Montereau-Fault-Yonne

Sister cities

• Otley
• Paredes
• Walldürn
• Safi
• Aydın

History

In 1359, the King of Navarre Charles II of Navarre, who held the town because of his Champagne ascent, lost it to the regent of France (the future king Charles V). John the Fearless was killed on the town's bridge in September, 1419 by Tanneguy du Chastel and the sire de Barbazan, during a conference with the dauphin (who became in 1422 Charles VII). An inscription on the bridge recalls the event. In the collegiate church Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Loup there is a sword which has long been said to be John the Fearless', but actually this sword is certainly more recent. In 1420, Philip the Good, the son of John the Fearless, seized the town, which remained for eight years in the hands of the Anglo-Burgundian coalition. However, at the end of a long siege, the king Charles VII, helped by Jacques de Chabannes and Jean de Dunois, managed to take it again. In 1567, during the Wars of Religion, Condé briefly seized the town. In 1587, the inhabitants of Montereau sided with the Catholic League, but in 1590 they accepted the legitimacy of the new king Henry IV. The Hôtel de Ville was commissioned in the mid-18th century. Montereau was also the place of one of the last victories of Napoleon on 14 February 1814. In January 2012, the mayor proposed development of Napoleon's Bivouac, a commemorative theme park at a projected cost of 200 million euros. The plans remain in dispute and nothing has been built.

Geography

Montereau-Fault-Yonne straddles the confluence of the rivers Yonne and Seine at the far south-east of the Île-de-France region, 70 km southeast of its administrative centre, Paris. The A5 autoroute (Paris–Troyes–Chaumont) passes northeast of the town. Montereau station links by rail Laroche-Migennes, Melun and Paris. It is approximately equidistant between slightly larger Melun and Sens.