Free visit of the Mulberry district
The mulberry tree was established in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés in the middle of the 19th century for the breeding of the silkworm, in order to reduce imports of this precious tissue. The culture collapsed very quickly. A second attempt began again in the early 1860s… with the same failure. The urbanization of this district, begun by Caffin in 1859, is slow and there are only about twenty «country houses» before the war of 1870. The development continued slowly and by 1921 there were still many woods and cultivated fields. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that there was a gradual urbanization of fields and woods and then a division of plots. Let us walk in a rectangle formed by the Marne in the South, the railway in the East, Bonneuil Avenue in the West and Denfert-Rochereau Avenue in the North. The proposed route allows you to understand the history of the district by observing the architecture of its houses, from the «remarkable building» protected by the PLU, to the modest «economic house». The booklet also includes a track game for children.