Sens is a town in Burgundy located north of the Yonne department. The city is dominated by one of the great French cathedrals. In the old center, inside the old walls, Sens retains many half-timbered houses as well as many 18th century mansions.
Sens and Sénonais tourist office, 6 rue du Général Leclerc (from the city center, walk along rue de la République then rue du Général Leclerc until the roundabout of the Demi-Lune), Logo indicating a number by phone +33 3 86 65 19 49, email: contact@tourisme-sens.com, from September to June: Mon - Sat: 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. - 6 p.m. (closed on Tuesday morning from December to March), July and August: Mon - Sat: 9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., May to October: Sun: 10:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. 30, for public holidays refer to Sunday schedules. - The tourist office has a documentation area on Sens and its surroundings and also includes a shop area. WiFi is available there.
By train
The Burgundy TER lines no 12 Paris (Paris-Bercy
station) - Dijon (Dijon-Ville station) and no 15 Paris (Paris-Bercy
station) - Auxerre stop at Sens station.
Sens station, place
François Mitterrand - Accessible, without assistance, to people with
reduced mobility Presence of at least one lift Ticket office. Shops
and distributor of drinks and sweets. Parking area (two places for
PRM).
By car
A5 motorway
interchange between A5 and A19
(E511)
A19 motorway
exit 1 Pont s / Yonne - towns served:
Sens, Provin
exit 2 Paron St Valérien
Sens has several places of worship: three churches, a cathedral as well as two mosques and one in project, located in the Pleasant Fields district. It should have an area of 875m2 and cost 1 million euros (financed by donations).
Monastery of the Nativity, 105 rue Victor Guichard
Saint-Antoine
Church, Notre-Dame de la Providence retirement home, Victor Guichard
Street
Chapel of the Jeanne-d'Arc School, rue Auguet
Chapel of the
Saint-Savinien Institute, place Étienne-Dolet
Chapel of the
retirement home, rue des Dames Vermiglio
Chapel, rue des
Chênes-Bertin
Arabic-speaking mosque, 15 rue Marcellin-Berthelot with
a capacity of 550 people
Mosque, Loupière Street
Prayer room and
cultural center for the community of Turkish origin
Reformed
Protestant temple, 22 rue Pasteur
Evangelical Baptist, place Boffrand
Synagogue, rue de la Grande-Juiverie
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's
Witnesses, rue Auguet
The city, named Agendicum in Roman
times, has retained its plan with two main streets perpendicular to
decumanus and cardo and part of its Roman wall. Agendicum is
probably under the Roman Empire, the capital of Senonia, province of
IV Lyonnaise.
The current name of the city comes from the
Gallic tribe of Sénons, of which Brennus was the chief in the 4th
century BC. There are remains of drains made by the Romans to raise
water from a source, like an artesian well. These works were
intended to supply an aqueduct.
In 53 BC BC, during the
invasion of Gaul, Caesar wintered six legions, at a place called
"Caesar's camp" south of the city.
Under the High Empire,
buildings and various infrastructures were built to improve comfort.
In the 2nd century, a sixteen-kilometer aqueduct fetched spring
water from the Valley of the Vanne. Archaeological remains attest to
the presence of an amphitheater, a forum and thermal baths. The
thermal baths, and especially the facade, must have presented
various sculptures.
In the Lower Empire, the city was
protected by a wall, the materials of which were taken from
buildings built during the Upper Empire. The fortifications covered
a distance of three kilometers, partly based on the Yonne and were
among the most imposing in Roman Gaul. The wall is based on large
blocks of stone from public buildings or funerary monuments.
During the administrative reform of Diocletian, the city of Sens
becomes the seat of the province of the fourth Lyonnaise. The future
ecclesiastical province will continue within this framework
inherited from the Empire. Like many Roman cities of Gaul (eg
Lutetia), the city takes the name of the people of which it is the
administrative and commercial center. The city will now be called
Sens.
The origins of Christianity
in Sens were the subject of fierce debates in the early twentieth
century. It is true that in its known writing (very late), the life
of Saint Savinien comes to be interpolated with that of Saint
Colombe. She claims that this bishop was appointed directly by the
apostles. But we can also notice that the term "apostole" means in
Old French "pope", which can refer the designation to any Roman
pope. On the other hand, we must credit the local Church of Saint
Colombe. This Aragonese was baptized in the Rhône valley in Vienne
and suffered martyrdom in Sens. His cult is celebrated in Visigothic
collections from High Antiquity, which makes an imaginary cult
impossible.
A Bishop Savinianus is mentioned in acts of a
council from the beginning of the 4th century. We are now justified
in assuming the existence of an ecclesiastical organization. But
then we are at the end of Constantine's reign.
