Yonne is Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's fourth-most populous department, with a population of 335,707 (2019).[3] Its largest city is its prefecture Auxerre, with a population of about 35,000 within city limits and 68,000 in the urban area.
The first evidence of occupation in this area is found in the Grottes d'Arcy-sur-Cure, where paintings have been found dating back 28,000 years. The Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers of that time also left behind numerous flint artefacts. The area is believed to have been occupied for about 200,000 years.[4] By 4000 BC, a wave of people arrived from theDanube River region of eastern Europe. They built substantial wooden houses and introduced pottery decorated with the characteristics of theLinear Pottery culture. Further waves of migrants followed, theChasséen culture, and theMichelsberg culture.[5]
TheCeltic tribe in the area were named "Icauna", after the River Yonne which they thought sacred. The region was later occupied byGallic tribes. In that period, the area came under the control of theRoman Empire, whose chief town was Sens, which they called Agendicum. It was the capital of their province ofGallia Lugdunensis, one of four provinces into which France was divided.[citation needed] The present main roads fromLyon toBoulogne, and from Sens toAlise-Sainte-Reine date from this period. About this time, Auxerre, Tonnerre (Tornodurum) andAvallon were growing in size. In the fourth century, Sens became a walled city. The first bishops were appointed in Sens andLangres, and they influenced the region profoundly because of their power.[citation needed]
In 1771, the north-westerly part of the present department belonged toPrince Francis Xavier of Saxony, the uncle of KingLouis XVI. The current Yonne department was organized and defined during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790, as a result of the passing of an Act on December 22, 1789.[6] It was carved out of parts of the provinces ofBurgundy,Champagne andOrléans, and to a lesser extent from parts of theNivernais andÎle-de-France.
Yonne is a department in central France, one of the eight constituent departments of the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. To the northeast lies the department ofAube, to the east liesCôte-d'Or, to the south liesNièvre, to the west liesLoiret and to the northwest, the department ofSeine-et-Marne. The River Yonne flows northwards through the department.Auxerre, the capital of the department, is situated on the River Yonne, and theRiver Serein joins this a few kilometres north of the city. TheCanal de Bourgogne, which connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, joins the River Yonne throughlocks atMigennes a little further north. The second biggest town isSens, situated at the confluence of the riversVanne and Yonne.[7]
The geology of the department is complex with concentric rings of granite, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks, and layers of sedimentary rocks. The terrain is mostly a low-lying plateau used for agriculture. The southwestern part is thePuisaye, which has a higher elevation and is more wooded. To the centre and east, the land inclines to the northwest where the higher land of the Tonnerrois region lies. To the east the rock is mostly limestone. The Auxerrois region is renowned for the grapes grown here, which are used in the production ofChablis wine. To the south lies the mountainous massif ofMorvan, the highest parts of which are in the neighbouring department of Nièvre.[7] The department has some forested areas but is mainly used for pasture or cultivated for wheat.[8]
Over fifty percent of the inhabitants of the department are engaged in agricultural activities. Yonne is one of the poorest and most rural departments in France. During the hundred years leading up to 1962, its population declined by around 100,000, while all of the surrounding departments experienced population growth. Yonne had been bypassed by the development of the railways. As French industry flourished elsewhere in the late nineteenth century, the young people left Yonne seeking better opportunities, and the department stagnated.[citation needed]
Theviticulture industry was severely affected by the advent ofpowdery mildew and the arrival ofPhylloxera in the nineteenth century; at the same time, the development of the railway network allowed cheaper wines from other regions to undercutChablis wine in the Paris market. The once-thriving industry never recovered.[11] By 1945, only 4000 hectares of grapevines remained, and only 471 hectares of grapes were grown for Chablis.[8]
More recently, the population trend has been reversed. During the period 1999 to 2007, it rose by 8000 to a total of 341,418. However, with a population of 46 inhabitants per square kilometre, the density in Yonne is still less than half that for the whole of France, which was 100.5 for the same year.[12]
The president of the Departmental Council is Patrick Gendraud, elected in 2017. In 2015, the General Council of the department was allotted a budget of 410 million euros.[13]
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