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Last modified: 2022-07-03 by ivan sache
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Flag of Nointel, current and former versions - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 28 September 2021
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The municipality of Nointel (863 inhabitants in 2019; 320 ha; municipal website) is located 30 km north of Paris.
Nointel was already known to the Gallo-Romans, as Noentellum / Nojentellus, subsequently Noistel, Nuistel, Nontelles, and, eventually Nointel (16th century). The village's name is based on a Celtic root meaning "a junction of forest paths", now roads heading to Beaumont-sur-Oise, Presles, Mours and Saint-Martin-du-Tertre.
Nointel emerged around a religious community established probably in the 7th century; the priory founded around year 1000 was so wealthy that it had to be protected from the greediness of the local lords by a Bull signed in 1146 by Pope Eugen III. The first known lord of Nointel, Adam (de l'Isle) was most probably a farmer who had acquired a domain from the Count of Beaumont. In 1225-1235, young king Louis IX (St. Louis) often visited the Nointel priory when surveying the building of the nearby abbey of Royaumont. Pierre de Nointel was killed during the battle de Crécy (1346), so was another lord of Nointel, Jean de Gaillonnel, in Agincourt (1415).
In 1687, the lord of Nointel, Jean I de Turmenies (d. 1702), Keeper of the Royal Treasure, built a castle in Classical style, surrounded by a big park. Erected at the same time as the Versailles palace, Nointel was designed by skillful disciples of architect Mansart, landscape designer Lenôtre and sculptor Coysevox. Intended as a family residence, the Nointel castle is quite severe, lacking luxury staircases and other ornaments common in such buildings.
The castle and the lower part of the park were subsequently acquired by tax farmer-general Pierre-François Bergeret (1683-1771), subsequently Louis XV's treasurer, while the Prince de Conti (1717-1776) acquired the remaining part of the park and the forest. The new owners maintained Nointel as a place welcoming the jet-set of the time, composed of ministers, prominent members of the royal court, and artists - first of them, the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806). The Luxembourg basin was named for old Marshal de Luxembourg (1628-1695), who enjoyed the neighboring bowers with his young mistresses. The Mississippi basin (4,000 m2), surmounted by a small octagonal pavilion, was designed in the early 18th century. The park's original design was dramatically altered by the successive owners, who preserved, however the monumental staircase composed of 87 steps.
The castle was subsequently restored and preserved by the Béjot family, owners from 1816 to 1982. The next owner, Prince Joachim Murat (b. 1944), established in the castle a short-lived center of contemporary art (1982-1987).
Ivan Sache, 2 October 2021
The flag of Nointel, hoisted in the Champagne-sur-Oise traffic circle with the flags of the other municipalities of the Communauté de communes Haut-Val-d'Oise (photo), is white with the municipal coat of arms, "Per bend sinister, 1. Azure three larmes argent 2 and 1 the larmes in chief confronting surmounted by a mullet or, 2. Vert an obelisk or", and the name of the municipality below, as "NOINTEL". The flag hoisted in the same place in 2016 (photo) had the name of the municipality written as "NOINTEL".
The first quarter of the arms features the arms of the Turmenies family, as reported in Gourdon de Genouillac's Recueil d'armoiries des maisons nobles de France (1860).
[Municipal website]
The arms of Jean I de Turmenies are featured in the Armorial Général, without the star (image); the arms of his son, Jen II de Turmenies (166!-1727), are featured with a star on a drawing dated to the 18th century.
[GeneaNet]
The second quarter features the obelisk erected on the Tivoli plot (photos), located south of the castle. The obelisk, offered on 1932 to Paul Béjot by the owner of the Castille castle in Uzès, commemorates the battle of Wagram, won by Napoleon I in 1890, this date being engraved in the monument's upper part.
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 2 October 2021
