Saint-Maur-des-Fossés

Town hall

Coat of arms

Paris and inner ring départements

Coordinates: 48°47′58″N 2°29′59″E / 48.7994°N 2.4997°ECoordinates: 48°47′58″N 2°29′59″E / 48.7994°N 2.4997°E

Country

2 cantons

Government

• Mayor (2014–2021)

Sylvain Berrios

Area¹

11.25 km² (4.34 sq mi)

Population (2010)²

74,816

• Density

6,700/km² (17,000/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

INSEE/Postal code

94068 / 94100 (St Maur), 94210 (La Varenne)

Elevation

32–53 m (105–174 ft)

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

²Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃.moʁ.dɛ.fɔ.se]) is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 11.7 kilometres (7.3 miles) from the center of Paris.

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés owes its name to an abbey founded in 638 by Queen Nanthild, regent for her son Clovis II, at a place called Fossati in Medieval Latin, Les Fossés in modern French, meaning "the moats". This place, located at the narrow entrance of a loop where the Marne River made its way round a rocky outcrop, was probably named after the moats of an ancient Celtic oppidum and later a Roman castrum; the site was known in medieval documents as Castrum Bagaudarum, at a time when the marauding Bagaudae had developed a legendary reputation as defenders of Christians again Roman persecution. Massive foundations, sited so far from a Roman frontier, were attributed by C. Jullian to a temple or a villa instead. In Merovingian times, Gallo-Roman villas in the royal fisc were repeatedly donated as sites for monasteries under royal patronage.

The abbey, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Paul and the Virgin Mary, was called Sanctus Petrus Fossatensis in Medieval Latin (Saint Pierre des Fossés in French), meaning "Saint Peter of the Moats". In 868, King Charles the Bald invited the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Maur de Glanfeuil (in Le Thoureil, Maine-et-Loire, western France), who had fled their abbey due to Viking invasion, to relocate to Saint Pierre des Fossés with their precious relics of Saint Maurus.

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Wikipedia