Vesoul is a commune in the east of France, prefecture of the
Haute-Saône department in the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region and
capital of cantons and arrondissement. The city is part of the
cultural and historical region of Franche-Comté and is the main city
of the urban community of Vesoul and the Pays de Vesoul and the Val
de Saône. In 2021, it has 15,130 inhabitants. Its inhabitants are
called Vesulians.
Founded in the first millennium, the city
developed from a fortified castle named Castrum Vesulium. Seat of a
viscountcy then capital of the bailiwick of Upstream, Vesoul
becomes, over the centuries, a fortified town, a commercial square,
a judicial center, a garrison town and goes so far as to acquire
administrative and political functions. After having long belonged
to the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire, the city of Vesoul
was annexed by France in 1678, then became capital of the ephemeral
state of Franche-Comté in 1814, before becoming French again.
Town with the characteristic architecture of the cities of
Franche-Comté, Vesoul is home to a preserved historic district,
built in local limestone. Established at the foot of the Motte, a
conical hill whose summit overlooks the city for one hundred and
fifty meters, Vesoul is surrounded by a protected nature that
combines plains, reliefs and bodies of water.
An important
industrial area, Vesoul is the global logistics center of the car
manufacturer Stellantis. As the headquarters of several departmental
organizations, Vesoul has also developed a self-sustaining economy
based on public services and the tertiary sector. The city of Vesoul
was also immortalized in 1968 by Jacques Brel's homonymous song,
Vesoul.
Vesoul lists many monumental civil and religious buildings, mainly
concentrated in the old center: the Old Vesoul, homogeneous and dense
architectural ensemble dating from the fifteenth to the nineteenth
centuries. Classified as a Heritage City of Franche-Comté and in the
Additional Inventory of Historical Monuments, this district shelters
more than 34 hectares which were registered in 1977. Its historic
streets and squares are equipped with mansions, winegrowers' houses,
religious buildings, commemorative monuments, fountains, statues and
various houses with trompe-l'oeil and wall frescoes. These monuments
constitute the main elements of the Vesulian architectural heritage.
Since the end of the twentieth century, the historic center has
undergone several renovations: the facades of the buildings are
regularly restored and the sidewalks reformed. The old district has not
been significantly affected by urban renewal; the buildings in this area
are relatively old and well preserved and few modern buildings have
recently been erected there.
In Vesoul, the Mérimée Base lists
fifteen historical monuments and the Palissy Base counts sixty-three
works.
Since the Middle Ages, noble families have been building mansions and
mansions in the city. The city has several, spread throughout the
historic center, remarkable in particular for their limestone
architecture, their high towers, their external staircases and their
vast courtyards. The majority were erected between the fifteenth and
eighteenth centuries and are, for the most part, now protected. More
recently, architect-designed villas have been built in the town.
Among the residences built in the fifteenth century, we can mention the
Thomassin hotel. Erected by the Lord Jacques Thomassin, probably from
1480 to 1483, the rectangular-shaped building has a flamboyant Gothic
architecture facade and a high staircase tower. The Thomassin hotel has
been registered as a historical monument since December 24, 2008.
Located on the Church Square, the Baressols hotel was built in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; its Gothic-style facades and roofs
have been listed as a historical monument since November 7, 1979. Built
at the end of the fifteenth century, the Parat house is decorated with
mullioned windows and a porte-cochère.
Concerning those built in
the sixteenth century, we find the Simon Renard hotel, built in 1525.
With extensive renovations carried out in 1784, the hotel is composed of
a polygonal tower accompanied by various ornaments. Another testimony of
the sixteenth century, the Magnoncourt hotel, built in 1530. With a
rectangular shape, a courtyard, a garden and a staircase tower, the
hotel is organized like most other Vesulian mansions. Erected in 1549,
the Mongenet hotel has been protected for its elevation and its roof
since March 26, 1934. The Barbarossa house, dating from the late
sixteenth century, is notable in particular for its basket-handle arcade
and its sundial. The Salives hotel, located on rue Paul-Petitclerc,
hosted the municipal administration of Vesoul from 1768 to 1938.
The city then took advantage of the peace of the Enlightenment to build
many mansions, rich in decorations. The Pétremand hotel, built between
1769 and 1773, stands out for its balconies and wrought iron railings on
the north and east facades. The Lyautey de Colombe hotel, a building
built in 1712 whose street-side facade is of classical architecture, is
located on Place du Grand Puits. The Salengro street has two
eighteenth-century residences, which are protected as historical
monuments: the house of Ébaudy Rochetaillé (around 1781), residence of
benefactor of the city and the Lyautey hotel Genevreuille (around 1760),
which house baroque decorations of the eighteenth century as well as a
stone staircase with a wrought iron railing. We can also mention the
Hotel Raillard de Granvelle, which housed the services of the town hall
of Vesoul for more than 30 years during the eighteenth century.
