Jean Moulin is certainly one of the most famous prefects of the Eure-et-Loir department. The office where he worked, in the Hôtel de Ligneris, is still used by the latest in the line of his successors. In 1821, the Prefecture was installed in these vast buildings, part of which belonged to one of the great families of the Chartrain area: the Ligneris.

Jean Moulin was born in Béziers and became mayor of Chartres in 1939. He was forty years old when the Second World War broke out, and wanted to sign up and fight. But he was obliged to remain at his post, where he expended great energy in securing supplies for the population of the town during the occupation.

On the 17th of June 1940, after refusing to sign a declaration falsely accusing Senegal Riflemen from the French army of subjecting the surrounding population to atrocities, Moulin was arrested and tortured. Rather than give way, he cut his own throat, but was saved by swift medical treatment before being set free to take up his post once more. He filled it until it was revoked by the Vichy regime in November 1940.
Moulin then joined the Resistance where he won great renown before once more being arrested and tortured. He died at the hands of the Nazis in 1943. His account of his time in Chartres, "My First Combat", was published after the Liberation. A monument to his memory, standing close to the Prefecture, was inaugurated in 1948.




It is not possible to visit Jean Moulin's office. Please click on "Video" if you wish to see it.