Porchefontaine

The district of Porchefontaine , with Versailles, in the department French of the Yvelines, was in the beginning a working district of suburban type built with the periphery of the city, in edge of the forest of Meudon and whose inhabitants name the Porchifontains .

Its name closely related to the strong presence of Marécage S, is transformed later on into filled ponds then, today still evoked by the denomination of certain streets related to this past such as the street of the Pond, the localities the Sand pit and the Fountain of Nouettes , the street Jean of the Fountain, today in reference to the famous fabulist, but who initially was called, more prosaically, street of Fontaine.
The grounds are primarily composed of marl S, of Sable S and of stones Meulière S which were used a long time like hones to build: many residences as well as the parish church Saint Michel of it are made up.

Porchefontaine which counts approximately 15&thinsp today; 000 inhabitants is particularly well served by a station éponyme on the line the RER C, but with the disadvantage that the embankment supporting the ways of railroad, high of almost 20 meters, almost completely isolates the unit from the district of the remainder of the city.

Porchefontaine did not certainly influence the French history but three historical facts deserve nevertheless to be recalled here:

the presence of a strong Castle built starting from 1373 by the lord of Porchefontaine, Pierre de Bournazeau, Master of the requests of Charles V, which had received from the king this field in reward of the success of its embassies. This building is described as being “ one grinds beautiful chastel with nine covered slate towers and ditches at bottom of cuve ; around, dovecote, pond and several other buildings ”. Pierre de Bournazeau hardly benefitted from his residence because he died as of 1385. The successive sales finally allowed Pierre de Craon Large the to become purchaser of it. This odd character will vainly try in 1402 to assassinate Olivier de Clisson, failure which obliged it to take refuge in Brittany, near the duke Jean de Montfort. All its goods in Île-de-France were seized after its escape and the castle of Porchefontaine was entirely destroyed “ rez foot and rez ground ”. There thus remain nothing of this only known building thanks to the contemporary Royal archives of the reigns of Charles V and Charles VI.

the creation of a Hippodrome which acccueillit of the horse-races and several carousel S of 1864 with 1870. The brevity of its existence must with the war free-Prussian of 1870 which put prematurely fine at its activity. For the anecdote, the platforms were served by the street called at the time of the Platforms , today street Albert Sarraut.

the creation of an emergency city to accommodate the repatriated Algeria, built in prefabricated, installed behind the riding school and whose four principal houses were demolished only in 1990. Initially used as provisional lodging, these buildings were then reconverted in social center, nursery and library of district before being definitively shaven to allow the construction of a sporting center.

Porchefontaine first of all was a free commune which was attached to Versailles in second half of the 20th century. The district continues, for this reason, to assert an identity distinct from the royal city in spite of the Net gentrification of the habitants.
This borough initially developed around a farm which one coarsely locates today between the Lamôme public garden and the street Deroisin. The urbanization of the place really could be committed at the beginning of the XXe century, after the abandonment of and the allotment racecourse of market-gardening grounds belonging to Mr. Jean Rémont, who left his name to the longest street of the district. The last industrial activities were abandoned during the Années 1960 (a chimney is still visible since the street Yves Coz), just as the horticultural activity which left the place and its name to a residence of standing contruite not far from the station the RER C, the Rosery . Porchefontaine accommodates a big part of the sporting infrastructures of Versailles, on several tens of hectares, along the street Jean Rémont, where the near total of the sports can be practiced. A Riding school recognized nationally supplements the unit and its Olympic horse-gear built in 1968 with the characteristic to have been one of the first buildings in France to be profited from a frame of the type Lamellate-stuck. Porchefontaine is thus today a primarily residential district which was gradually embourgeoisé in the Années 1970 with the arrival of junior managers replacing the working population gradually, so much so that the prices of the real goods are among highest of the Département of Yvelines. Today, if the main part of the trade are established in the streets Coste, Albert Sarraut and Yves Coz, of deep changes struck them, with the progressive disappearance of the majority of the bars Tabac and of a great number of trade of mouth. The cinema of district bordering the place Antoine Lamome also disappeared in the middle of the Années 1980. The district includes/understands also two elementary schools and nursery schools in the streets Pierre Corneille and Yves Coz. A city HLM called Cisterciens was built in the Années 1960, pointing out the presence of this religious order on the site and of which there remains nothing any more but the abbey church, near to the exchanger of the highway A86 and radically transformed into commercial surface. Other street names of the district, like the street of the Monks or that of Célestins, still testify to the last presence of the monks with Porchefontaine.

Since March 2005, on the initiative of the Theater Montansier and of Jean-Daniel Laval, a capital is established inside sports complex on the site of a swimming pool of the type “Tournesol”. The programming is primarily centered on the Cirque and the Théâtre for the children. The artistic director was entrusted to Carl Hallak who joins, as of the opening of the place, at the school of Méli-Mélo circus, which is charged to ensure the workshops circus proposed the year with the children. The capital takes an active part in the month Molière, festival of theater of Versailles, by proposing spectacles of young very promising companies: " the accidental Death of a anarchiste" of Dario Fot or " Locanderia" of Goldoni, by Nomadesques; " Wandering of Like Bellescize, by the Theater of the Crash; " The Fables make them cirque" , in a setting in scene circus and theater; " 35 kilos of espoir" of Anna Gavalda.

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