The diocese of
Sens was founded around 240 by Saint Savinien. Its archbishops had
an important place in the Church of France: in the ninth century,
Pope John VIII gave the Archbishop of Sens the title of "Primate of
Gaul and Germania" and until the seventeenth century, the Bishop of
Paris depended on the Archbishop of Sens. As such, it had under its
dependence Chartres, Auxerre, Meaux, Paris, Orléans, Nevers and
Troyes. The ecclesiastical district was modeled on the civil
district and the episcopal seat of Nevers when it was created at the
end of the fifth century was also attached to Sens. These seven
bishoprics made up an ecclesiastical province of exceptional
importance reflected in the motto CAMPONT - acrostic of the initials
of the seven seats - inscribed under the arms of the chapter of the
cathedral of Sens. In 769, the archbishop of Sens, Villicaire, was
at the head of the Frankish episcopal mission which attended the
Council in Rome in charge of judging the intruding pontiff
Constantine II, with the title of archbishop of the Gauls.
In
the 7th century, the Pope was forced by events to take
organizational action. He cannot communicate with the episcopate of
Gaul. The Mediterranean is completely made inaccessible by the
Muslim fleet from North Africa. The Muslims of Spain are themselves
present in Narbonne. The devastation extends to the interior of
Provence. Traffic can only be done through the Alps, and only in
fine weather. The Lombards show little understanding. Forced, the
Pope made the Archbishop of Sens his permanent legate for the beyond
of the Alps, with the exception of Brittany (that is to say Great
Britain). The Merovingian rulers are satisfied with this measure.
Dagobert, in poor health, limits his travel around Paris. At the
change of dynasty, nothing changes. The authority of the archbishop
expands to the space controlled by the Carolingians.
At the beginning of the 12th century, commercial traffic became
intense across the Alps (Champagne fairs). The function of permanent
legate ceases to be of great utility. The bishop of Lyon (who tried
to steal the archiepiscopal title from his metropolitan of Vienne),
obtained from the pope the "recognition" of a primate authority in
France. The reaction of King Louis VI will be energetic and of rare
violence. The King refuses that his clergy come under the control of
a bishop operating from a foreign land (the county of Lyon is in
Empire). He sees in it a rupture of the multi-secular alliance of
the kings of France with the papacy. The Pope steps back.
A
new questioning dates from the reign of Francis I. King Louis XI had
already encouraged the fairs of Lyon to the extreme, allowing the
city to develop as late as it was spectacular. The Archbishop of
Lyon (the conflict with Vienna is not yet over), supported by the
rich bourgeoisie of his city, easily convinces François, desperately
in search of money, of his cause. Aged, the Archbishop of Sens does
not react. The Parliament of Paris provides a brilliant defense. The
King makes him fold. In compensation, Parliament grants the title of
Primate of Gaul and Germania to the Archbishop of Sens; the
archbishop of Lyon will only be the primate of Gaul.
At the end of the 4th
century, Sens was the capital of the Quatrième Lyonnaise. This civil
district serves as a framework for the Church for the foundation of
the archdiocese of Sens. Its motto is Campont, after the initials of
the bishoprics of: Chartres, Auxerre, Meaux, Paris, Orléans, Nevers
and Troyes. The Hôtel de Sens is their official residence in Paris.
The archiepiscopal throne of the archbishop dominated in Notre-Dame
de Paris cathedral the episcopal throne of the bishop of Paris. In
622, the ecclesiastical province of Sens was divided into two,
Chartres, Meaux, and Orléans became suffragants of the new
archbishopric: Paris.
In 732, the Saracens landed in the
Camargue went up the entire Rhône valley and plundered the town of
Sens. This operation is seen as an attempt of diversion, in order to
divide the Frankish forces to face, the year of the battle of
Poitiers.
In the Middle Ages, the city
retained an important role from an ecclesiastical point of view.
Several archbishops carry out royal coronations before it was
reserved for the Archbishop of Reims. Its archbishops will
subsequently bear the title of "primates of Gaul and Germany".
In 1015, the county of Sénonais was attached for the first time
to the Crown and then definitively in 1055 on the death of the last
count Renard le Mauvais. It was temporarily held by the Count of
Blois from 1030 to 1032. The King managed his new possession through
a viscount (based in Vallery) and a provost. The King has a palace
(the current tribunal de grande instance), stables, a round tower
and a square keep, gardens, an enclosure. But he only comes there
once every three years, then very rarely once Philippe Auguste has
set out to conquer the West.
