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Château-Landon (Municipality, Seine-et-Marne, France)

by Pascal Vagnat

Presentation of the city
Description of the flag

See also:

Presentation of the city

Château-Landon is a city of 3,000 inhabitants, located 80 km south-east of Paris. The city was built on a rocky hill dominating the river Fusain.

Due to its geographical location, the hill hosted a Gaul oppidum which was seized by Julius Caesar in 52 BC. In 507, St. Séverin, a monk from the Agaune abbey in Switzerland, was called in Lutèce (Paris) to heal King of France Clovis from a "pernicious fever". He succeded but died on his way back in Château-Landon, then called Castrum Nantonis. A royal abbey devoted to St. Séverin was later founded in Château-Landon. In 1068, the city was incorporated into the Kingdom of France, and its name was changed to Château-Landon in the XIIth century to celebrate a local lord called Landulphus. Foulques le Réchin, born in Château-Landon in 1043, was later appointed Count of Anjou. His grand-son Jeffrey the Handsome married Mathilde, the daughter of King of England Henri I Beauclerc. Their son became King of England as Henri II Plantagenet, and Château-Landon is proud to be one of the origin places of the Plantagenet dynasty. Château-Landon was extremely wealthy in the Middle-Ages and was elected one of the 17 French "clothier cities (ville drapière).

The city is divided into two parts, the fortified city, which had administrative and military functions; and the new city, which was dedicated to trade and fairs. The main architectural interest in the city is the 57 m high bell tower of the Church Notre-Dame (XVth century).

The stone of Château-Landon, resistant to frost, was used to build several big monuments in Paris, such as the Cathedral Notre-Dame, the Panthéon and the National Library. Quarries are still in activity in the neighbouring city of Souppes-sur-Loing.

The actor and theater director Charles Dullin (1885-1949), founder of the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Paris, established his theater school from 1921 to 1939 in Nérouville, a hamlet depending on Château-Landon.

Ivan Sache, 5 October 2002

Presentation of the flag

The flag of Château-Landon is horizontally divided yellow-black with the municipal coat of arms placed in the middle and surmonted with the name of the city in counterchanged colours.

Ivan Sache, 5 October 2002