Vosges (department): Difference between revisions

Vosges
Department of France
Clockwise from top: Épinal seen from the castle ruins, Bussang, Bruyères with Mont Avison in the background, La Bresse
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Vosges in France
Coordinates: 48°10′N 06°25′E / 48.167°N 6.417°E / 48.167; 6.417
Country	France
Region	Grand Est
Prefecture	Épinal
Subprefectures	Neufchâteau Saint-Dié-des-Vosges
Government
• President of the Departmental Council	François Vannson[1] (LR)
Area 1
• Total	5,874 km2 (2,268 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]
• Total	360,673
• Rank	67th
• Density	61/km2 (160/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Department number	88
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	17
Communes	507
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries and lakes, ponds and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Part of a series on
Lorraine
Flag of Lorraine since the 13th century
History Mediomatrici & Leuci Gallia Belgica Lotharingia Duchy of Lorraine Duchy of Bar Three Bishoprics Lorraine and Barrois German Empire Lorraine department Third Reich Lorraine department Lorraine region Grand Est
Culture Coat of arms Flag Symbol People Languages Lorrain Lorraine Franconian Low Alemannic Demographics Musée lorrain
Religion Roman Catholicism: Diocese of Metz (Immediately subject to the Holy See) Diocese of Nancy Diocese of Saint-Dié Diocese of Verdun Protestantism: Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine (Moselle) Lutheranism: Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine (Moselle) Calvinism: Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine (Moselle) United Protestant Church of France (rest of Lorraine) Jewish consistories: Metz (Moselle) Nancy (rest of Lorraine)
Law Local law in Alsace-Moselle Concordat in Alsace-Moselle (1801)
Administrative divisions Meurthe-et-Moselle (54) Capital: Nancy Arrondissement of Briey Arrondissement of Lunéville Arrondissement of Nancy Arrondissement of Toul Meuse (55) Capital: Bar-le-Duc Arrondissement of Bar-le-Duc Arrondissement of Commercy Arrondissement of Verdun Moselle (Lothringen, 57) Capital: Metz Arrondissement of Forbach-Boulay-Moselle Arrondissement of Metz Arrondissement of Sarrebourg-Château-Salins Arrondissement of Sarreguemines Arrondissement of Thionville Vosges (88) Capital: Épinal Arrondissement of Épinal Arrondissement of Neufchâteau Arrondissement of Saint-Dié
Lorraine in the EU European Parliament elections Constituency
Related topics Politics of France Politics of Germany Politics of the European Union
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Vosges (French pronunciation: [voʒ] ^ⓘ) is a department in the Grand Est region in Northeastern France. It covers part of the Vosges mountain range, after which it is named. Vosges consists of 3 arrondissements, 17 cantons and 507 communes,^[3] including Domrémy-la-Pucelle, where Joan of Arc was born.^[4] In 2019, it had a population of 364,499 with an area of 5,874 km² (2,268 sq mi);^[5] its prefecture is Épinal.

Joan of Arc was born in the village of Domrémy, then in the French part of the Duchy of Bar, or Barrois mouvant, located west of the Meuse. The part of the duchy lying east of the Meuse was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Duchy of Bar later became part of the province of Lorraine. The village of Domrémy was renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle in honour of Joan.^[6]

The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on 4 March 1790 during the French Revolution.^[7] It was made of territories that had been part of the province of Lorraine. In German it is referred to as Vogesen.

In 1793, the independent Principality of Salm-Salm (town of Senones and its surroundings), enclosed inside the Vosges department, was annexed to France and incorporated into Vosges. In 1795, the area of Schirmeck was detached from the Bas-Rhin department and incorporated into the Vosges department.^[8] The Vosges department then had an area of 6,127 km² (2,366 sq miles), which it kept until 1871.

In 1794, Vosges was the site of a major battle between the forces of Revolutionary France and the Allied Coalition. The oldest square in Paris, Place Royale, was renamed Place des Vosges in 1800 when the department became the first to pay the new revolutionary taxes.

