Tourist guide - Office de Tourisme de Villeneuve-sur-Yonne

Cultural Center
Jean Pierre PINCEMIN
3 rue Bertrand - Tél : 03 86 87 27 88
Mardi et samedi de 14h à 18h15
Mercredi et vendredi de 9h à 12h et de 14h à 17h
The library
Jorge SEMPRÙN
In 2004 the city dedicated the public library to Mr. Jorge
Semprun. This centre of culture and education has an
important place in the lives of Villeneuvians.
By naming its library after Semprun, the municipality
wanted to pay tribute to this Spanish writer and
politician, born 10 December 1923 in Madrid. In 1942
in France, Semprun was assigned to the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP), the Communist armed
Resistance. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 between Villeneuve-sur-Yonne and Joigny, his false
papers showed his name as Gerard Sorel, gardener in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. Deported to the
Buchenwald concentration camp, he returned to Paris in 1945. From 1953 to 1962, during the era
of Francisco Franco, Semprún lived clandestinely in Spain working as an organizer for the exiled
Communist Party of Spain, but was expelled from the party in 1964. After the death of Franco and
change to a democratic government, he became a writer and screenwriter for two successive films
by the Greek director Costa-Gavras, Z (1969) and The Confession (1970), which dealt with the
theme of persecution by governments. For his work on Z, Semprun won an Oscar. Semprun served
as Culture Minister of Spain from 1988 to 1991. In 1996, he became the first non-French author
elected to the Académie Goncourt, which awards an annual literary prize.
A small Napoleon III style
theater was added during the
1880s to the second floor of
the old town hall, itself built
in1837 on the site of the
former royal bailiwick. The
Town Hall was transferred in
1978 to 99 rue Carnot. The
cultural center plays a central
role in local community
life.
In 2006 the building was
officially named after Jean
Pierre Pincemin in honor of
the theorist and practitioner
of the «Supports-surfaces”
movement. You will find a
fresco by Pincemin adorning
the theater’s ceiling.
Progressively restored and
renovated, the Cultural Center
Jean Pierre Pincemin is
being transformed into a
series of spaces devoted to
theater, film, photography
and other Villeneuve cultural
events. It now houses the
Tourist Office, as well as the
town’s entertainment and
cultural services.