Verdun, officially named Verdun-sur-Meuse from 1801 to 1970, is a
French commune located in the department of Meuse, in the Grand Est
region. It is located in the historical and cultural region of
Lorraine.
The existence of the Verdun conurbation dates back
to Antiquity when the Celts founded an oppidum overlooking a bend in
the Meuse. Become the capital of the Civitas Verodunensium, the city
is one of the four cities of the Roman province of Belgium first. In
843, the Treaty of Verdun, which divided the Carolingian Empire into
three kingdoms, was signed there. City of the Holy Roman Empire
since the tenth century, Verdun was submitted by France in 1552,
during the “Voyage of Austrasie”. It forms with the other free
cities of the Empire, Metz and Toul, the province of Trois-Évêchés,
which is definitively attached to the Kingdom of France in 1648 by
the Treaty of Münster. A fortress in eastern France, the city is the
scene of several battles, such as that of 1792 during the wars of
the French Revolution, and that of 1870 during the Franco-Prussian
war. But it was above all the Battle of Verdun in 1916, during the
First World War, that made the city famous throughout the world
forever.
Little affected by the industrial revolution of the
nineteenth century, Verdun is now turning to memory tourism. The
city has many military remains due to its history as a stronghold,
as well as several places of memory of the Great War. The city also
has a rich religious heritage as the seat of the bishopric of Verdun
since the 4th century.
Main urban pole of the center of
Meuse, the town is one of the two sub-prefectures of the department,
and the capital of the arrondissement of Verdun, the Pays de Verdun
and the urban community of Grand Verdun. It is also the most
populous city in the department, even if it has continued to see its
number of inhabitants decrease since the 1970s.
Antiquity: birth of an agglomeration
The history of Verdun
begins with the Celts who founded an oppidum called Verodunum (or
Virodunum) on a rocky promontory between the valley of the Meuse and
that of the Scance, its tributary. From 57 BC, in the midst of the
Gallic War, the Romans occupied the site which appeared to be a
pagus, an administrative subdivision of the Civitas Mediomatricorum
(City of Mediomatrics) based in Divodurum Mediomatricorum (Metz).
Following the administrative reorganization of the Roman emperors
Diocletian and Constantine I, the agglomeration becomes the capital
of the new Civitas Verodunensium, created by the dismemberment of
the Civitas Mediomatricorum. It was then one of the four cities of
the first Roman province of Belgium with the Civitas Treverorum
(City of Trévires) based in Augusta Treverorum (Trier), the Civitas
Leucorum (City of the Leuques) based in Tullium Leucorum (Toul) and
the Civitas Mediomatricorum. The city, which occupied "La Roche" on
the left bank of the Meuse, expands and crosses the river to extend
on the other bank. It is both a shopping center along the second
route of the Roman road linking Reims to Metz, but also a port which
exports, in particular to Northern and Eastern Europe, ceramics and
Argonne glasses.
In the third century, due to growing
insecurity in the region, the city was built with walls and became a
castrum, like several other cities. At the beginning of the 4th
century, Verdun was evangelized by Saint Saintin who had the first
church dedicated to Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul built on Mount
Saint-Vanne. The city becomes the seat of the bishopric of Verdun
and Saint Saintin, its first bishop. Barbarian invasions are on the
rise as the Roman Empire collapses. In 451, the Huns ravaged the
region and Attila would even have taken and sacked the city. The
bishop then installed the cathedral in the shelter of the Roman
castrum.
Verodunum is mentioned both in the Antonine
Itinerary, a travel guide to ancient Rome from the third century,
and in the Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Galliae (Notice des
Gaules), a list of the provinces of Gaul from the fifth century .
Early Middle Ages: entry into the Holy Empire
At the end of
the fifth century, Clovis, leader of the Franks, invaded the
north-east of Gaul. Verdun is besieged and the inhabitants send the
priest Euspicius to negotiate their surrender. Clovis forgives the
besieged and appoints Vanne, nephew of Euspicius, as the new bishop
of Verdun. When Clovis died in 511, his son Thierry I received the
eastern part of Gaul which took the name of Austrasia. Verdun
becomes the capital of a county whose boundaries are those of the
old civitas, one of the largest in Frankish Gaul. The city is both a
political center and a religious center with a count and a bishop
who administer the city.
