mantes-la-Jolie), the son of Rémy Bernier and Marguerite Bauly. He studied with Antonio Caldara and is kn ...

(1664–1734), composer. *

Jonathan Bumbu Jonathan Bumbu (born 11 February 1999) is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Italian club Cesena. Club career On 2 July 2019, Bumbu signed a professional contract with Amiens. He made his professional debut with Am ...

(b. 1999), footballer *

Faudel Faudel Belloua ( ar, فُضيل بيلوى; born June 6, 1978) is a French raï singer and actor of Algerian descent. He released studio albums, notably '' Baïda'', '' Samra'', ''Un Autre Soleil'' and ''Mundial Corrida'' and the live album '' ...

(1978), singer *

Sandy Casar Sandy Casar (born 2 February 1979) is a French former professional racing cyclist, who competed as a professional between 2000 and 2013, all for the team. His greatest results have been winning three stages of the Tour de France, as well the over ...

(1979), cyclist * Benoit Poher (1979), singer *

Angelo Tsagarakis Angelo Constantin Tsagarakis (alternate spellings: Angelos, Aggelos, Tsagkarakis) (Greek: Άγγελος Τσαγκαράκης; born June 3, 1984) is a retired French-Greek professional basketball player who played both point guard and shooting g ...

(1984) basketball player * Saïd Hireche (1985), rugby player *

Moussa Sow Moussa Sow (born 19 January 1986) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward. Born in France, he represented Senegal at international level, scoring 18 goals in 50 appearances. He was known for his bicycle kick goals and emotional re ...

(*1986), footballer *

Haoua Kessely Haoua Kessely (born 2 February 1988 in Mantes-la-Jolie, France) is a French athlete who specialises in the triple jump. Kessely competed at the 31st 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships. Biography Haoua has won six French national Indo ...

(*1988) athlete * Omar Kossoko (*1988), footballer * Enock Kwateng (b. 1997), footballer * Kama Massampu (*1991), footballer *

Claudine Mendy Claudine Mendy (born 8 January 1990, in Mantes-la-Jolie, France) is a French handball player. She plays for the club Bourg-de-Péage Drôme Handball and for the French national team. In the upcoming 2015-2016 season the left back will play fo ...

(*1990), handball player * Oumar N'Diaye (*1985), footballer *

Opa Nguette Opa Nguette (born 8 July 1994) is a professional footballer who plays for the Senegal national team. He plays as an attacking midfielder and striker. Nguette was a France youth international, having represented his nation at under-18 to und ...

(*1994), footballer *

Haby Niare Haby may refer to: People * (1922-2006), French politician * (1861-1938), German hairdresser * Haby Niaré (born 1993), French taekwondo practitioner * Jean-Yves Haby (born 1955), French politician * René Haby (1919–2003), French politician ...

(*1993), taekwondo *

Hamady Tamboura Hamady Tamboura (born 23 June 1989) is a French professional footballer who plays for Athlético Marseille. Tamboura previously played for Angers, where he made five appearances in Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due t ...

(*1989), footballer *

Nicolas Pépé Nicolas Pépé (born 29 May 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Nice, on loan from Arsenal of the . Born in France, he represents the Ivory Coast national team. Pépé began his senior club career with Poitiers ...

(*1995), footballer *

Audrey Fleurot Audrey Fleurot (; born 6 July 1977) is a French actress. She is best known for playing the Lady of the Lake in '' Kaamelott'', Joséphine Karlsson in '' Spiral'' and Hortense Larcher in ''Un village français''. In 2011, she played Magalie in ...

(*1977), actress

References

External links

Mantes-la-Jolie city council website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manteslajolie Communes of Yvelines Subprefectures in France

History

Art

Population

Sights

Economy

Transportation

Education

International relations

Notable people

See also

References

External links