Chantilly (/ʃænˈtɪli/ shan-TIL-ee,[3] French: [ʃɑ̃tiji] ⓘ; Picard: Cantily) is a commune in the Oise department in the Valley of the Nonette in the Hauts-de-France region of Northern France.

Saint-Maximin lies to the north, Vineuil-Saint-Firmin to the northeast, Avilly-Saint-Léonard to the east, Pontarmé and Orry-la-Ville to the south-east, Coye-la-Forêt to the south, Lamorlaye to the southwest and Gouvieux to the west.

It was also used for building in Chantilly itself during the 18th century, when a quarry on the current site of the racecourse produced stone for the court officials' housing and the stables.

[4] Another geological feature is alluvial accumulations in the river valleys, which have allowed, in the case of the Nonette, the development of community gardens in the locality known as the Canardière.

The riverbed was moved a hundred meters (yards) north to create the 2.5 km (1½ mile) long Grand Canal that runs in front of the château.

He was the royal grand bouteiller, a hereditary position in charge of the king's vineyards, and became the first lord of Chantilly, which at the time was little more than a rock in the middle of a swampy area.

[9] In 1515, Anne's father, Guillaume de Montmorency, had obtained a papal bull that gave him the right to have mass said and all the sacraments performed in the chapel of the château, which was one of the first steps toward autonomy from the surrounding parishes.

The Great Stables were requisitioned by the army and used in turn by the 11th mounted horse regiment [fr], the 1er dragons or 1st Dragoons from 1803 to 1806 then the 1er régiment de chevau-légers lanciers polonais, or 1st Light Artillery Polish Lancers, from 1808 to 1814.

In his last known communication with the Directory, in October 1798, he requested permission to leave Paris for somewhere less conspicuous, where his crucial negotiations with the Scottish emissaries could be conducted in safety.

No identifying documents or papers were found on his person and his name was discovered only when the postman remembered delivering newspapers to him addressed to 'Citoyen Thomas Muir'.

Several days later, when the news of Muir's death reached Paris, a brief obituary notice was inserted in Le Moniteur Universel saying that he had died from a recurrence of his old wounds.

[17] At the same time, Chantilly was becoming a vacation destination with many aristocrats, members of the haute bourgeoisie and artists moving to the area and building villas and chateaux in the surrounding communes, such as the Rothschild family in Gouvieux, for example.

By receiving high society in his palace, such as Empress Elizabeth of Austria, known as Sissi, and the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovitch of Russia, he contributed to the growth of the town.

After the First Battle of the Marne, General Joseph Joffre installed his headquarters in Chantilly because of the easy access it offered to Paris by rail.

[21][22] Joffre held the conference of Chantilly from 6 to 8 December 1915 to makes battle plans with his Allied counterparts and to coordinate military offensives for 1916.

[23] General Headquarters moved to Beauvais in December 1916, and Chantilly became home to hospitals for soldiers wounded on the front, one in the hôtel Lovenjou, the other in the Egler Pavilion.

Following the assassination of a collaborator, the parish priest, Abbot Charpentier, who authored a 1943 anti-Nazi sermon, was arrested along with several French Resistance fighters he had supported.

As this new housing was built, a new population moved in who mostly work in the Paris area,[26] while the town lost almost all of its remaining industrial base when the Guilleminot factories shut down in 1992.

The château de Chantilly was built for the House of Montmorency, then was home to the Condés and finally to the Duke of Aumale, fifth son of Louis-Philippe.

As a condition of its bequest to the Institut de France by the Duke of Aumale, the collection's presentation cannot be modified nor can it be loaned out, so it is a permanent fixture of Chantilly.

Slightly more than half of the local population participates in the labor market, and when residents younger than fifteen and older than 64 are excluded the figure rises to 80%.

Given the real estate crunch inside city limits, nowadays stables can only be found in the Bois St-Denis neighborhood, where there are thirty, which specialise in gallop.

[36] Trainers in the area include Criquette Head-Maarek, Freddy Head, Pascal Bary, André Fabre, Marcel Rolland, Élie Lellouche, Nicolas Clément, Alain de Royer-Dupré and those attached to the stables of Karim Aga Khan IV.

[42] A horse-racing school, AFASEC's "The Windmill" is based in Gouvieux and provides instruction to 185 jockeys and trainees, many of whom are housed in a facility in Chantilly proper.

When it was threatened with closing, 24 million euros were raised to modernize it by a public interest group that included the mayor's office, France Galop, the Institute of France, the Communauté de communes de l'aire cantilienne (CCAC), an intergovernmental commission of Chantilly-area governments, the Oise council, the Picary regional council, and Prince Karim Aga Khan.

Unlike Versailles and Fontainebleau, foreign tourists account for only 15% of the traffic, which can at peak times reach 20,000 simultaneous visitors to the various Domaine properties.

Proximity to Paris and to the Charles de Gaulle airport combine with the high quality of local hotel properties make it a prime conference destination.

[52] Another four-star hotel is being built in the Rue du Connétable near the Jeu de Paume, with an additional luxury residence planned for Avilly-Saint-Léonard.

A small public bus network, Desserte urbaine cantilienne (DUC), links the Lefébure neighborhood to Bois-St-Denis by way of the train station.

An airfield named aérodrome de la Vidamée-Chantilly was opened in 1910 in Courteuil and served as a military air base during World War I.