The reunification of
Bas-Gâtinais in 1080 made it possible to break the isolation of the
royal domain of Senones, now capable of communicating with Orléans
and Melun.
In 1120, Louis VI authorized Étienne, provost of
the church of Sens, to fortify the cloister (doors, walls, moat).
In 1135, the city chose to rebuild its cathedral in an
innovative style. It is the first Gothic cathedral in France. His
style is characteristic of this period of transition. At the same
time, the city briefly benefited from municipal institutions, which
were withdrawn by Louis VI.
In 1147, the city revolted
against the seigneurial tutelage.
In 1163, under Louis VII,
for nearly three years, Pope Alexander III exiled by Frédéric
Barberousse settled with the Curia in Sens. The city receives the
archbishops of Canterbury Thomas Becket and Edmond (saint Edme).
Alexander III placed the leper colony of Sens under his protection,
which experienced significant development following numerous
donations.
In 1189-1190, the city obtained a Charter of franking. The king
of France Philippe Auguste (nephew of Guillaume de Champagne) allows
Sens to have all the independence then possible by allowing it to
have a mayor (who exercises justice with the peers over the king's
men) and jurors and grants it a charter which places the city under
its exclusive authority.
In 1194, a royal bailiff was located
in Sens. It is the first of the royal domain to be thus located
whereas the institution is known since 1184. The bailiwick of Sens
includes in medieval times Melun, Nemours, Courtenay, Auxerre,
Donziois, Puisaye, Tonnerrois, the region from Langres to the Saône,
important elements of the Barrois Mouvant, the North-West of Troy,
scattered elements near Châlons-en-Champagne. The subsequent
creation of royal bailiwicks in Mâcon, Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, then
the incorporation of Champagne into the royal domain, limited the
action of one of the most important territorial officials of the
Crown. Sens supplied the oldest lieutenant general of the French
royal bailiwick, and was the first to work on shaping the oldest
bailiwick customs. The tribunal not only provides work for
magistrates, but also for hundreds of sergeants scattered in this
vast jurisdiction. He greatly contributed to limiting the judicial
ambitions of the feudal courts of Champagne, Burgundy, Nivernais,
Auxerrois, Gâtinais and French Brie.
The city has sixteen
parishes: Sainte-Croix (in the cathedral),
Sainte-Colombe-du-Carrouge, Saint-Pierre-le-Rond, Saint-Maximin,
Saint-Maurice, Saint-Benoît, Saint-Romain, Saint -Hilaire,
Saint-Didier, Saint-Pierre-le-Donjon, Saint-Hilaire and outside the
walls La Madeleine, Saint-Didier, Saint-Savinien, Saint-Pregts and
Saint-Symphorien.
The Jacobins settled in Sens between 1225
and 1231.
On May 27, 1234, Archbishop Gauthier le Cornu
organized and celebrated the royal wedding between Saint Louis and
Marguerite de Provence at the cathedral of Sens where many
personalities were invited. On May 28, 1234, Marguerite de Provence
was crowned Queen of France.
The
bailiff of Sens puts the city in defense against the Anglo-Navarrese
bands. He proceeds to the destruction of all the buildings
approaching the fortifications (including the Petit Hôtel-Dieu of
Garnier Despres where there is a treasure intended to rebuild it in
the event of destruction!). The city loses its cloth industry
embodied by the Chacerat family, considered to be the richest
merchants existing between Paris (the largest city in Europe) and
Avignon (seat of the papacy). The city provides the regent Charles V
with the calm allowing him to resume the offensive against Étienne
Marcel.
Until the loss of power by Queen Isabeau of Bavaria,
the patricians of Sens enjoyed a quite considerable position within
the central state apparatus. They largely contributed to developing
it from the reigns of the sons of Philippe le Bel. The families of
Dicy, Dallement, Col, Chanteprime, Quatremares, Bragelongne populate
the Treasury, the Aides, the Parliament, the Royal Notariat, the
Requests in incredible proportions.
During the second phase
of the Hundred Years' War, the city was administered by the bailiff
Guillaume de Chaumont until 1420. He was forced to leave the square
in front of the military caravan made up of the King of England, the
Duke of Burgundy and of Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, returning from
Troyes and reaching Paris. He himself joined Orléans where he
welcomed Joan of Arc who crossed Sens in 1429.
