COMPIGNE

town, Oise dpartement, Picardie rgion, northern France. It lies along the Oise River, at the northwest edge of the forest of Compigne. Of Roman origin, it was referred to in 557 as Compendium, a name derived from a word meaning short cut (between Beauvais and Soissons). The town flourished in the Middle Ages and was the site of assemblies and councils under the Merovingian kings. In 833 Louis the Pious was deposed there. Charles II the Bald enlarged the town and founded the Abbey of Saint-Corneille, now the home of the municipal library. Compigne became a commune in 1153, and a monument to Joan of Arc commemorates her capture there by the Burgundians in 1430. The town's focal point is the Htel de Ville (town hall), a late Gothic structure with a belfry in its facade. Churches dedicated to Saint-Antoine and Saint-Jacques date from the 13th to the 16th century; the former is noted for its windows. In the 18th century, Louis XV built a palace in Compigne that was later restored by Napoleon I and is now used as an art museum . The palace itself has been the scene of numerous historical events: the welcoming of Marie-Louise of Austria by Napoleon, the entertainment of the emperor Alexander I of Russia by Louis XVIII, and the marriage of Leopold I, king of the Belgians, to Marie-Louise of Orlans in 1832. Under Napoleon III the palace was the residence of the court during the hunting season. Compigne was the headquarters of the invading German army in the Franco-German War of 187071 and was occupied by the Germans again in World War I. The Armistice was signed on Nov. 11, 1918, in Marshal Ferdinand Foch's personal railway coach on a siding just northeast of the town. The coach was preserved as a monument, and on June 22, 1940, during World War II, the Franco-German armistice was signed in it, in Adolf Hitler's presence. The Germans removed the coach to Germany but destroyed it in April 1945 to prevent its recovery by the advancing Allies. Compigne is now an important tourist centre. Its varied industries include petroleum, metal founding, and the manufacture of soap, glass, machinery, and automobile tires. Pop. (1990) 44,703.