Dictionary:

Fontainebleau

  (fŏn'tĭn-blō', fôN-tĕn-blō')

A town of northern France southeast of Paris. Its chateau (built by Francis I) was long a royal palace and is now the summer residence of the president of France. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes was signed here in 1685. Population: 15,900.

For more information on Fontainebleau, visit Britannica.com.

Style of architectural decoration at the French Royal Château created by Italian (notably Rosso Fiorentino (1495–1540), Francesco Primaticcio (1504/5–70), Serlio, and Vignola), French, and Flemish artists for François I^er from 1528 to 1558. It was an eclectic mutation of High Renaissance design into a distinct form of Mannerism featuring lavish cartouches, caryatides, grotesques, scrolls, strapwork, and etiolated stucco figures. Fontainebleau influenced French design until the end of C16, but the style was widely disseminated through printed sources emanating from Antwerp, and influenced Flemish Mannerism and architecture in England, Germany, and The Netherlands.

Bibliography

• Blunt (1982)
• Chilvers, Osborne, & Frampton (eds.) (1988)
• Shearman (1967)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Château in the Île-de-France where in 1528 the mason-architect Gilles Le Breton remodelled a fortified hunting-lodge into a palace for François I^er, housing his library (forerunner of the Bibliothèque Nationale) and art collections.

The building, now much altered, is one of the best examples of French Renaissance architecture, Italianate but reaching out towards a distinctive French classical style (among its early architects were Serlio and Delorme). Its decoration is equally important. Two artists dominate, the Florentine Giovanni Battista Rosso (‘Le Roux’) and Francesco Primaticcio from Bologna. The Galerie François I^er (1530s) was mainly decorated by Rosso in an Italian Mannerist style, with paintings and stucco (masks, swags, fruit, strap-work); the iconography show the king as Renaissance prince, Roman emperor, and classical god. Primaticcio decorated the Galerie Henri II (ballroom) and the Galerie d'Ulysse (1540s onwards); the latter was destroyed in the 18th c., but is known through engravings and tapestries and Primaticcio's Ulysses and Penelope, based on one of the panels.

The castle was the setting for royal ballets and other festivities (Ronsard's Bergerie, 1563-4), and became known as a centre for artists and a style of art. The ‘École de Fontainebleau’ included Niccolò dell'Abbate, who assisted Primaticcio from 1552, and other artists working elsewhere, such as the sculptor Jean Goujon. To them must be added the engravers, notably Luca Penni, Léonard Thiry, and Jean Mignon: it was through engraving that the art of Fontainebleau became internationally known. The style of Fontainebleau is essentially decorative, characterized by its tall human figures, with long necks and small heads, moving with sensual grace through leafy landscapes studded with classical ruins. Later in the century there was a second school of Fontainebleau, of which the principal artists were Ambroise Dubois, Toussaint Dubreuil, and Martin Frémiet. At Fontainebleau French writers were able to look at Italian Renaissance art naturalized in a French setting and enjoy a visual representation of classical mythology and ancient history, the purpose of which was partly aesthetic pleasure and partly royal and national propaganda. The poets of the Pléiade reflected this dual intention.

[Peter Sharratt]

Bibliography

• D. and E. Panofsky, ‘The Iconography of the Galerie François I^er at Fontainebleau’, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 2 (1958)
• L'École de Fontainebleau, exhibition catalogue, Grand Palais (1972)
• J.-J. Lévêque, L'École de Fontainebleau (1984)

Coordinates: 48°24′35″N, 2°42′9″E

Commune of Fontainebleau
Château de Fontainebleau in the town centre
Location
Coordinates	48°24′35″N, 2°42′9″E
Administration
Country	France
Region	Île-de-France
Department	Seine-et-Marne (sous-préfecture)
Arrondissement	Fontainebleau
Canton	Fontainebleau (chief town)
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes de Fontainebleau-Avon
Mayor	Frédéric Valletoux (2005-2008)
Statistics
Altitude	42–150 (avg. 69 m)
Land area¹	172.05 km²
Population² (1999)	15,942
- Density	93/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	77186/ 77300
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

This article is about the commune in France. For Fontainebleau Resorts, see Fontainebleau Resorts. For The Palace, see Château de Fontainebleau.

Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located 55.5 km. (34.5 miles) south-southeast from the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sous-préfecture of the Seine-et-Marne département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Fontainebleau. The commune has the largest land area in the Île-de-France region, and is the only one larger than Paris itself.

Fontainebleau, together with the neighboring commune of Avon and three other smaller communes, form an urban area of 36,713 inhabitants (1999 census). This urban area is a satellite city of Paris.

Fontainebleau is renowned for its large and scenic Forest of Fontainebleau, a favorite weekend getaway for Parisians, as well as for the historical Château de Fontainebleau of the kings of France, INSEAD, one of the world's most elite business schools, and École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs en Informatique et GÉnie des TELécommunications (ESIGETEL) a French Engineering Grande Ecole.

Inhabitants of Fontainebleau are called Bellifontains.

