Levallois-Perret is a French commune located on the right bank of the Seine, in the Hauts-de-Seine department in the Île-de-France region, bordering the north-west of Paris.
Until its official creation in 1867, the history of
Levallois-Perret merges with that of Clichy to which it was
incorporated. In 1215, the abbey of Saint-Denis, owner of the royal
palace of Clichy, acquired a plot on the site known as “the vineyard
for priests” to practice viticulture.
From Prehistory to
Antiquity
At the end of the 19th century, prehistorians
identified for the first time in the gravels of the Seine at
Levallois a method of debitage which consisted in extracting shards
of predetermined shapes from a core. This method, called the
Levallois method, appeared in the Acheulean in Africa before being
generalized in Europe in the Middle Paleolithic, about 300,000 years
ago.
In 52 BC the plain of Clichy-Levallois is the site of
the Battle of Lutetia which pits the Gallic tribe of Parisii against
the Roman troops of Caesar led by his lieutenant Titus Labienus.
Middle Ages: golden age of Clippiacum
625: first traces in
the chronicles of the Royal Palace of Clippiacum (Clichy). Clotaire
II, father of Dagobert I, has in fact installed his main residence
and his court there since 614. The Ecole du Palais, which is divided
between the Latin quarter of Paris and the plain of
Clichy-Levallois, trains all the children of great dignitaries of
the kingdom (Saint Éloi, Saint Ouen, Saint Didier…). It was in this
school that Prince Dagobert met all these saints who would
administer the kingdom of the Franks a few years later.
626:
Dagobert I moved to the Merovingian palace of Clippiacum (Clichy)
and married there a Goth princess named Gomathrude.
626: the
Council of Clichy forbids clerics and laity to practice usury. The
result is an explosion in interest rates throughout the kingdom.
630: birth of Saint Sigisbert (Sigebert III), son of King
Dagobert I, at the Clichy palace.
633: at the end of an
exceptional assembly of lay people and ecclesiastics, Sigebert III
is appointed king of Austrasia (Eastern France), Aquitaine and
Provence.
684: a few years after having skillfully negotiated
peace between Neustria (Western France) and Austrasia (Eastern
France) in Cologne, the diplomat Saint Ouen retired to his villa in
Clichy, where he died.
717: Chilpéric II donates to the abbey
of Saint-Denis the forest of Rouvray (today only the Bois de
Boulogne remains) which extends from Neuilly-sur-Seine (today Saint-
Cloud) in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis).
885: the Normans
destroy the Palace and the surrounding villages.
1193:
Philippe Auguste detaches Clichy from the Domaine de la Couronne and
offers it to Gaucher de Châtillon.
1215: the Levallois part
of the seigneury of Clichy specializes in viticulture. It must
supply the Abbey of Saint-Denis on which it depends with mass wines.
Levallois then identified with the site of “la vigne aux prires”.
1429: Joan of Arc gathers her army on the plain of
Clichy-Levallois for the levée de Montjoie (the banner of the lords
of France). This episode precedes the unsuccessful assault on Paris,
Porte Saint-Honoré (today 15 rue de Richelieu).
Clichy and
Levallois in the shadow of Saint Vincent de Paul
According to
Abbé Lecanu, historian of Clichy, there is a very close relationship
between Saint Vincent de Paul, parish priest of Clichy between 1612
and 1625, Saint Louise de Marillac, Antoine Portail and the parish
of Clichy.
“Providence gave Saint Vincent de Paul the
opportunity to meet in Clichy, Mademoiselle Le Gras, Louise de
Marillac. She had close ties with the Château de Clichy and went
there often. In 1595, his father Louis de Marillac was tutor to
Alexandre Hennequin and the Sieur de la Bazinière, co-lords of
Clichy. He often lived at the Château de Clichy with his young
daughter ”
- Abbot Lecanu, History of Clichy-la-Garenne
It
was in Clichy that "Monsieur Vincent" met Antoine Portail, his
dearest and oldest companion in the Congregation of the Mission.
