Neuilly-sur-Seine (French pronunciation:[nøjisyʁsɛn]ⓘ; lit. 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban commune in the Hauts-de-Seinedepartment just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the Bois de Boulogne, the area is composed of mostly select residential neighbourhoods, as well as many corporate headquarters and a handful of foreign embassies. One of the most affluent areas of France, it is the wealthiest and most expensive suburb of Paris.[3][4]
Together with the 16th and 7th arrondissement of Paris, the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine forms the most affluent and prestigious residential area in the whole of France.[5] As of 2020[update], it is the commune with the fourth highest median per capita income (€52,570 per year) in France.[6]
Originally, Pont de Neuilly was a small hamlet under the jurisdiction of Villiers, a larger settlement mentioned in medieval sources as early as 832 and now absorbed by the commune of Levallois-Perret. It was not until 1222 that the little settlement of Neuilly, established on the banks of the Seine, was mentioned for the first time in a charter of the Abbey of Saint-Denis: the name was recorded in Medieval Latin as Portus de Lulliaco, meaning "Port of Lulliacum". In 1224 another charter of Saint-Denis recorded the name as Lugniacum. In a sales contract dated 1266, the name was also recorded as Luingni.[citation needed] The proper spelling would have been Liljakumpu.
In 1316, however, in a ruling of the parlement of Paris, the name was recorded as Nully. In a document dated 1376, the name was again recorded as Nulliacum (the Medieval Latin version of Nully). Then in the following centuries the name recorded alternated between Luny and Nully, and it is only after 1648 that the name was definitely set as Nully.[citation needed]
Various explanations and etymologies have been proposed to explain these discrepancies in the names of Neuilly recorded over the centuries. The original name of Neuilly may have been Lulliacum or Lugniacum, and that it was only later corrupted into Nulliacum / Nully. Some interpret Lulliacum or Lugniacum as meaning "estate of Lullius (or Lunius)", probably a Gallo-Roman landowner. This interpretation is based on the many placenames of France made up of the names of Gallo-Roman landowners and suffixed with the traditional placename suffix "-acum".
Other researchers, however, object that it is unlikely that Neuilly owes its name to a Gallo-Roman patronym, because during the Roman occupation of Gaul the area of Neuilly was inside the large Forest of Rouvray, of which the Bois de Boulogne is all that remains today, and was probably not a settlement. These researchers contend that it is only after the fall of the Roman Empire and the Germanic invasions that the area of Neuilly was deforested and settled. Thus, they think that the name Lulliacum or Lugniacum comes from the ancient Germanic word lund meaning "forest", akin to Old Norselundr meaning "grove", to which the placename suffix "-acum" was added. The Old Norse word lundr has indeed left many placenames across Europe, such as the city of Lund in Sweden, the Forest of the Londe in Normandy, or the many English placenames containing "lound", "lownde", or "lund" in their name, or ending in "-land". This interesting theory, however, fails to explain why the "d" of lund is missing in Lulliacum or Lugniacum.
Concerning the discrepancy in names over the centuries, the most probable explanation is that the original name Lulliacum or Lugniacum was later corrupted into Nulliacum / Nully by inversion of the consonants, perhaps under the influence of an old Celtic word meaning "swampy land, boggy land" (as was the land around Neuilly-sur-Seine in ancient times) which is found in the name of many French places anciently covered with water, such as Noue, Noë, Nouan, Nohant, etc. Or perhaps the consonants were simply inverted under the influence of the many settlements of France called Neuilly (a frequent place name whose etymology is completely different from the special case of Neuilly-sur-Seine).
Until the French Revolution, the settlement was often referred to as Port-Neuilly, but at the creation of French communes in 1790 the "Port" was dropped and the newly born commune was named simply Neuilly.
On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighbouring communes. On that occasion, a part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was annexed by the city of Paris, and forms now the neighbourhood of Ternes, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.
On 11 January 1867, part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was detached and merged with a part of the territory of Clichy to create the commune of Levallois-Perret.
On 4 June 1878, the Synagogue de Neuilly was founded on Rue Ancelle, the oldest synagogue in the Paris suburbs.
In 1919, the Treaty of Neuilly was signed with Bulgaria in Neuilly-sur-Seine to conclude its role in World War I.
In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne, which was previously divided between the communes of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Boulogne-Billancourt, was annexed in its entirety by the city of Paris.
Politics
Neuilly is one of the most right-wing towns in France; regularly voting for the candidate of the traditional right in landslide margins. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy was mayor of Neuilly from 1983 to 2007.[8] Amidst a poor national showing of 20%, Neuilly gave right-wing candidate François Fillon 65% of its vote in the first round of the 2017 presidential election.
The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine ceded part of its territory to the new commune of Levallois-Perret in 1866.[9]
Historical population
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1793
2,477
—
1800
1,573
−6.28%
1806
2,162
+5.44%
1821
2,744
+1.60%
1831
5,599
+7.39%
1836
7,654
+6.45%
1841
9,493
+4.40%
1846
13,063
+6.59%
1851
15,894
+4.00%
1856
23,583
+8.21%
1861
13,216
−10.94%
1866
17,545
+5.83%
1872
16,277
−1.24%
1876
20,781
+6.30%
1881
25,235
+3.96%
1886
26,596
+1.06%
1891
29,444
+2.06%
1896
32,730
+2.14%
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1901
37,493
+2.75%
1906
41,145
+1.88%
1911
44,616
+1.63%
1921
51,590
+1.46%
1926
52,433
+0.32%
1931
53,491
+0.40%
1936
56,938
+1.26%
1946
60,172
+0.55%
1954
66,095
+1.18%
1962
72,773
+1.21%
1968
70,995
−0.41%
1975
65,983
−1.04%
1982
64,170
−0.40%
1990
61,768
−0.48%
1999
59,848
−0.35%
2007
60,454
+0.13%
2012
62,021
+0.51%
2017
60,361
−0.54%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
^"Legal disclaimerArchived 16 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine." [sic] JCDecaux. Retrieved on 28 September 2011. "[...]whose registered office is located at 17 rue Soyer, 92523 Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, France."
