Vosges
Vosges is a
French département, named after the
Vosges mountain range.
The Vosges
département was created on
March 4,
1790 like the 83 other original
départements of France. It was made of territories formerly part of the
province of
Lorraine.
In
1793 the independent principality of
Salm (town of
Senones and its surroundings), enclosed inside the Vosges
département, was annexed to France and incorporated into Vosges. In
1795 the area of
Schirmeck was detached from the
Bas-Rhin département and incorporated into the Vosges
département. The Vosges
département had now an area of 6,127 km² (2,366 sq. miles) which it kept until
1871.
In
1794 the Vosges was the site of a sizeable battle between the forces of Revolutionary France and the Allied Coalition. See
Battle of the Vosges.
The
Place des Vosges in
Paris was so renamed in
1799 when the
département became the first to pay the new
Revolutionary taxes.
After the French defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, 4% of the Vosges
département in the extreme northeast of the
département were annexed to the
German Empire by the
Treaty of Frankfurt on the ground that the people there spoke Germanic dialects. The area annexed on
May 18,
1871 corresponded to the
canton of Schirmeck and the northern half of the
canton of
Saales. Schirmeck and Saales had been historically part of
Alsace. These territories, along with the rest of
Alsace and the annexed territories of Lorraine, became part of the
Reichsland of
Elsaß-Lothringen. The area of the Vosges
département was thus reduced to its current 5,874 km² (2,268 sq. miles).
In
1919, with the French victory in the
First World War, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France by Germany at the
Treaty of Versailles. However, Schirmeck and Saales were not returned to the Vosges
département, but instead were incorporated into the recreated Bas-Rhin
département.
The
Saône river rises at
Vioménil, in the Vosges.
The largest cities are
Epinal,
Neufchâteau and
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges.
The
Roman fortified town of
Grand, located 30km from
Toul, has an
amphitheatre and a temple to the
Cult of Apollo.
*
Wine barrels*
Cantons of the Vosges département*
Communes of the Vosges département*
Arrondissements of the Vosges département* Climbbybike.com:
All information on and profiles of the climbs and cols of the Vosges*
Conseil General website*
Vosges (in french)