After having been his pupil during catechism, Father Portail is his
first assistant, the first secretary of the Congregation and the
first director of the Daughters of Charity. He died in 1660, the
same year as two other Clichois: Louise de Marillac and Vincent de
Paul.
Nicolas Levallois had such veneration for Saint Vincent
de Paul that he founded the village of Levallois on September 27,
1845, a Catholic liturgical feast in honor of the patron saint of
Clichy.
The founder of the city had a Venetian bronze statue executed in
1876 in honor of "Monsieur Vincent". Ironically, this statue was
donated to the parish of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul de Clichy, a town
from which Levallois had detached itself exactly ten years earlier
Levallois also gives the name of this patron saint to the market
and the street leading to it. Finally, he ensures that Vincent de
Paul appears on one of the three stained glass windows surmounting
the tabernacle of Saint-Justin church. On either side of the stained
glass window representing the Ascension of Christ before the Virgin
Mary and the apostles, we can see, on the right the stained glass
window of Saint Justin, patron of Levallois and, on the left, the
stained glass window of Saint Vincent de Paul, patron from Clichy.
19th century: towards the creation of Levallois-Perret
At the
end of the French Revolution, the current territory of the
municipality of Levallois retains a rural character. Two hamlets
then exist on the plain: Villiers-la-Garenne, in the town of
Neuilly, on the current rue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, at the level of
the current Place de la Liberation, and Courcelles, in the town of
Clichy , at the corner of the current rue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier
and Président-Wilson. The territory is crossed by a few roads, the
most important being the route du bac d'Asnières (current rue
Victor-Hugo), the chemin de Neuilly à Clichy (current rue
Paul-Vaillant-Couturier), as well as the paths allowing access from
Paris to the villages of Villiers and Courcelles (rue de Villiers
and now rue du Président-Wilson).
During a good part of the
nineteenth century, the territory of the future commune
"Levallois-Perret" belonged to the family of a close friend of
Napoleon Bonaparte.
In 1806, Count Jean Bérenger bought a
large property in the hamlet of Courcelles (Clichy), at a place
called La Planchette. At that time, the village of Levallois did not
yet exist. The deed of sale was signed in 1806 for 51,000 francs,
but the value of this property skyrocketed to reach 100,000 francs
when Bérenger died in 1850.
This Count of Empire, close to
Lucien Bonaparte, Stendhal and Benjamin Constant, played a decisive
role in the success of the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire. Appointed
State Councilor for life by the emperor, he took a considerable part
in the work of preparing the Civil Code, the Code of Civil
Procedure, the Commercial Code, the Code of Criminal Investigation,
and the Penal Code. During most of the empire, he was the patron of
the Caisse d'Amortissement (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations), for
example in this post responsible for the erection of the Arc de
Triomphe in homage to the Grand Army. It was also Bérenger who wrote
and delivered to the emperor the imperial decree of 1807
reorganizing the Court of Auditors. He will also have an important
role in the aftermath of the Three Glorious Days of 1830, or “July
Revolution”, which will overthrow Charles X.
On the Bérenger
plot, there is a beautiful outbuilding of the castle (the current
Club de la Planchette).
Twenty years after purchasing this
house, one of Bérenger's daughters, wife of the stockbroker Henri
Lhuillier, acquired one of the outbuildings of the Courcelles farm
with a house and two hectares of land. The Bérenger family thus
finds itself at the head of one of the largest estates in the
region.
In 1814, Paris defends itself against the Russians.
General Moncey established his headquarters at the Clichy barrier.
In 1815, Clichy, evacuated, was plundered by the Prussians and the
English who camped there and ransacked their homes.
The
project of a city on the future site of Levallois-Perret was born in
1822 when a subdivision operation was launched at a place called
Champerret (the stony field) by Jean-Jacques Perret, a wealthy
landowner. This locality is located in the town of Neuilly, east of
rue de Villiers, south of the old town of the village. He is trying
to subdivide sixty lots over twenty hectares. But his operation
failed because the land was poorly served and the plots too large.
