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Key figures

Origin and history

The Écomusée de Savigny-le-Temple was located in the Coulevrain Farm, a historic site dating back to 1149, when King Louis VII donated it to the Templars. Although most of the buildings visible today date back to the 16th and subsequent periods, this farm was an active agricultural site until 1986, when its activities ceased permanently. The new town of Senart then acquired the places to preserve them, while Savigny-le-Temple established an ecomuseum, labeled "Musée de France" in 2002. The objective was to enhance the natural and cultural history of the southern Seine-et-Marne, as well as that of Senart, through various collections and a remarkable built heritage.

The ecomuseum was home to unique iconographic backgrounds, including vellums of the 15th and 16th centuries, urban plans, 15,000 slides and 5,000 objects, as well as a conservation orchard dedicated to the preservation of traditional fruit varieties in the east of the Île-de-France. This orchard, consisting of 39 apple varieties and 7 pear trees, was also used as educational support to transmit arboriculture techniques, combining ancient know-how and ecological practices. The ecomuseum closed in 2016, but its collections were kept in reserve, while a project to take over by a Montessori school was envisaged.

The ecomuseum's publications marked its commitment to local historical dissemination. Among them, works such as "Les Templiers, seigneurs de Savigny" (2005), based on the royal charters of 1149 and 1164, or "When the Good Shepherd Goes to Coal" (1996), evoking Louis Pasteur's research on sheep coal in Senart. This work, combined with thematic exhibitions, illustrated the heritage and scientific richness of the territory, mixing rural memory, urban innovations and Templar heritage.

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