Ramonchamp | |
|---|---|
 The town hall in Ramonchamp | |
 Coat of arms | |
 Location of Ramonchamp | |
  Ramonchamp  Ramonchamp | |
| Coordinates:47°53′32″N6°44′25″E / 47.8922°N 6.7403°E /47.8922; 6.7403 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Grand Est |
| Department | Vosges |
| Arrondissement | Épinal |
| Canton | Le Thillot |
| Intercommunality | CC Ballons des Hautes-Vosges |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | André Demange[1] |
Area 1 | 15.74 km2 (6.08 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 1,817 |
| • Density | 115.4/km2 (299.0/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 88369 /88160 |
| Elevation | 454–903 m (1,490–2,963 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Ramonchamp (French pronunciation:[ʁamɔ̃ʃɑ̃]ⓘ) is a largecommune in theVosgesdepartment inGrand Est in northeasternFrance.
Inhabitants are calledRamoncenais.
Downstream ofLe Thillot and upstream ofFerdrupt, Ramonchamp is positioned in a narrow section of theupper Moselle valley. The only main road is the National roadRN66 which connects withRemiremont some 25 kilometres (16 mi) to the south west and theBussang Pass intoAlsace en route forMulhouse to the east-southeast.
In other directions, the mountain slopes are too steep to afford easy access toSaulxures-sur-Moselotte, positioned in an adjacent valley to the north, though for the intrepid a relatively direct route exists courtesy of the 791-meter-high Morbieux Pass(Col de Morbieux).
Ramonchamp traditionally featured mountain style agriculture, but in recent decades many of the little family farms have been purchased by outsiders and transformed into second homes.
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 1,751 | — |
| 1975 | 2,099 | +2.62% |
| 1982 | 2,076 | −0.16% |
| 1990 | 1,985 | −0.56% |
| 1999 | 1,912 | −0.42% |
| 2007 | 1,996 | +0.54% |
| 2012 | 1,999 | +0.03% |
| 2017 | 1,978 | −0.21% |
| Source: INSEE[3] | ||
First recorded under the Latin name 'Romanici Campus', Ramoncamp was at one stage the administrative centre of a "ban" (medieval territory) and then of a canton, but that was before the commune ofLe Thillot had come into being.
The territory of Ramonchamp (Le ban de Ramonchamp) originally covered the entire upper valley of theMoselle, upstream ofFerdrupt. It fell under thebailiwick ofRemiremont while the church, dedicated to SaintsRémi andBlaise, was within theDiocese of Saint-Dié in the deanery of Remiremont.
Around 1730 the parish was divided up into the parishes ofLe Ménil andFresse-sur-Moselle.
Civil boundary changes were imposed by a decree of 30 June 1860 which at the same time created the new commune ofLe Thillot, 4 kilometres upstream of Ramonchamp. By the same decree Ramonchamp lost to Le Thillot its status as the cantonal capital.
Thetextile industry arrived in the 1830s: it received a boost after1871, thanks to the arrival of refugees fromAlsace wishing to avoid becomingGermans.
For two months in 1944 the commune found itself on the frontline betweenGerman andUS forces: Ramonchamp suffered considerably from the bombardments involved.
The second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century were a golden for the textile businesses, but after theSecond World War the industry faced a difficult period of restructuring and modernisation, which involved large scale job losses: there was some compensating increase in employment opportunities involving newer business sectors such as plastic and metal manufacturing, however.
Jean-Joseph Brice, famous for his height of 2.45 meters, was born at Ramonchamp in 1835.
Since 1972 Ramonchamp has been twinned withOber-Olm (nearMainz).
