Vitry-le-François

Vitry-le-François is a commune in the Marne department in northeastern France. It is located on the river Marne and is the western terminus of the Marne–Rhine Canal. Vitry-le-François station has rail connections to Paris, Reims, Strasbourg, Metz, Dijon and several regional destinations.

History
The present town is a relatively recent construction, having been built in 1545 at the behest of King Francis who wished to replace, on a new site, Vitry-en-Perthois, which in 1544 had been entirely destroyed as part of the backwash from the king's Italian War of 1542–46. The new Vitry was to be a modern city, constructed according to a plan produced by Girolamo Marini. The king's role in its creation resulted in Vitry-le-François receiving the king's name as part of its own name.

At the beginning of World War I in August 1914, Joseph Joffre established the Grand Quartier Général at the Place Royer-Collard.

In 1961, a terrorist attack took place on a train going between Strasbourg and Paris.

Features

 * Its church of Notre-Dame is a 17th-century building with fine 18th-century monuments.
 * A convent of the Récollets was later converted to contain the town hall, the court-house, a library and a small museum.
 * There is a bronze statue of Pierre Paul Royer-Collard (1763–1845), the politician and philosopher, a native of the district.

Twin towns
Vitry-le-François is twinned with:


 * 🇩🇪 Tauberbischofsheim, Germany, since 1961

Personalities

 * René Gateaux (1889–1914), mathematician
 * Guy Georges (born 1962), serial killer
 * René Herbin (1911–1953), classical pianist
 * Abraham de Moivre (1667–1754), mathematician
 * Étienne-Gabriel Morelly (1717–1778), proto-communist philosopher
 * Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry (fl. c. 1100), Talmudist