The department was created in the early years of theFrench Revolution through the application of a law dated 22 December 1789, from part of theformer province ofFranche-Comté. The frontiers of the new department corresponded approximately to those of the oldBailiwick of Amont.
German artillery in front of the ruins of castle of Villersexel
The department has an important mining and industrial past (coal, salt, iron, lead-silver-copper mines, bituminous shale, stationery, spinning, weaving, forges, foundries, tileries, mechanical factories).
Haute-Saône is part of theBourgogne-Franche-Comtéregion, and is divided into 2 arrondissements and 17 cantons. Neighbouring departments areCôte-d'Or to the west,Haute-Marne to the north-west,Vosges to the north,Territoire de Belfort to the east,Doubs to the south and east andJura to south. The commune ofChamplitte is the largest commune in this department, with an area of 128 km2 (49 sq mi).
The department can be presented as a transitional territory positioned between several of the more depressed departments of eastern France and the so-calledBlue Banana zone characterised, in recent decades by relatively powerful economic growth.
Landscape
The country ofLure and theVosges in the east of the department
The department is overwhelmingly rural, despitethe area having been at the forefront of industrialisation in the eighteenth century. The industrial tradition remains, but industrial businesses tend to be on a small scale. In 2006 employment by economic sector was reported as follows:[4]
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In common with many rural departments in France, Haute-Saône has experienced a savage reduction in population, from nearly 350,000 in the middle of the nineteenth century to barely 200,000 on the eve of theSecond World War, as people migrated to newly industrialising population centres, often outsideMetropolitan France.
During the second half of the twentieth century the mass mobility conferred by the surge in automobile ownership permitted some recovery of the population figure to approximately 234,000 in 2004.
The rural nature of the department is highlighted by the absence of large towns and cities. Even the department's capital,Vesoul, still has a population below 20,000. As of 2019, there are 5 communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:[3]
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