Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃t ʒənvjɛv de bwa] ⓘ; lit. 'St Genevieve of the Woods') is a commune in the southern outer suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 23.5 km (14.6 miles) from the centre of Paris, in the arrondissement of Palaiseau, Essonne department, Île-de-France.
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois | |
|---|---|
 The Hôtel de Ville | |
.svg) Coat of arms | |
 Location (in red) within Paris inner and outer suburbs | |
 Location of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois | |
  Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois  Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois | |
| Coordinates: 48°38′13″N 2°20′25″E / 48.6369°N 2.3403°E | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Île-de-France |
| Department | Essonne |
| Arrondissement | Palaiseau |
| Canton | Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois |
| Intercommunality | CA Cœur d'Essonne |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2020–2026) | Frédéric Petitta[1] |
Area 1 | 9.27 km2 (3.58 sq mi) |
| Population (2023)[2] | 35,438 |
| • Density | 3,820/km2 (9,900/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 91549 /91700 |
| Elevation | 37–90 m (121–295 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
History
editInhabitants of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois are known as Génovéfains. There has been a settlement in what is now Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois since Roman times. In 1800 it was still a small settlement with around 100 inhabitants. After the armistice in 1918 the population was counted at less than 800. The boom started in the 1920s when inhabitants of Paris wanted affordable housing. This boom was in part because the railway station of Perray was built, connecting the town to Paris. The population at the moment is over 30.000 inhabitants, making it one of the larger settlements in the Essonne departement.
In 1926 the Château de la Cossonnerie[3] was converted to a retirement home for White émigrés. It is locally known as the Maison Russe. It is still a retirement home but also a centre for Russian Culture. The Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1936.[4]
Population
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| Source: EHESS[5] and INSEE (1968-2023)[6] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notable events
editIn 1963 Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, at more than 2 500 square meters the largest in France at the time.[7] This store is still active.
Ilan Halimi, the young French Jew, who was kidnapped and tortured (leading to his eventual death) in 2006 by a group called the Gang of Barbarians, was found in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.[8]
Tourism
editSaint-Geneviève-des-Bois does not have an Office du Tourisme nor does the Mairie have tourist facilities. The town has set out a walking tour of the town taking in most of the important places in the town, taking in both the old and the new. Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois has a strong link with the Russian community living in France. The walk passes the Russian Necropolis, considered by some as the most important necropolis of Russian emigrants in the world.
The town offers limited cycling, horse-riding and walking facilities. There is a campsite in neighbouring Villiers-sur-Orge.
Sights
editAttractions include the Donjon, a park with animals, the town greenhouse, a grotto, and a Russian Necropolis. There are two main green spaces, the Bois des Trous and a parkland which borders on the river Orge (a tributary of the Seine). There are also some small parks.
Location
editSainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is one of the southern suburbs (banlieue) of Paris, France. It is located 23.5 km (14.6 mi) from the center of Paris and lies just north of junction 42 on the orbital Francilienne autoroute.
Transport
editSainte-Geneviève-des-Bois has an eponymous railway station located on the Paris–Bordeaux railway and the Transilien which in part serves RER line C to Paris.
From the railway station a number of bus lines connect the town to the region: lines CEAT (101, 102, 103, 104 and 105), Daniel Meyer (DM6A and DM17A)
Sport
editGallery
edit
Church and square
Public market
Château and Donjon
The first Carrefour hypermarket
Twin towns – sister cities
editSainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is twinned with:[9]
Mikołów, Poland
Obertshausen, Germany
Penafiel, Portugal
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
- ↑ "Populations de référence 2023" (in French). National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 18 December 2025.
- ↑ The history of la Cossonnerie in the Magazine Municipal Sainte-Geneviëve-des-Bois, No 239, 2007 Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Les sites remarquables". Town of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. Retrieved 9 September 2025.
- ↑ Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, EHESS (in French).
- ↑ Population municipale entre 1968 et 2023, INSEE
- ↑ (in French) Carrefour in SGdB
- ↑ Tale of Torture and Murder Horrifies the Whole of France, Michel Gurfinkiel, The New York Sun, February 22, 2006
- ↑ "Le jumelage". sgdb91.com (in French). Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. Archived from the original on 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
External links
edit
Media related to Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne at Wikimedia Commons- (in French) Official website
- Base Mérimée: Search for heritage in the commune, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
- (in French) The UME (Union des Maires de l'Essonne) website
