Neufchâteau | |
|---|---|
 The Church of St. Nicolas | |
 Coat of arms | |
 Location of Neufchâteau | |
  Neufchâteau  Neufchâteau | |
| Coordinates:48°21′23″N5°41′47″E / 48.3564°N 5.6964°E /48.3564; 5.6964 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Grand Est |
| Department | Vosges |
| Arrondissement | Neufchâteau |
| Canton | Neufchâteau |
| Intercommunality | CC Ouest Vosgien |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2025–2026) | Simon Leclerc[1] |
Area 1 | 31.94 km2 (12.33 sq mi) |
| Population (2023)[2] | 6,732 |
| • Density | 210.8/km2 (545.9/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 88321 /88300 |
| Elevation | 274–410 m (899–1,345 ft) (avg. 289 m or 948 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Neufchâteau (French pronunciation:[nøʃɑto]ⓘor[nœfʃɑto]ⓘ) is acommune in theVosgesdepartment inGrand Est in northeasternFrance. On 1 January 2025, the former commune ofRollainville was merged into Neufchâteau.[3]
Positioned at the confluence of the riversMeuse andMouzon, the little town dominates the Vosges Plain. It is at the centre of the various communications channels in the south-west ofGrand Est, connecting with therégion ofChampagne to the west.
TheA31 Autoroute loops around the east side of Neufchâteau, approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) away at its closest point. Four junctions are available according to subsequent destination, these being numbered 8.1, 9, 10 and 11 and being located respectively atRobécourt,Bulgnéville,Châtenois andColombey-les-Belles.
National Road RN74 (in parts downgraded followingautoroute network development to Departmental Road RD674) passes through Neufchâteau en route fromNancy in the north-east toDijon further to the south-west.
The town is on a mainrailway line connecting withMetz,Nancy,Dijon,Lyon and the south. For a year, in 2006/07, it also found itself a stop on theTGV linetoNice, though the opening of a more direct line put an end to that.
One of the oldest towns in Lorraine, Neufchâteau was known as Noviomagus during theRoman period, when it was a market town along thePretorian road connectingLyon withTrier. Other names from this period include Noviomagus and Neomagus, which had mutated to Novum Castrum by 1094 whenThierry, son of theDuke Gérard I constructed a castle here.
Writing in the twelfth century, Hugues Metellus described the town in his poem "Garin le Lohérain" as "large and well populated, with a large fortress and abundant wealth" (« grande et bien peuplée, ayant un chastel principal, des biens en abondance »). It contained all the ingredients necessary for a good time, including musicians, jugglers and actors. In 1231 Neufchâteau was the first town inLorraine to receivetown privileges.Duke Matthew II granted Neufchâteau a charter which included the right to appoint thirteen people to undertake the functions of a jury, and to elect a mayor. The town was regularly chosen to host conferences convened in order to settle differences arising betweenLorraine andFrance. It was also to Neufchâteau thatthe Duchess of Lorraine, at this time the regent on behalf ofher infant son, called a meeting of the Estates General in 1545.
Thefinal decades of the neighbouringDuchy of Burgundy had been a particularly troubled period for Lorraine, and as a principal administrative centre, Neufchâteau had been badly hit by the fighting, being invaded and occupied by a Burgundian garrison in 1436 and again in 1476.
After the fall of Burgundy, French influence over Lorraine turned into control.Richelieu saw to the destruction of the town walls at Neufchâteau, which became formally French along with the rest of Lorraine in 1766 with the death ofDuke Stanislas. Three decades later, with the new administrative structure introduced across France in the aftermath of therevolution, the town found itself the capital of the Vosges arrondissement. Such was its importance that at the height of the revolutionary fervour it lost its name, mutating from Neufchâteau to Mouzon-Meuse. The town regained its former name as the political temperature cooled, but during the ensuing two centuries it found itself occupied by foreign troops during theNapoleonic Wars, during theFranco-Prussian War of 1870, and more recently during theSecond World War.
During the final decades of the nineteenth century and the early ones of the twentieth, Neufchâteau was home to an equestrianRepublican Guard (France) brigade.[citation needed]
On 19 June 1940 around 100 French soldiers, most of them members of theTwelfth Regiment of Senegalese Fusiliers were shot by German troops in a barn near to Neufchâteau.[4]
In 1965 the commune merged with those of adjacentNoncourt and ofRouceux.
More recently the town hit the headlines when it became the first French commune to renounce itswater treatment contract with a large multinational organisation, and take water management back into municipal control.[5]
Current (left) and former (right) coats of arms of Neufchâteau
Inhabitants are calledNéocastriens.
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 7,971 | — |
| 1975 | 8,741 | +1.33% |
| 1982 | 8,343 | −0.66% |
| 1990 | 7,803 | −0.83% |
| 1999 | 7,533 | −0.39% |
| 2007 | 7,056 | −0.81% |
| 2012 | 6,633 | −1.23% |
| 2017 | 6,664 | +0.09% |
| Source: INSEE[6] | ||
Hamm, Germany, since 1975 formerly with the now incorporated municipality Herringen since 1967
Miranda do Corvo,Portugal, since 1997
Smigiel, Poland, since 2001Neufchâteau was part of the 1998summit of worldwidecities named "New Castle" with:
Neuburg an der Donau, Germany
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Neufchâteau, Vosges, France
New Castle, Delaware, USANew Castle, Indiana, USANew Castle, Pennsylvania, USA
Newcastle-under-Lyme, EnglandNewcastle upon Tyne, England
Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Shinshiro, Japan
