Rearuh

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (September 2012) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation like Deepl or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary (using German): Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Exact name of German article]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Vosges (département)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Vosges
Department
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Vosges in France
Coordinates: 48°10′N 06°25′E / 48.167°N 6.417°E / 48.167; 6.417Coordinates: 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 General Council	Christian Poncelet
Area 1
• Total	5,874 km2 (2,268 sq mi)
Population (2016)
• Total	369,641
• Rank	64th
• Density	63/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 the series on
Lorraine
Flag of Lorraine since the 13th century
History Mediomatrici & Leuci Gallia Belgica Lotharingia Duchy of Lorraine Duchy of Bar Three Bishoprics 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: Church of 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
v t e

Vosges (French pronunciation: [voʒ] (listen)) is an eastern department of France named after the Vosges mountain range. It consists of 17 cantons and 507 communes, of which 234 are rural,^[1] including the commune of Domrémy-la-Pucelle, where Joan of Arc was born.^[2]

History

Hundred Years' War

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.^[3]

French revolution

The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution.^[4] 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.^[5] The Vosges department had now an area of 6,127 km² (2,366 sq. miles) which it kept until 1871.

In 1794 the Vosges was the site of a major battle between the forces of Revolutionary France and the Allied Coalition. See Battle of Trippstadt.

The Place des Vosges in Paris was so renamed in 1799 when the department became the first to pay the new Revolutionary taxes.

Franco-Prussian War

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).

First and Second World Wars

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 Le Quéquement American Cemetery in Dinozé, near Epinal. It was built by the American 45th Infantry Division in September 1944 and completed in 1959. 5,255 soldiers killed in action during fighting in France, the Vosges, the Rhine valley and Germany are interred there.^[6]

Geography

The largest cities/towns are Épinal (approx. 33,000), Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (approx. 21,500), Gérardmer (approx. 8,500), on the lake of the same name, and Remiremont (approx. 8,000). A total population of 378,830 inhabitants was recorded in the 2011 census. The population is split with 70% in urban areas and 30% living in rural districts.

Roughly 47% of the department is covered by woodlands and forests (the third highest in France), while 38% of land is in agricultural use. The remaining 13% is commercial, industrial and residential.^[1]

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 (including the Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Reserve) of which the Grand Ballon at 1424m is the highest peak.^[1] 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 cf the Rhône and the Rhine, forms part of the European watershed between the basins of the Mediterranean and Atlantic.^[7]

The Saône rises (named after the Celtic goddess Sagon)^[8] at Vioménil, in the Vosges. The Anger river also passes through it.

Culture

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.

Politics

Current National Assembly Representatives

Miscellaneous topics

Séré de Rivières forts

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).^[6]

Tourism

• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Fort of Epinal
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  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 mountains near La Bresse
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Saint-Dié Cathedral
  

  
  

  
  

See also

• Cantons of the Vosges department


• Communes of the Vosges department


• Arrondissements of the Vosges department

References

External links

• 
  (in French) Vosges.com Economic information about the Vosges
  


• Climbbybike.com: All information on and profiles of the climbs and cols of the Vosges
  


• 
  (in French) General Council website
  


• 
  (in French) Prefecture website
  


• 
  (in French) Vosges vacations
  


• 
  (in English) Information - Vosges.us
  


• Illustrated Article on the Vosges Battlefields in Winter at 'Battlefields Europe'


• 
   "Vosges" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.