The city
opened its doors to Charles VII only by following the example of the
city of Troyes. But Provins, Montargis and Auxerre keep their
rallying isolated. The countryside is liberated but ruined by
Arnault-Guilhem de Barbazan, “knight without fear and without
reproach” buried in Saint-Denis. The latent struggle after the
Treaty of Arras certainly involved the provost of Villeneuve-le-Roi,
but also the bailiwick of Sens, the backbone of royal legal
harassment until 1477. Bailiffs were eminent figures of the State,
sometimes even favorites of the King (Charles de Melun). Several of
the grievances of the Duke of Burgundy put forward during the
interview with Péronne concern the companies of the Bailiff of Sens.
In June 1474, the city was granted by King Louis XI the
authorization to have a mayor and a municipal council. Louis XI
begins the rebalancing of the judicial jurisdiction by withdrawing
from the bailiwick of Sens the Auxerrois, the Donziois and the
Puisaye. The resistance persisted until under François I.
The bailiwick of Sens obtains a presidial seat.
Its jurisdiction includes, in addition to Sénonais, eastern
Gâtinais, Tonnerrois, the country of Langres and enclaves in
Champagne. It supports around 150 lawyers and prosecutors in the
city alone. During the civil wars, the country of Langres is
judicially emancipated.
Under François I, the Crown finally
granted the Archbishop of Lyon (who had himself freed himself from
the Archbishop of Vienne) the title of Primate of France. The
Parliament of Paris resisted for a while. He finally bowed to this
royal innovation interested in the financial capacities of the
Lyonnais. In compensation, Parliament gives the Archbishop of Sens
the title of “Primate of Gaul and Germania” to remind everyone of
the preeminence of the Archbishop of Sens dating from the end of the
7th century, when he was systematically appointed permanent legate.
of the Pope for the Frankish kingdoms. The title is preserved today.
During the Wars of Religion, Sens was particularly agitated.
Charles IX began his royal tour of France (1564-1566) there in
March, accompanied by the Court and the Great of the kingdom: his
brother the Duke of Anjou, Henri de Navarre, the cardinals of
Bourbon and Lorraine. The inhabitants repel the assaults of the
Prince of Condé and Henri de Navarre who is almost killed by the
sabotiers during an assault.
Modern era
Under the reign of
Louis XIII, the diocese of Paris was erected into an archdiocese by
the dismemberment of that of Sens. The metropolitan officiality
loses knowledge of appeals from the province formed for nearly a
millennium by Chartres, Auxerre, Meaux, Paris, Orléans, Nevers and
Troyes. The major seminary of Sens was opened in 1651. Cyrano de
Bergerac's paternal grandfather is from Sens.
The episcopal
city gathers about nine thousand inhabitants. It is conveniently
linked to Paris by the coche d'eau and is located on the post route
from Paris to Dijon. At the tannery, it joined before 1789 large
textile factories and a pottery. But the local economy only serves
the surrounding countryside. On the other hand, the local clergy
shines with all their fires. Canon Fenel creates a library open to
the public. The Tarbé publishes a newspaper (Affiches Sénonaises)
which is a prototype for the province. Marivaux marries the daughter
of a notary from Sens. The archbishops end up opting for the
anti-Jansenist government attitude, which will seriously upset the
bourgeoisie. The minor seminary was opened in 1747.
Died of
tuberculosis shortly before Christmas 1765, the Dauphin Louis was
buried in the cathedral. Dauphine Marie-Josèphe, who had contracted
her husband's illness while treating him, joined her there a few
months later. Their tomb was desecrated in 1794 but their remains,
thrown into the mass grave, were returned to their tomb in 1814 on
the orders of their son Louis XVIII.
In 1789, the city failed
to complete its plans for a department including Provins and
Montargis. It becomes a sub-prefecture. She obtained a high school
thanks to the interpersonal skills of Fauvelet de Bourienne, former
private secretary of Napoleon Bonaparte. Under the Restoration, the
archiepiscopal seat was reestablished, so as to honor the confessor
of the Dauphine. The local tannery took advantage of a quarter of a
century of war to rise to the second national rank. But overall, the
city is not growing.
Following the success of the first
festival singing orphéons, organized by Charles Delaporte in Troyes
in 1849, the second took place in Sens the same year. These are the
beginnings of a series of gatherings which will bring together
thousands of choristers in many cities.
In 1914, the city welcomed the French staff at the launch of the Battle of the Marne.
