Rungis

Rungis is a commune in the department of Val -de- Marne ( Île- de -France ) with 420 hectares and 5681 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011). It is located 13 km south of Paris near Orly Airport. The place is located in the Paris basin on an area between the valleys of the Seine and the Bièvre plateau 80 meters above sea level. Today, he is known primarily for the wholesale market, supplying and Paris, makes deliveries on the Paris-Orly airport in the world. Rungis has excellent road and rail connections to Paris and the provinces.

The place name, formerly " Romiacum ", " Romjacum ", " Rungy ", " Rongis ", " Rungis " is intended to indicate a Gallo-Roman owner named Romius. The Romans withdrawals water from the springs of Rungis, which was passed through an aqueduct to the thermal baths of Lutetia (Paris). These springs feed Paris today.

In 1124 Louis VI awarded. the feudal rights of the powerful abbey of Sainte -Geneviève.

Rungis in 1815 and 1870, drawn by the effects of war affected. After it had remained a rural community until the mid-20th century, it became, like many other Paris suburbs, through the increasingly dense settlement of the suburbs, by the construction of Orly airport and in particular through the creation of the wholesale market and to Orly adjacent industrial zone.

Attractions

• The remains of the Roman aqueduct (late 2nd century ), who heads the water of the springs of Rungis about Arcueil to Paris. In the first half of the 17th century prompted the queen mother and regent Marie de Medici, whose minister, Richelieu, had a house in Rungis, the restoration of the ancient aqueduct to supply, among other things, the fountains of the Palais du Luxembourg. Work began in 1613 and were in 1623 under Louis XIII. completed. In the 19th century the engineer Eugène Belgrand completed the aqueduct from the superstructure.
• The well shafts and the well house (17th century)
• " Carré des Eaux ", a vast underground water reservoir
• The remains of the church of Notre -Dame ( 13th century), rue Notre -Dame
• The former fortified farmhouse Saint- Grégoire and his priory, 2 rue des Fontaines
• The former home of Cardinal Richelieu, now the town hall (17th century), 2 rue Sainte -Geneviève
• The churches of Notre- Dame-de- l'Assomption and Eglise du Prieuré (both 20th century)
• The wholesale market

Wholesale market of Rungis

The Rungis wholesale market was created in 1969 by the architects Henri Colboc and Lebret on a 220 -acre site of the municipalities and Rungis Chevilly -Larue. He has now become the world's largest market for food, which comprises 232 acres, 13,000 people work there. The total throughput of products in 2000 amounted to over 1.6 million tons. It has its own railway station, a bus station, numerous markets and warehouses, cold stores, offices, hotels etc. It is presented in the documentary Voices of Transition as a proxy for the oil- dependent industrial agriculture.

See also: The company Rungis Express that is delivered fresh from Rungis wholesale market food in German -speaking countries, is often colloquially referred to only briefly " Rungis ".

Personalities

• Richelieu, minister, had in the first half of the 17th century, a house in Rungis.
• Edme Verniquet (1727 - 1804), French architect and landscape gardener, who worked with Georges- Louis Leclerc de Buffon in the design of the Jardin des Plantes and the so -called Plan des Artistes, an atlas for Paris brought out, was the last to the title " Seigneur de Rungis ".