In 1837, the territory of the current Levallois-Perret was
physically separated from the village of Clichy by the new line from
Paris-Saint-Lazare to Saint-Germain-en-Laye. A station opened on
July 5, 1838, it closed on August 13, for lack of travelers. Between
1842 and 1844, a new attempt also ended in failure, the land
retaining an essentially rural character.
Perret's project was taken up by Nicolas Eugène Levallois, with
the help of a surveyor friend Rivay, and this time the operation was
a great success. The village of Levallois was officially born on
September 27, 1845, the feast day of Saint Vincent-de-Paul (former
priest of Clichy). It corresponds to the day when Nicolas Eugène
Levallois bought his first plot, “la vigne aux priests”, located in
the south-eastern hamlet of Courcelles, on Chemin du Bois (now rue
Jean-Jaurès), in Clichy.
In 1845, when Nicolas Levallois drew
up the plans for “his city”, he unhesitatingly incorporated the
property of Jean Bérenger. But he categorically refuses any
intrusion into his domain, and does not want to sell his property.
Nicolas Levallois will have to wait until his death in 1850 to start
breaking up the place called La Planchette. It will take almost half
a century. The family of Count Bérenger will be expropriated of his
last plots (the current Parc de la Planchette but also the land used
to build the Place des Fêtes, now Place de Verdun) in 1924.
A
decree of 1857 erected the Church of Levallois as a branch of the
parish of Clichy. The boundaries of this branch do not correspond to
the current municipal boundaries because the part of the current
municipality then located in Neuilly is not included in this
perimeter.
On June 30, 1866, Napoleon III promulgated a law
creating the commune of Levallois-Perret, a law taking effect on
January 1, 1867. The commune was created from the reunion of the
territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine located to the east of the rue de
Villiers and part of the territory of Clichy located west of the
line from Paris to Saint-Germain. It incorporates the old hamlets of
Villiers (Neuilly) and Courcelles (Clichy) and the new housing
estates of Champerret (Neuilly) and Levallois (Clichy).
The
industrial development of Levallois
In 1903, quai Michelet, the
first automobile manufacturing plant was created: Automobiles
Clément-Bayard, which closed in 1920.
At the beginning of
1911, Marc Birkigt, chief engine manufacturer of the Hispano-Suiza
firm, also founded an automobile production workshop in Levallois,
the first model of which was a "15 ch Sport type Alphonse XIII",
followed in 1913 by the "Hispano "type 21, 22 and 23, which had some
success, the firm opening a factory the same year in Bois-Colombes.
In 1914, the workshop and factory were requisitioned to produce
Gnome and Rhône aircraft engines, then in 1915 "Hispano-Suiza"
engines, until the end of the conflict (they motorized a number of
planes. Spad and Caudron).
The closing date of the workshop
is uncertain: before or after 1918? Everything was transferred to
Bois-Colombes.
On March 21, 1915, during the First World War,
several bombs were launched from a German Zeppelin airship which
exploded at no.6 place de Cormeilles and no.8 rue Poccard.
At
no.138 rue Victor-Hugo, is an oxylith factory. It is taken over by
the company Dunlop. Shortly after, on January 13, 1920, it was
destroyed by fire.
In 1921, the Citroën firm leased, then
bought in 1929, the 70,000 m2 of the former "Clément-Bayard"
factory, to meet the strong demand for vehicles, its factory at the
Quai de Javel in Paris not being sufficient. to answer them.
The first car produced will be the 5 HP "Petite Citroën", followed
by Citroën Kégresse half-tracks, then ball bearings and spare parts
for the brand's vehicles.
From 1949 until February 29, 1988,
when the factory closed, it will be the main production center for
the famous Citroën 2 CV, the prototypes of which were created here
in 1939.