VINCENNES

city, Val-de-Marne dpartement, Paris region, eastern residential suburb of Paris, France, immediately outside the city limits. It is connected to Paris by the Mtro (subway). The chteau of Vincennes, which succeeded an earlier fortified hunting lodge on the site, consists of four principal buildingsthe keep, the chapel, and two pavilionsenclosed by an enceinte with nine towers. The magnificent and well-preserved keep, the finest surviving in France, 170 ft (52 m) in height, was begun under Philip VI, completed under Charles V (reigned 136480), and used thereafter as a royal residence until Versailles was built. The chapel, not completed until 1552 but in Gothic style, has a Flamboyant facade and a great rose window. The two pavilionsthe Pavillon du Roi and the Pavillon de la Reinewere built by Louis Le Vau, under the direction of Cardinal Mazarin, during the third quarter of the 17th century. After the court deserted the chteau, it had a checkered history, being used as a porcelain factory, a cadet school, and a small-arms factory. In 1791, during the Revolution, the Marquis de Lafayette saved it from destruction. Napoleon converted it into an arsenal, and in 1840 it was turned into a fortress. The army was removed in 1930 and restoration started, to be interrupted during World War II when the Germans had a supply depot there; in 1944 part of the Pavillon de la Reine was destroyed by an explosion. The chteau has many associations with French history. Four kings of France died thereLouis X, Philip V, Charles IV, and Charles IXas did Henry V of England and Mazarin. During the reign of Louis XIII it was used as a state prison, and its prisoners included the Great Cond, the Cardinal de Retz, Denis Diderot, and the Comte de Mirabeau; the Duc d'Enghien was shot there in 1804. The Bois de Vincennes was enclosed in the 12th century and, as a royal hunting preserve, was the reason for the chteau being built there. The surviving forest is a park, with a zoo, a racecourse, and a sports stadium. Pop. (1982) 42,852. city, seat (1790) of Knox County, southwestern Indiana, U.S., on the Wabash River, 51 mi (82 km) north of Evansville. Indiana's oldest city, from the time of its settlement (1702) by French traders on the site of an Indian village, it figured prominently in early national American history. A fort, one of a chain from Quebec to New Orleans, was erected by the French in 1732; and in 1736 the settlement around it was named for Franois-Marie Bissot, sieur de Vincennes, its commandant. Ceded to the British at the end of the French and Indian War (1763), the settlement was virtually self-governing until the outbreak of the Revolution and remained predominantly French in population and tradition for almost 100 years after that. A British force occupied the fort for a brief period, but briefly in 1778 and finally in 1779 it was taken by American forces under George Rogers Clark. Clark's victory at Vincennes, followed by the passage of the Northwest Ordinance (1787), brought an influx of settlers from Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. From 1800 to 1813 Vincennes was the capital of Indiana Territory (commemorated by a state memorial). The Indiana Gazette, the first territorial newspaper, was published there in 1804 by Elihu Stout. At Vincennes, also, Gov. (later Pres.) William Henry Harrison negotiated several treaties with the Indians and launched the campaign that culminated in the Battle of Tippecanoe (November 1811). The George Rogers Clark National Historical Park (1966), Grouseland (180304; the Harrison mansion), and Vincennes University, a junior college founded in 1806, are among the 42 historic sites in the city. Indiana UniversitySouthwest Campus opened there in 1971. The city is a commercial centre for an agricultural and coal-mining region and has some light industries including auto seat assembling and the manufacture of batteries, paper products, and glass. Inc. 1856. Pop. (1990) 19,859.