Monday, 17 January 2011

Le Raincy

Name	Le Raincy
Map	Le_Raincy_map.svg
Map caption	Paris and inner ring departments
Latitude	48.9000
Longitude	2.5167
Region	Île-de-France
Department	Seine-Saint-Denis
Arrondissement	Le Raincy
Canton	Le Raincy
Insee	93062
Postal code	93340
Mayor	Éric Raoult
Elevation m	83
Elevation min m	51
Elevation max m	114
Area km2	2.24
Population	14321
Population date	2006

Le Raincy is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Le Raincy is a sub-prefecture'' of the Seine-Saint-Denis department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Le Raincy.

Its population is small relative to surrounding communes - close to just 13,000 people. However its development as an administrative centre, along with the establishment over the years of a large number of schools, gives it more prominence than its population size would suggest.

History

In the 17th and 18th century, Raincy was known primarily as location of the Château du Raincy, now demolished. The commune of Le Raincy was created on 20 May 1869 by detaching a part of the territory of Livry-Gargan and merging it with a part of the territory of Clichy-sous-Bois and a small part of the territory of Gagny.

Heraldry

Notre-Dame du Raincy

The town today receives visitors - mainly to see the Notre-Dame du Raincy church. Designed by the brothers Auguste and Gustave Perret and built in 1922-1923, this was the first church to be built in reinforced concrete, and with no external ornamentation. The architecture is remarkable for the classicism of its columns, greatly enhanced by the stained glass windows of Maurice Denis and Marie-Alain Couturier. The church is listed as an historic monument. It was restored in the 1990s, and is in regular use. Many of the visitors to the church come from Japan, as a smaller replica of Notre Dame du Raincy was built in the Tokyo suburbs.

Transport

Le Raincy is served by Le Raincy – Villemomble – Montfermeil station on Paris RER line E.

Twin towns

Le Raincy is twinned with:

London Borough of Barnet, United Kingdom

Clusone, Italy

Yavne, Israel

References

INSEE

External links

Notre-Dame du Raincy at greatbuildings.com

The Raincy blog

Category:Communes of Seine-Saint-Denis Category:Subprefectures in France

This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.