In the ninth century, the County of
Verdun was included in the Carolingian Empire of Charlemagne. In
843, the Treaty of Verdun divided the empire between his three
grandsons: West Francia for Charles the Bald, Eastern Francia for
Louis the Germanic and median Francia for Lothaire I, to which the
county of Verdun belongs. On the death of Lothaire I in 855, the
middle Francia was also divided into three by the Treaty of Prüm and
Verdun was then part of a territory which would later take the name
of Lotharingia.
Under the Merovingians and the Carolingians,
Verdun is a prosperous city which trades metals, wines, fabrics,
cereals and spices with the countries of the North. The city is also
a slave market to the chagrin of the Church. The city, which was a
castration center for slaves transformed into eunuchs, maintains
privileged relations with Muslim Spain, which can be reached via
Langres then Meaux.
Under the episcopate of Barnoin
(925-939), the city was plundered by the Hungarians.
In 925,
Lotharingia was attached to the kingdom of Germania (formerly
Eastern Francia) of Henri I the Oiseleur. Verdun will then belong to
the Holy Roman Empire for the next five centuries, despite the
attempts of the French kings to retake Lotharingia. In 959,
Lotharingia was divided into two duchies: that of Basse-Lorraine
(present-day Belgium) and that of Haute-Lorraine (present-day
Lorraine), in which Verdun is found.
The Holy Roman Emperor Otto I placed the Church under his direct
tutelage in order to counter the lords who sought to feudize
themselves. He gives the bishops privileges and sovereign rights and
chooses the attorneys, that is to say the lay lords who defend the
goods of the Church in his name. Bishop Haymon, from 988 to 1024,
was the first to obtain the right to mint money and to use Verdun
tolls and markets. In 963, Godefroid Ier “the Captive” was the first
count of Verdun to come from the House of Ardenne, a wealthy
Lotharingian family.
Verdun developed with the construction
of Notre-Dame cathedral in 990, four large Benedictine abbeys and
two collegiate churches. The port is seen surrounded by walls around
985, and not the usual wooden palisades. A monastic reform marked
the beginning of the arts of illumination, enamelling and
goldsmithing, in which Nicolas de Verdun made himself known.
Central Middle Ages: struggle between bourgeoisie and episcopate
The counts and bishops of Verdun do not get along as the emperors of
the Holy Roman Empire appoint loyal German bishops to counter the
spirit of independence of the counts. The Count of Verdun and Duke
of Haute-Lotharingie Godefroid "the Bearded" went so far as to take
the city in 1047, expel Bishop Thierry and set the cathedral on
fire. But he ends up doing public penance, returns the stolen
territories and rebuilds the cathedral.
In 1095, Godefroy de
Bouillon took the lead of the First Crusade and sold his county to
Bishop Richer before he left for the Holy Land. The new attorneys of
the Church are the counts of Bar. Renaud I of Bar will lose and
regain the county-avouerie several times against William I of
Luxembourg and Count Henri I of Grandpré. But he abuses his power by
building a dungeon, the Tour-le-Voué, at the top of the city and by
having Bishop Ursion abdicate. The new bishop, Albéron de Chiny, and
the inhabitants demolish the tower and force Renaud to relinquish
his office.
On August 17, 1156, in Colmar, the emperor
Frédéric Barberousse confirms to the new bishop Albert de Mercy and
to the Church of Verdun the benefit of the County of Verdun given by
Otto III to Haymon at the end of the tenth century, in recognition
of the services rendered to the Empire. The ecclesiastics have the
right to mint money, to dispense justice, and are owners, outside
Verdun, of the abbey of Juvigny, of the collegiate church of
Montfaucon and of ten fortresses. The bishops decide to no longer
appoint a lawyer and to remain the only masters by combining the
functions. In 1227, the king of the Romans Henri VII will qualify
the bishop of Verdun of princeps (prince of the Holy Empire) at a
time when the latter administers a hundred villages.