In 1940, the Germans entered France on May 15 and their air force
bombed Sens station on June 7. The department was invaded on June 14
and 15, 1940 by German troops from Troyes and was subjected to
numerous bombardments. The exodus of populations on the roads of
France begins. The first German motorcycles arrive in Sens on June
15 at the end of the morning and troops with armored vehicles line
up at 2 p.m. on the promenade. The surroundings of the station and
the Saint-Maurice church (whose stained-glass windows are destroyed)
were bombed during the night, then buildings on the main street and
others, the gas factory, while the cathedral and the synodal palace
are damaged. Fighting takes place until June 16. On June 17, more
than three thousand French prisoners coming from Montargis were
parked in the Place Saint-Étienne and in the market hall. Others
arrive in the following days. Archbishop Mgr Lamy tries to set up an
emergency aid committee, while all the authorities have fled. The
Kommandantur installed in Place Drapès sets up a curfew from June 20
and a list of voluntary hostages (including the mayor and the
archbishop) in the event of non-compliance with the instructions.
After the armistice, Sens found itself in occupied territory. On
July 12, 1942, the prefect of Yonne ordered the arrest of 14 foreign
Jews (originating from the former Russian Empire and Poland) who
remained in Sens (42 were arrested throughout the department).
In 1944, Sens, abandoned by most of its German occupants38, was
crossed on Monday August 21 at the beginning of the afternoon by
troops of General Patton's Third Army who left it the next day at
dawn in the direction of the 'is.
In the 1960s, the city was
at the head of the suburban network of the (Paris) Lyon station. A
considerable number of inhabitants take the train every day to work
in Paris and return in the evening.
After having closed the
major seminary of Sens, Archbishop Stourm moved to Auxerre, the city
where the prefect sits.
The city is skillfully positioned on
the road network (A6, A5 motorways, and connecting bar), and
recently on the waterway upstream of Paris (port of Gron). It thus
plays on two thousand year old assets.
Sens is located in the extreme north-west of Burgundy-Franche-Comté, on the border of three regions, namely the Île-de-France, the Grand Est and the Center-Loire Valley. Sens is the main city of the Senonese, a natural region and a country covering the territory of the ancient Gallic people of the Senons and the Roman city of Agedincum. Located on the course of the Yonne River in the valley of the same name, the city is bordered by the hills of Paron and Saint-Martin-du-Tertre to the west, an extension of the Gâtinais plateau which also extends over the Loiret. To the east, it is bordered by the Othe forest which extends over the Aube department. To the north, the Yonne valley leads to the Brie in Seine-et-Marne.
The altitude of Sens varies between 62 and 208 meters depending on
the location. The town hall of Sens is located at an altitude of about
67 meters above sea level.
However, the city is not hilly in its
center, the altitude varies greatly only when moving away from the city
center.
Sens is crossed by two rivers: the Yonne (main left bank tributary of the Seine) and the Vanne, one of its right bank tributaries. The Yonne, with a total length of 292 kilometers, crosses the city from the south to the north from the Morvan before joining the Seine at Montereau-Fault-Yonne. Sens is also the confluence of the Yonne with one of its main right bank tributaries: the Vanne. This one, whose source is in the Aube, flows for almost 60 kilometers from east to west and constitutes by its catchment and its numerous diversions (the ru), the main source of water of the city since antiquity. Indeed, the Romans built in the first century, an aqueduct to capture the water of the Valve from catchments in Theil-sur-Vanne, Noé, Le Clos de Noé, Malay-le-Grand in order to convey it over 15 kilometers to the city of Agedincum, ancestor of the city of Sens. New sections were added at the end of the second century or at the beginning of the third century. Recent excavations have uncovered some buried sections and made it possible to establish that the flow rate was around 31,000 m3 / day. The aqueduct of the Valve also provides a large part of the drinking water of Paris. With a length of 156 km, started in 1866 and completed in 1874, it is the work of the engineer Eugène Belgrand who designed it at the request of Baron Haussmann who wanted to bring drinking water from sites far from Paris in order to guarantee a quality water supply with a regular flow.
In 2010, the climate of the municipality is of the degraded oceanic
climate type of the Central and Northern plains, according to a study by
the National Center for Scientific Research based on a series of data
covering the period 1971-2000. In 2020, Météo-France publishes a
typology of the climates of metropolitan France in which the
municipality is exposed to an altered oceanic climate and is in the
North-eastern climatic region of the Paris basin, characterized by poor
sunshine, an average rainfall regularly distributed during the year and
a cold winter (3 ° C).
For the period 1971-2000, the average
annual temperature is 10.9 ° C, with an annual thermal amplitude of 15.8
° C. The average annual cumulative rainfall is 676 mm, with 10.8 days of
precipitation in January and 7.6 days in July. For the period 1991-2020,
the annual average temperature observed on the meteorological station
installed in the municipality is 11.9 ° C and the average annual
cumulative rainfall is 644.7 mm. The maximum temperature recorded on
this station is 42.4 ° C, reached on July 25, 2019; the minimum
temperature is -22.6 °C, reached on February 14, 1956.