Joan of Arc was born in the village of Domrémy, then in the French part of theDuchy of Bar, orBarrois mouvant, located west of theMeuse. The part of the duchy lying east of the Meuse was part of theHoly Roman Empire. The Duchy of Bar later became part of theprovince ofLorraine. 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 theFrench Revolution.[7] It was made of territories that had been part of the province ofLorraine. InGerman it is referred to asVogesen.
In 1793, the independentPrincipality of Salm-Salm (town ofSenones and its surroundings), enclosed inside the Vosges department, was annexed to France and incorporated into Vosges. In 1795, the area ofSchirmeck was detached from theBas-Rhin department and incorporated into the Vosges department.[8] The Vosges department then had an area of 6,127 km2 (2,366 sq mi), which it kept until 1871.
In 1794, Vosges was near the site of amajor battle between the forces of Revolutionary France and the Allied Coalition. The oldest square inParis, Place Royale, was renamedPlace des Vosges in 1800 when the department became the first to pay the new revolutionary taxes.
After the French defeat in theFranco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, 4% of the Vosges department in the extreme northeast of the department was annexed to theGerman Empire by theTreaty of Frankfurt on the ground that the people there spoke Germanic dialects. The area annexed on 18 May 1871 corresponded to thecanton of Schirmeck and the northern half of the canton ofSaales. Schirmeck and Saales had been historically part ofAlsace. These territories, along with the rest ofAlsace and the annexed territories of Lorraine, became part of theReichsland ofElsaß-Lothringen. The area of the Vosges department was thus reduced to its current 5,874 km2 (2,268 sq mi).
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 theBallons des Vosges Nature Park. TheHohneck at 1363m is the highest peak of the Vosges department.[10] TheMonts 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 RiverSaône. This chain, dividing the basins of theRhône and theRhine, 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 atVioménil, in the Vosges. TheAnger river also passes through it.
TheRomanfortified town ofGrand, located 30 km fromToul, has anamphitheatre and a temple to theCult 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.[citation needed]
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]
^One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Vosges".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 214. This entry further details the industrial base at the time.
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