Corbeil-Essonnes

History

Traces of human presence in the area date to the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages; later it was a Gallo-Roman settlement on the main road from Paris to Sens. The name Corbeil is derived from the Latin Corbulium, from the Gaulish cor beel, meaning "holy house". Since the time of Aymon, comte de Corbeil (died 957), to the 12th century it was the chief town of a powerful county, which passed to Mauger, son of Richard I of Normandy.

William de Corbeil (died 1136) became archbishop of Canterbury, but nothing is known for certain about his parentage. The Gothic church was built in the tenth century and rebuilt in the fifteenth century. Before the expulsion of the Jews Corbeil had a flourishing Jewish community, which numbered thirteenth-century scholars Isaac ben Joseph of Corbeil and Perez ben Elijah. Peter of Corbeil (died 1222) was the teacher of Lotario de' Conti, who became pope as Innocent III.

Representatives of the king of France signed two treaties of Corbeil in the town, the Treaty of Corbeil (1258) between France and Aragon and the Treaty of Corbeil (1326) between France and Scotland.

Corbeil was besieged by the Duke of Burgundy in 1418. The Protestants of France attacked it in 1562 amidst the religious war called the First Civil War. In 1590 General Alessandro Farnese, who had come to the assistance of the Catholics in France, fought at Corbeil.

The composer Camille Saint-Saëns lived in Corbeil for some years of his youth in the 1830s. The Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1906.

The commune of Corbeil-Essonnes was created on 10 August 1951 by the merger of the commune of Corbeil with the commune of Essonnes.

Inhabitants of Corbeil-Essonnes are known as Corbeil-Essonnois.

In September 2025, Bruno Piriou, mayor of the commune, distributed 1000 Palestinian flags, as part of a "general mobilization".

Population

The population data given in the table and graph below for 1946 and earlier refer to the former commune of Corbeil.

| graph-pos = bottom |1793 |3000 |1800 |3347 |1806 |3230 |1821 |3481 |1831 |3708 |1836 |3690 |1841 |4455 |1846 |4409 |1851 |4725 |1856 |5030 |1861 |5221 |1866 |5541 |1872 |6016 |1876 |6392 |1881 |6719 |1886 |7541 |1891 |8184 |1896 |9182 |1901 |9632 |1906 |9902 |1911 |10746 |1921 |10937 |1926 |11230 |1931 |11524 |1936 |11180 |1946 |10976 |1954 |22891 |1962 |26805 |1968 |32192 |1975 |38859 |1982 |37846 |1990 |40345 |1999 |39378 |2007 |41308 |2012 |46017 |2017 |51292

Economy

In the 19th century, Corbeil-Essonnes was a centre of the flour-milling industry. Essonnes also had notable papermills.

Today, X-Fab France SAS is headquartered here and operates a semiconductor fabrication plant. The 55 hectare site includes 25000 square meters of cleanrooms and a design center. The fab had been founded by IBM in 1964. In 1999 it was transferred into a joint venture between IBM and Infineon, operating under the name Altis Semiconductor(fr).

Safran Aircraft Engines has a plant in Corbeil.

Transport

Corbeil-Essonnes is served by Corbeil-Essonnes station which is an interchange station on Paris RER line D. Corbeil-Essonnes is also served by Essonnes-Robinson station and by Moulin-Galant station on Paris RER line D.

The town is crossed by the EuroVelo 3 track.

Education

There are about 40 schools in Corbeil-Essonnes.

Junior high schools:

• Collège Chantemerle
• Collège La Nacelle
• Collège Louise Michel
• Collège Saint-Spire
• Collège Sédar Senghor

Senior high schools/Sixth-form colleges:

• Lycée Robert Doisneau
• Lycée polyvalent Saint Léon

Notable people

• Nigel Atangana, footballer
• Jean-Sylvain Babin, footballer
• Dylan Bahamboula, footballer
• Demba Diagouraga, footballer
• Claude Dauphin, actor
• Damien Mozika, footballer
• Félicien Rops (1833–1898) Belgian artist and illustrator
• Hadi Sacko, footballer
• PNL, French rappers
• MMZ, French rappers
• William de Corbeil, medieval Archbishop of Canterbury
• Walid Regragui, French-Moroccan football coach
• Breakbot, French musician, DJ and music producer
• Yohanan Elihai (Jean Leroi) (1926–2020) – Israeli linguist, lexicographer, arabist and teacher, Catholic monk, born in France

Twin towns

• ESP Alzira, Spain, since 1991
• POR Belinho e Mar (Esposende), Portugal, since 2000
• SCO Bishopbriggs, Scotland, since 1989
• GER Sindelfingen, Germany, since 1961

References

| access-date = 2015-12-27

References

1. (13 September 2022). "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises.
2. Studd, Stephen. (1999). "Camille Saint-Saëns – A Critical Biography". Cygnus Arts.
3. "La Place Galignani". Corbeil-Essonnes Free.
4. "Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui". l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
5. "Reconnaissance de la Palestine : Le maire décide de distribuer des drapeaux palestiniens aux habitants de Corbeil-Essonnes". 20 Minutes.
6. {{Cassini-Ehess. 10246. Corbeil-Essonnes
7. [https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-91174#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968], INSEE
8. (2016-09-30). "X-FAB to Acquire Assets of Altis Semiconductor". X-Fab.
9. "Safran Aircraft Engines, Evry-Corbeil".
10. "[http://www.education.gouv.fr/pid24302/annuaire-resultat-recherche.html?localisation=1&ville_name=Corbeil-Essonnes Annuaire : Résultats de recherche -> Corbeil-Essonnes]." [[French Ministry of Education]]. Retrieved on September 3, 2016.
11. Jean Cassou (1979) The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism. Chartwell Books, Inc., Secaucus, New Jersey, 292 pp.
12. Lee Revens and J.-K. Huysmans (1975) The Graphic Work of Félicien Rops. Léon Amiel Publisher, New York, 288 pp.
13. [https://musaf-shabbat.com/2015/06/05/%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%AA%D7%99-%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A8-%D7%A9%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%94%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%97%D7%99-%D7%A8%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%99-%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%A3 Musaf Shabbat] – weekend supplement of the journal ''[[Makor Rishon]]'', in [[Hebrew]]