Charenton-le-Pont

The municipality, created in 1790, was called Conflans l'Archevêque, then Le Républicain in 1793; it took its present name in 1801.

A town built around the church of St Pierre (located rue du Séminaire de Conflans and destroyed in 1867) existed from the 12th century; the Marne and the Seine meet at a place called Conflans (Confluent) l'Archevêque, because the Archbishop of Paris owned a property there, later transformed into a seminary. Louis 11 signed the Treaty of Conflans there on October 5, 1465 with Charles the Bold to end the war between them.

Charenton was part, with other villages, of the Parish of Conflans, attached to the Abbey of St Martin des Champs since 1098.

At the end of the Middle Ages, the ensemble was composed of:

- From the town of Charenton , with its fortified bridge built over the Marne and mentioned from the 7th century.
- From the village of Conflans , at the confluence of the Seine and the Marne, with the church of St Pierre and the famous Stay of Burgundy, a 14th century manor rebuilt in the 17th century (Le Château de Conflans) which included the property of the Archbishop of Paris. The Château de Conflans was destroyed in 1920 and in 1967 (!)
- The fortress of Percy (or Bercy), located at the current location of Bercy 2. Replaced by a castle, which included a huge park, the whole being destroyed under the Second Empire for a vast real estate operation directed by the Duke of Morny.
- The manor of the lord of the Grange aux Merciers on the site of the current rue Gabriel-Lamé which was a sumptuous dwelling comprising three main buildings that could accommodate 40 riders, a windmill and outbuildings

The main town was the town of Charenton around the bridge. Taken and taken back several times over the centuries during the various wars, the Charenton bridge has been rebuilt several times; it was, among others, in 1714, and underwent some repairs in 1812. The town was surrounded by a fortification removed in 1734, the layout of which corresponded to the current rue Gabriel Péri and rue de la Mairie

Downstream of the village, Philippe 4 had built a fortress, the Stay of the King (mentioned from 1314); destroyed at the beginning of the 17th century, it was replaced by the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites in 1628. After the Revolution, the buildings were occupied by a glass factory, then by the Forges de Charenton.

The whole was destroyed in 1848 to build the station

In 1612, a pleasure house was built, the Pavilion of Antoine de Navarre, surrounded by its 12-hectare park (Jardin du Cadran). At the end of the reign of Charles 10, the whole had 1912 inhabitants, and it was at this time that the town was transformed:

The railway cut the town in two in 1848, resulting in the removal of the Forges and the new cemetery in 1825
- The town hall moved to the superb Pavillon de Navarre in 1838, with a fragmented park (Rues du Parc, de Sully, etc.)
- On the same date, the first houses were built on the north side of Rue de Paris and the Séjour du Roy was urbanized (Rues Victor Hugo, St Pierre, etc.)
- The development from 1861 of the Bois de Vincennes amputated 9 hectares of the northern part of the rue de Paris

We should also mention the Canal de St Maurice, inaugurated in 1864; on this occasion, the bridge is rebuilt. The canal was backfilled in 1954 for the widening of the Nationale 4, then for the creation of the A4 motorway in 1974.

From 1900 to 1930, four tram lines passed through Charenton (lines 13, 24, 81 and 125).

Since then, from the 1930s onwards, modern urbanization has made the city very ugly: the HBMs of 1933 and 1954 on the site of the Château de Conflans and its park, the motorway and its huge interchange, the ZAC des Carrières, Bercy 2,….. replaced the charming resorts that still existed at the beginning of the 20th century.