Last modified: 2021-03-20 by ivan sache
Keywords: saint-julien-les-villas |
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![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-10-sj.gif)
Flag of Saint-Julien-les-Villas - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 1 September 2020
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The municipality of Saint-Julien-les-Villas (6,801 inhabitants in 2018; 526 ha) is located just south-east of Troyes.
Saint-Julien-les-Villas was originally known as Sanceium, first documented on a cartulary of the Clairvaux abbey in 1121. In the 15th century, the town was renamed to Sancey-Saint-Julien, as a tribute to a Roman soldier martyred in 304 in Brioude.
In the early 20th century, there were 85 municipalities named Saint-Julien in France, which caused troubles in mail distribution by the postal service. On 16 March 1919, the Municipal Council unanimously adopted the name of Saint-Julien-les-Villas, which was confirmed by a Decree issued on 5 August 1919 by the State Council. The inhabitants, however, kept their name of Sancéens and Sancéennes.
[Avec vous Saint-Julien, 25 June 2016]
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 2 September 2020
The flag of Saint-Julien-les-Villas (photo) is a banner of the municipal arms, "Gules three roses argent a chief of the same charged with a fess wavy azure".
The arms, designed by François Gilot, journalist at L'Est-Éclair and local historian, were adopted in 1985. The field of the shield belongs to the arms of the Rémond family, owner of the castle of Les Cours. The wavy stripe azure in chief represents river Seine.
[Armorial des villes et villages de France]
The domain of Les Cours and La Renouillère was known in the 13th century as Courts arpents (lit., Short acres), then composed of a very modest manor built in the center of a low-valued plot.
Jacques Rémond, King's Councillor in Troyes, purchased the domain on 25 September 1642; he built a castle after plans designed by Louis Maillet, canon at the Troyes cathedral. Inaugurated in 1678, the castle was surrounded by a 40-hectare park and gardens designed by André Le Nôtre (1613-1700). Jacques Rémond and his brother Nicolas, self-styles Rémond des Cours, were noted scholars, authors of La vie d'Abélard, Lettres à Héloîse, La véritable politique des hommes de qualité, Les lettres philosophiques et galantes de Mademoiselle G., and Lettres sur la poésie.
The castle became a center of cultural life and the residence of the most famous writers of the time. The poet Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) wrote there Le chêne et le roseau, a fable which he dedicated to the Simon brothers, lawyers and writers in Troyes. Nicolas Boileau (1636-1711) wrote there parts of his Art poétique. Bernard de Fontenelle (1657-1757) composed there several of his obituaries (Éloges des membres défunts de l'Académie française).
The park's most famous tree was a Flemish poplar widely known as the Troyes poplar, 40 m in height and 13 m in trunk basal circumference; the tree fell down during a storm in 1895. Ruined, the castle was demolished in 1942.
[Avec vous Saint-Julien, 1 April 2016]
The arms of Nicolas Rémond, Squire, lord of Cours, are shown in the Armorial Général (image) as "Gules three roses argent".
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 2 September 2020