After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, 4% of the Vosges department in the extreme northeast of the department was annexed to the German Empire by the Treaty of Frankfurt on the ground that the people there spoke Germanic dialects. The area annexed on May 18, 1871, corresponded to the canton of Schirmeck and the northern half of the canton of Saales. Schirmeck and Saales had been historically part of Alsace. These territories, along with the rest of Alsace and the annexed territories of Lorraine, became part of the Reichsland of Elsaß-Lothringen. The area of the Vosges department was thus reduced to its current 5,874 km² (2,268 sq. miles).

In 1919, with the allied victory in the World War I, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France by Germany at the Treaty of Versailles. However, Schirmeck and Saales were not returned to the Vosges department, but instead were incorporated into the recreated Bas-Rhin department.

An ill-fated Special Air Service (SAS) mission called Operation Loyton took place in the Vosges forests in 1944.

Various military cemeteries are located in the department, the largest of which is the Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial in Dinozé, near Épinal. It was built by the American 45th Infantry Division in September 1944 and completed in 1959. 5,253 soldiers killed in action during fighting in France, the Vosges, the Rhine valley and Germany are interred there.^[9]

While the west part of the Vosges is flat sedimentary land (well suited for mineral waters), the east is dominated by the Vosges Mountain range and the Ballons des Vosges Nature Park. The Hohneck at 1363m is the highest peak of the Vosges department.^[10] The Monts Faucilles traverse the south of the department in a broad curve declining on the north into elevated plateaus, on the south encircling the upper basin of the River Saône. This chain, dividing the basins of the Rhône and the Rhine, forms part of the European watershed between the basins of the Mediterranean and Atlantic.^[11] 48% of the department is covered by woodlands and forests (the third highest in France), while 45% of land is in agricultural use.^[12]

The Saône (named after the Celtic goddess Sagona)^[13] rises at Vioménil, in the Vosges. The Anger river also passes through it.

The most populous commune is Épinal, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 9 communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:^[14]

Population development since 1801:

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1801 308,920 —     1806 334,169 +1.58% 1831 397,987 +0.70% 1841 419,992 +0.54% 1851 427,409 +0.18% 1861 415,485 −0.28% 1872 392,988 −0.50% 1881 406,862 +0.39% 1891 410,196 +0.08% 1901 421,104 +0.26% 1911 433,914 +0.30% 1921 383,684 −1.22% 1931 377,980 −0.15%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1936 376,926 −0.06% 1946 342,315 −0.96% 1954 372,523 +1.06% 1962 380,676 +0.27% 1968 388,201 +0.33% 1975 397,957 +0.36% 1982 395,769 −0.08% 1990 386,258 −0.30% 1999 380,952 −0.15% 2006 379,975 −0.04% 2011 378,830 −0.06% 2016 369,641 −0.49%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Sources:[7][15]

The Roman fortified town of Grand, located 30 km from Toul, has an amphitheatre and a temple to the Cult of Apollo. At La Bure, located a few kilometres from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, archaeologists have found evidence for human habitation going back to around 2000 BC.

As a border area, the Vosges region was a route for possible invasion. As such four important forts were constructed in the department: Bourlémont Fort in Mont-les-Neufchâteau (built between 1878 and 1881); Uxegney Fort (built between 1882 and 1884); Bois l'Abbé Fort (built in 1884 and 1885); and the Le Parmont Fort in Remiremont (built between 1874 and 1876).^[16]

The president of the Departmental Council is François Vannson, first elected in 2015.

• 
  Fort of Épinal
• 
  Birth house of Joan of Arc in Domrémy-la-Pucelle
• 
  Statue of Joan of Arc erected in 1909 at the former border with Alsace-Lorraine
• 
  The Vosges mountain range in La Bresse
• 
  Saint-Dié Cathedral
• 
  Lac de Gérardmer
• 
  Rainkopf

• Cantons of the Vosges department
• Communes of the Vosges department
• Arrondissements of the Vosges department

• (in French) Vosges.com Economic information about the Vosges
• (in French) Departmental Council website
• (in French) Prefecture website
• (in English) Tourisme Vosges
• Illustrated Article on the Vosges Battlefields in Winter at 'Battlefields Europe'
• Climbbybike.com: All information on and profiles of the climbs and cols of the Vosges
• "Vosges" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.