1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
Le Kremlin-Bicêtre (French pronunciation:[ləkʁɛmlɛ̃bisɛtʁ]ⓘ) is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is 4.5 km (2.8 mi) from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.
Le Kremlin-Bicêtre is most famous as the location of the Bicêtre Hospital, where Superintendent Philippe Pinel is credited as being the first to introduce humane methods into the treatment of the mentally ill, in 1793. Its most notorious guest was the Marquis de Sade.
Urbanism
Le Kremlin-Bicêtre is an urban commune, as it is one of the dense or intermediate density communes, as defined by the Insee communal density grid.[a][3][4][5] It belongs to the urban unit of Paris, an inter-departmental conurbation comprising 407 communes[6] and 10,785,092 inhabitants in 2017, of which it is a suburban commune.[7][8]
The commune is also part of the functional area of Paris[b] where it is located in the main population and employment centre of the functional area. This area comprises 1,929 communes.[9][10]
The name has roots both in England and Russia. Le Kremlin-Bicêtre was originally a hamlet called simply Bicêtre and located within the commune of Gentilly. The name Bicêtre comes from the manor built there by John of Pontoise, Bishop of Winchester (England), in the end of the 13th century. The name of this Manor of Winchester was corrupted into Vinchestre, then Bichestre, and eventually Bicêtre. The Bicêtre Hospital was built starting in 1634 on the ruins of the manor.
In 1813, the Bicêtre Hospital acted as a major reception point for evacuated casualties of the Grande Armée from the French invasion of Russia. Veterans of the invasion of Russia used to gather in a tavern near Bicêtre Hospital. This tavern was soon renamed Au sergent du Kremlin ("At the Kremlin sergeant") in reference to the Moscow Kremlin where the veterans had camped.
Gradually the name Kremlin was used for the whole neighborhood around the Bicêtre Hospital, and appeared for the first time officially in an ordnance map of 1832. Later the names Kremlin and Bicêtre were joined together and became the official name of the area.
History
The commune of Le Kremlin-Bicêtre was created on 13 December 1896 by detaching its territory from the commune of Gentilly.
Population
Historical population
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1896
10,804
—
1901
11,830
+1.83%
1906
13,018
+1.93%
1911
14,907
+2.75%
1921
16,830
+1.22%
1926
18,911
+2.36%
1931
17,453
−1.59%
1936
17,038
−0.48%
1946
14,072
−1.89%
1954
15,618
+1.31%
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1962
18,834
+2.37%
1968
20,798
+1.67%
1975
20,061
−0.51%
1982
17,543
−1.90%
1990
19,348
+1.23%
1999
23,724
+2.29%
2007
25,859
+1.08%
2012
26,119
+0.20%
2017
25,334
−0.61%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Vincent Purkart [fr], seven-time French table tennis champion and creator of the Secrétin-Purkart Show, a humorous look at the sport broadcast on television.
Jean-François Revel, intellectual, lived in this town during the latter part of his life, and he died here in April 2006.
^According to the zoning of rural and urban municipalities published in November 2020, in application of the new definition of rurality validated on November 14, 2020 by the Interministerial Committee for Rural Areas.