In the
12th century, the rich bourgeois, or city dwellers, wanted to
participate in the government of the city, but the bishops refused
to share power. Many clashes will then oppose the bourgeoisie to the
ecclesiastics. In 1142, Conrad III had already recognized a custom
and a right specific to the Verdun bourgeois. In 1195, Henry VI took
them under his special protection. In 1208, while the war was
raging, the bourgeois allied to the lords drove out the chapter and
Bishop Albert II of Hierges was killed while besieging the city.
Just like in Metz, the bourgeoisie conjoined and equip themselves
with jurors or "wardours (guardians) of the peace" making up a new
magistracy, the "Number". Verdunites also draft a Peace Charter. But
the bourgeois having obtained the leading functions do not belong to
the Common but to the rich patrician families called the Lignages of
Verdun. In 1214, Emperor Frederick II recognized the Messina Peace
Charter and therefore tacitly that of Verdun, while forbidding the
Verdunese to conjure up. The struggle between the bourgeoisie and
the episcopate, however, continued throughout the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Verdun experienced its
golden age. The city is divided into an upper town which
concentrates the religious and administrative centers, and a lower
town comprising the residential quarters inhabited by traders and
craftsmen. The town then has 13,000 inhabitants. The industry is
prosperous, between weaving of sheets, tanning of skins and pieces
of silverware of Mosan art. The merchants crisscrossed Europe via
Verdun, bringing back wood, precious metals, fabrics and spices.
Many abbeys were built like the Benedictines of Saint-Vanne,
Saint-Paul and Saint-Airy. But the period of prosperity does not
last. At the end of the thirteenth century, traffic on the Meuse
decreased in favor of that on the Moselle or the Rhine. Already in
1132, Bishop Albéron de Chiny had stopped minting money, leaving
room for the money of Châlons-sur- Marne and entering the French
monetary zone. Urban industry faces competition from rural industry,
which is then more competitive.
In the fourteenth century,
Verdun became aware of its vulnerability. The city is in fact
encircled to the south by the county of Bar, to the north by that of
Luxembourg and to the west by France which annexed Champagne in
1285. The influence of France is increasing in the west of Lorraine.
: it annexed the city of Toul in 1300, the moving Barrois in 1301
and the bishopric of Toul in 1305. The Verdunois placed themselves
in turn under the protection of Gobert VIII d'Apremont in 1314, of
Edward I of Bar, then of the king of France Louis X "the Hutin" in
1315, causing inevitable conflicts to which Jean of Luxembourg
joins. Finally, in 1331, Bishop Henri d'Apremont placed the city in
the perpetual custody of France. With the outbreak of the Hundred
Years War in 1337, the King of France placed the city under the
joint custody of the Counts of Bar and Luxembourg.
Late
Middle Ages: the decline
The plague struck Lorraine and Verdun
around 1348/1350, killing between 30 and 60% of the population.
Occupied by the war, the King of France no longer takes care of
keeping Verdun, leaving the Empire to restore its authority there
with difficulty. The emperor of the Romans Charles IV suppresses all
the preceding reforms and gives again the power to the bishopric and
the lineages. He then re-established joint custody of Bar and
Luxembourg, which provoked the anger of the bourgeois for whom these
guards were expensive. They formed a coalition in 1358 with Yolande
de Bar, already in conflict with the bishopric since 1352 and the
city since 1356. The Verdunois was ravaged but the two parties made
peace in 1359 because of the growing threat from the Rover Scout
companies. The bishopric and the city are then very indebted.
In 1374, Verdun obtained the title of free city of the Empire,
placed under the direct supervision of the emperor. The seal of the
city changes to feature an imperial eagle instead of a cathedral.
