Orsay () 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

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.department in

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 ...

in northern

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 ...

. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

, from the centre of Paris. A fortified location of the

Chevreuse valley Chevreuse () is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, French department of Yvelines, Regions of France, administrative region of Île-de-France, north-central France. Geography Chevreuse is located south of Paris, in the mi ...

since the 8th century and agricultural domain of wealthy and influential people, the development of Orsay is marked by the introduction of a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in the second half of the 18th century (today the

RER B RER B is one of the five lines in the Réseau Express Régional (English: Regional Express Network), a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system serving Paris, France and its Île-de-France suburbs. The RER B line crosses the region from no ...

of which two stations are located in Orsay) and donations which allow the construction of a hospital still active to this day. Orsay is the main home to the

Paris-Saclay University Paris-Saclay University (french: Université Paris-Saclay) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 prestigious universities that emerged from the division of the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne ...

. The university significantly shapes Orsay's economy as it employs about 10,000 academic workers. The city's economy is also centered on high technology, with several companies drawn to the area by the

Paris-Saclay Paris-Saclay is a research-intensive and business cluster currently under construction in the south of Paris, France. It encompasses research facilities, two French major universities with higher education institutions (''grandes écoles'') and ...

's research and development infrastructure. Seat of the Orsay campus of Paris-Saclay University, crossed by the 118 national road, Orsay has become a residential city of the

Paris metropolitan area The Paris metropolitan area (french: aire d'attraction de Paris) is a statistical area that describes the reach of commuter movement to and from Paris, France and its surrounding suburbs. Overview In 2020 France's national INSEE statistica ...

and the

, easily accessible and with a preserved environment at the heart of the

scientific cluster with laboratories of the CNRS and the Curie Institute on its territory.

History

There has been a village called Orsay on this site since 999, and the first church there was built in 1157. From the sixteenth century, the town and surrounding area were owned by the Boucher family, and it was in honour of this family that

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

gave the ''

quai d'Orsay The Quai d'Orsay ( , ) is a quay in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the left bank of the Seine opposite the Place de la Concorde. The Quai becomes the Quai Anatole-France east of the Palais Bourbon, and the Quai Branly west of t ...

'' its name. This is the reason that the Musée d'Orsay is not in Orsay. In the eighteenth century, the family of Grimod du Fort bought the land and received the title of comte d'Orsay. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war, Orsay was occupied by the Prussian army. 88 young "Orcéens" were killed in the First World War. In 1957, largely due to the influence of Frédéric and

Irène Joliot-Curie Irène Joliot-Curie (; ; 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist, physicist and politician, the elder daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awar ...

, the Institut de physique nucléaire (nuclear physics institute) was opened in the

, and the region, especially Orsay, became an important scientific centre. Another development was the creation of the

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (French: ''Université Paris-Sud''), also known as University of Paris — XI (or as Université d'Orsay before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, in ...

, whose most important faculty is the faculty of science. On 19 February 1977, a part of the territory of Orsay was detached and merged with a part of the territory of

Bures-sur-Yvette Bures-sur-Yvette (, literally ''Bures on Yvette'') is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. Geography Bures-sur-Yvette is located in the Vallée de Chevreuse on the river Yvette, along which the RER line&nb ...

to create the commune of

Les Ulis Les Ulis () is a commune in the Essonne department located in the southwestern suburbs (banlieue) of Paris, France. It is from the centre of Paris. Location Les Ulis is a new town located in the Île-de-France, in the south-west of the P ...

Population

Inhabitants of Orsay are known as ''Orcéens''.

Education

Higher education

The

, former University of Paris in Orsay, dominates the city of Orsay, providing the city with its distinctive college-town character. University buildings are located in the north of the city and the campus is divided between several other cities such as

Gif-sur-Yvette Gif-sur-Yvette (, literally ''Gif on Yvette'') is a commune in south-western Ile de France, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Geography The town is crossed by and named after the river Yvette. The total area is and is green s ...

and

Palaiseau Palaiseau () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Palaiseau is a sub-prefecture of the Essonne department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Palaiseau. Inhabitants of Palaiseau ar ...

. Colleges that are part of the

in Orsay: * ENS Paris-Saclay; *

CentraleSupélec CentraleSupélec (CS) is a top French graduate engineering school of Paris-Saclay University in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. It was established on 1 January 2015, as a result of a strategic merger between two prestigious grandes écoles in France, ...

; *

Paris-Saclay Faculty of Sciences The Paris-Saclay Faculty of Sciences or Orsay Faculty of Sciences, in French : ''Faculté des sciences d'Orsay'', is the mathematics and physics school within Paris-Saclay University, founded in 1956. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees ...

; * Paris-Saclay Polytechnic School; * Orsay University Institute of Technology; * Paris-Saclay Undergraduate School.

Transport

Orsay is served by two stations on Paris RER line B: Le Guichet and Orsay-Ville.

Neighbourhoods of Orsay

*Le Guichet *Mondétour *Le Petit Madagascar *Corbeville * Le Moulon

Nearby towns

Saclay Saclay () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It had a population of 3,067 in 2006. It is best known for the large scientific facility CEA Saclay, mostly dealing with nuclear and pa ...

* Villebon-sur-Yvette *

Places of worship

The territory of the city is divided in two

catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

es which depend on the

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

of Évry–Corbeil-Essonnes and the deanery of Yvette-Gif-Orsay. The parish of Ulis-Montdétour-Montjay serves the neighborhood of Montdétour, bois du Roi and bois Persan, while the parish of Orsay serves the rest of the city. These parishes have the main

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

of Saint-Martin-Saint-Laurent, the

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

of la Clarté-Dieu and the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Plaine at Mondétour. Additionally, the city has a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

evangelical parish and an international evangelical church: the église évangélique vie et paix. A

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Khuông Viêt

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

is also located in the city.

Civil heritage

Forested areas

*The Bois des Rames around the university campus *The Bois Persan * Parc botanique de Launay

Architecture

*la Grande Bouvêche *la Pacaterie *le Temple de la Gloire *le château de Corbeville

Notable residents

* Sir Oswald Mosley, Bt., leader of the British Union of Fascists * Lady Diana Mosley, one of the

Mitford sisters The Mitford family is an aristocratic English family, whose principal line had its seats at Mitford, Northumberland. Several heads of the family served as High Sheriff of Northumberland. A junior line, with seats at Newton Park, Northumberlan ...

and wife of Sir Oswald Mosley *

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 19 ...

, later Duke of Windsor after abdicating the throne and marrying American divorcee Wallis Simpson * Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, American wife of

* Moussa Badiane, basketball player * Sega Keita, footballer *

Guy Demel Guy Roland Demel (born 13 June 1981) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a defender. He could play in several positions including right back and centre back. Demel started his career in France with Nîmes Olympique befor ...

, footballer * Mickael Antoine-Curier, footballer * Angelique Spincer, handball player *

Teddy Venel Teddy Atine-Venel (born 16 March 1985 in Orsay, France) is a French athlete who specialises in the 400 meters The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme ...

, athlete *

Adam Allouche Adam Allouche is a France, French-Lebanon, Lebanese international swimmer that holds 4 Lebanese national records in swimming. Allouche originating from Les Ulis, France, represented Lebanon during: the 2013 Mediterranean Games, Mediterranean Gam ...

, swimmer

References

External links

Orsay official website
*
Mayors of Essonne Association
{{Authority control 999 establishments Communes of Essonne 10th-century establishments in France Essonne communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia