Many people came to live in Villeneuve, including composers (Boieldieu), painters (Francesco Casanova, Karl Joseph Kuwasseg) naturalists (Charles Athanase Walckenaer), ministers (Victor Duruy), ceramists (Jean-Paul Louis Chesnel-Larossière) , and ambassadors (Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini). Many personalities, such as Napoleon, Joachim Murat and Prince Eugène, also stopped in Villeneuve. In 1876, Fort Villeneuve was built to protect Paris in anticipation of a future war.