The Grand-Rempart forms a new enclosure of around thirty towers and
three monumental gates, including the Porte Chaussée. The city is
not going to know peace, however. In 1382, during the Great Western
Schism, Verdun had two bishops. In addition, the protectors of the
city follow one another, alternating between France and the Holy
Roman Empire, then between France and Burgundy. Finally, the
bourgeoisie have less and less power while financial difficulties
are felt. Abbeys and convents, which have seen the number of
religious drop, must sell part of their property to survive
16th century: a French town
Even if the city remains a land of
Empire and the bishop a Prince of Empire, the city is more and more
under the French influence, by the language, the origin of the
bishops and the religious orders, by the style architecture and
economics (use of currencies and trade relations). In addition, the
Holy Roman Empire no longer protects the territory of the cities of
Metz, Toul and Verdun (future Trois-Évêchés) against looters.
In 1548, the new bishop Nicolas Psaume turned to France to take
the political and religious situation in hand. The king of France
Henri II allied with the Protestant princes of Germany in struggle
with the emperor of the Romans Charles V, and became vicar of the
Empire and protector of the Trois-Évêchés. In 1552, he organized the
“Voyage d'Allemagne” (or “Voyage d'Austrasia”), a military
expedition to the territory of the Holy Empire. After having taken
Metz and Toul without a fight and having gone to Alsace, he entered
Verdun peacefully on June 12, 1552. The same evening he left the
city, leaving behind a garrison of 300 men under the authority of a
governor, Marshal de Tavannes.
A few months later, the
emperor Charles V seeks to retake the territory of the Trois-Évêchés
and lays siege to Metz. But the city resisted under the command of
Duke François de Guise and the siege was unsuccessful, forcing the
emperor and his army to withdraw.
With the French occupation
of 1552, the bishops of Verdun lost all political power. The city
then has 3 chapters, 14 abbeys and convents, and 24 churches. The
cathedral chapter is made up of an archpriest, archdeacons, a
cantor, a schoolboy, a chancellor, about sixty canons and chaplains.
Bishop Nicolas Psaume however took an active part in the Council of
Trent (1545-1563) and undertook to enforce his decisions and to
fight Protestantism. In 1558, he founded a university where law,
medicine, theology, philosophy and literature were taught, but it
was to close its doors in 1565.
Despite the French
occupation, the King of France, like the Emperor, still considers
Verdun to be an imperial city. Bishops are still appointed by the
Holy Empire and justice is administered by the Imperial Chamber. The
city briefly passed under the care of Charles III of Lorraine from
1590 to 1595.
17th and 18th centuries: a garrison town
At
the beginning of the seventeenth century, the French monarchy wanted
to bring the city out of the Holy Empire for good. Relations with
France are intensifying. From 1624 to 1635, the king's engineers
erected a citadel to assume the defenses of the kingdom.
Finally, in 1648, the Treaty of Münster, forming part of the
Treaties of Westphalia, confirms the attachment of the city and the
bishopric of Verdun to the kingdom of France. The inhabitants carved
the king's arms on the city gates and adopted a fleur-de-lis crowned
with gold as their new coat of arms. The border of the kingdom being
found on the Rhine, Verdun becomes an important element of defense.
Vauban fortified the city: he locked it up in a bastioned enclosure,
surrounded by glacis, and he developed a system of three
lock-bridges, including that of Saint-Amand, to flood the plain
around the city. But not all the planned works are carried out,
leaving the city vulnerable, unable to withstand a siege. Verdun
will then only be a stopping place serving as a stopover for the
royal troops. The garrison stabilized around 3,000 men.
In
the seventeenth century, the city lost its judicial and
administrative autonomy and came under the control of Metz, where it
became one of the five and then eleven royal bailiwicks. A small
town of 10,000 inhabitants, a second-rate military place and a
modest administrative center, Verdun did not experience great
economic growth or major transformations.
In the eighteenth
century, Verdun's activities still revolve around regional trade,
crafts, construction, tanneries, spinning mills, and sugar mills.
The city experienced a period of peace and found itself in the grip
of a constructive fever: the Saint-Nicolas chapel of the Jesuit
college in 1731, the episcopal palace, the Saint-Paul abbey and the
restoration of the cathedral in 1755. In 1737, the city buys the
Japin hotel to make it its town hall. Two barracks were built to
accommodate the men of the garrison: the Saint-Paul barracks (then
Joan of Arc) from 1729 to 1735 and that of Saint-Nicolas from 1723
to 1766.