History

During the French Revolution, Fontainebleau was temporarily renamed Fontaine-la-Montagne, meaning "Fountain by the Mountain" (the mountain referred to is the series of rocky formations located in the Forest of Fontainebleau).

During the 1950s and 1960s, Fontainebleau was home to the HQ Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) before being moved to Brunssum in the Netherlands, after President de Gaulle decided that he no longer needed NATO atomic weapons on French soil as France had now established its own nuclear arsenal.

Tourism

Fontainebleau is a popular tourist destination; each year, 300,000 people visit the palace and about 11 million people visit the forest ^{[citation needed]}.

Fontainebleau forest

The forest of Fontainebleau surrounds the city and dozens of villages. It is protected by France's Office National des Forêts and is recognised as a national park that is managed partly to conserve its wild plants and trees (such as the Service Tree of Fontainebleau) and its valuable population of birds, mammals and butterflies. It is a former royal hunting park often visited by walkers and horse riders. The forest is also well regarded for bouldering and is particularly popular among climbers.

Legend says that it was given to Robin Hood by Richard The Lionheart.

Royal Château de Fontainebleau

The Royal Château de Fontainebleau is a large castle where the Renaissance was introduced to France from 1528 onwards.

Other notable places

• The European (and historical) campus of INSEAD business school and research laboratories from the École des Mines de Paris are located in Fontainebleau.
• The graves of G. I. Gurdjieff and Katherine Mansfield can be found in the cemetery at Avon.

Town Centre

Transport

Fontainebleau is served by two stations on the Transilien Paris – Lyon suburban rail line: Fontainebleau – Avon and Thomery. Fontainebleau – Avon station, the closest station to the town center of Fontainebleau, is located at the border between the commune of Fontainebleau and the commune of Avon, on the Avon side of the border.

Image Gallery

Hunting Fountain

Bell Tower

The Trinity Chapel at Fontainebleau

See also

• Château de Fontainebleau
• Edict of Fontainebleau (October 1685)
• List of climbing areas
• Milly-la-Forêt

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Fontainebleau

• Fontainebleau official website
• Castle of Fontainebleau (in English)
• Fontainebleau forest photos
• 1999 Land Use, from IAURIF (Institute for Urban Planning and Development of the Paris-Île-de-France région (English)
• French Ministry of Culture list for Fontainebleau (French)
• Map of Fontainebleau on Michelin (English)

Communes in the aire urbaine ("metropolitan area") of Paris
Population over 2 million	City of Paris
Population over 75,000	Argenteuil · Asnières-sur-Seine · Aulnay-sous-Bois · Boulogne-Billancourt · Champigny-sur-Marne · Colombes · Courbevoie · Créteil · Montreuil · Nanterre · Rueil-Malmaison · Saint-Denis · Saint-Maur-des-Fossés · Versailles · Vitry-sur-Seine
Population over 50,000	Antony · Aubervilliers · Le Blanc-Mesnil · Bondy · Cergy · Clichy · Drancy · Évry · Fontenay-sous-Bois · Issy-les-Moulineaux · Ivry-sur-Seine · Levallois-Perret · Maisons-Alfort · Neuilly-sur-Seine · Noisy-le-Grand · Pantin · Sarcelles · Sartrouville · Sevran · Villejuif
Population over 25,000	Alfortville · Athis-Mons · Bagneux · Bagnolet · Bezons · Bobigny · Bois-Colombes · Brunoy · Cachan · Champs-sur-Marne · Charenton-le-Pont · Châtenay-Malabry · Châtillon · Chatou · Chelles · Le Chesnay · Choisy-le-Roi · Clamart · Clichy-sous-Bois · Conflans-Sainte-Honorine · Corbeil-Essonnes · La Courneuve · Draveil · Élancourt · Épinay-sur-Seine · Ermont · Franconville · Fresnes · Gagny · La Garenne-Colombes  · Garges-lès-Gonesse · Gennevilliers · Gonesse · Goussainville · Grigny · Guyancourt · L'Haÿ-les-Roses · Herblay · Houilles · Le Kremlin-Bicêtre · Livry-Gargan · Malakoff · Mantes-la-Jolie · Massy · Meaux · Melun · Meudon · Montfermeil · Montigny-le-Bretonneux · Montrouge · Les Mureaux · Neuilly-sur-Marne · Nogent-sur-Marne · Noisy-le-Sec · Palaiseau · Le Perreux-sur-Marne · Pierrefitte-sur-Seine · Plaisir · Poissy · Pontault-Combault · Pontoise · Puteaux · Ris-Orangis · Rosny-sous-Bois · Saint-Cloud · Saint-Germain-en-Laye · Saint-Ouen · Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois · Sannois · Savigny-sur-Orge · Savigny-le-Temple · Stains · Sucy-en-Brie · Suresnes · Taverny · Thiais · Trappes · Tremblay-en-France · Vanves · Vigneux-sur-Seine · Villemomble · Villeneuve-Saint-Georges · Villepinte · Villiers-le-Bel · Villiers-sur-Marne · Vincennes · Viry-Châtillon · Yerres
Population under 25,000	1,460 other communes

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