From the nineteenth century to the Belle Époque, vast houses were built
beyond the historic center. Just like some private mansions, these
houses and villas are made up in particular of large contiguous lots and
predominant portals. Vesoul has several of them, among others place
Pierre-Rénet (Baudry-Roussel house), rue Noirot (Paul house) and avenue
du général de Gaulle (villa Lyautey).
During the twentieth
century, a few architect houses were erected in the city. The
municipality has three residences distinguished by the label "Heritage
of the twentieth century": the villa Kielwasser (1956) and the
Malitchenko house (1963), both designed by the architect André
Maisonnier, a friend of Le Corbusier as well as the Petitperrin house
(1964), erected by Jean Petitperrin, architect who contributed to the
realization of many buildings in Vesoul.
The old center contains
some examples of half-timbered houses, one of the oldest of which is the
Cariage house, built in the fifteenth century. Formerly an important
wine-growing center, the city has also preserved winegrowers' houses,
whose cellars overlook the streets directly.
From the eleventh century, the appearance of Christianity in Vesoul
is marked by the foundations of the first two institutions and religious
buildings in the history of the city: a first church dedicated to Saint
George and the Marteroy priory dedicated to Saint Nicholas. Over the
centuries, many religious buildings such as churches and chapels have
been built in the city, most of which remain today. Later, following the
appearance of new religious currents and religions in Vesoul, especially
during the nineteenth century, new confessional buildings were built
such as a Protestant temple, a synagogue and a mosque.
The center
of Vesoul houses a few religious houses, two of which are listed as
historical monuments: the Ursuline convent (seventeenth century), built
between 1680 and 1683 on two levels and the convent of the Ladies of
Saint-Maur (nineteenth century), also called "School of the Ladies of
Saint-Maur", built from 1853 to 1858. Other religious houses also
existed in Vesoul such as the Capuchin convent and the Annonciades
convent.
The most important and ancient Catholic church of Vesoul
is the Saint-Georges church, qualified as the cathedral of the diocese
of Vesoul under the Constitutional Church. Built from 1735 to 1746, the
church was designed by the architects Jean-Pierre Galezot and Jean
Querret du Bois. With a classical architecture facade, the building
includes a nave and two aisles, which is surrounded by six chapels on
the sides and two chapels surrounding the choir. Classified as a
historical monument in 1993, the building houses about forty works
protected as historical monuments, including a tribune organ dating from
1776. The Church of the Sacred Heart was built from 1913 and then
blessed on June 21, 1914; however, its bell tower was not completed
until 1922 due to the First World War. Located on rue Jules-Ferry, in
the Boulevard district, the church was designed in a neo-Byzantine style
by the architect Eugène Guillemot. It was classified "Heritage of the
twentieth century" on October 10, 2014. The Saint-Joseph church, for its
part, is a Catholic church built during the 1960s and located at number
2 rue de la Pépinière in the Rêpes district.
The city also has
several chapels in its religious heritage. Among the most famous, the
Notre-Dame-de-la-Motte chapel, one of the symbols of Vesoul, placed at
the top of the Motte hill. Gothic in style, this religious monument was
inaugurated in 1857 in the presence of Cardinals Gousset and Mathieu.
Downstream of the chapel, on the ascent path of the Motte, there is a
path of 14 crosses. Finally, the city center concentrates many old small
churches, chapels and other religious establishments that were once run
by religious congregations.
The religious heritage of Vesoul also
includes buildings of other denominations than Catholicism. Inaugurated
on June 16, 1866 by the local Protestant community and in particular
thanks to the efforts of Pastor Racine, the Protestant temple of Vesoul
is equipped with a bell tower dating from 1965 and an organ from 1974.
The temple has been registered as a French historical monument since
August 5, 2020. It was in 1875 that the Jewish community of Vesoul,
which gradually increased following the Franco-German conflict of 1870,
built a synagogue in neo-Moorish style. Built by the Vésulien architect
Charles Dodelier, the building has been listed as a historical monument
since December 5, 1984. The city also has a Muslim religious building
erected during the second half of the twentieth century: the Arrahma
mosque in the Montmarin district, which consists of a minaret and a
dome.
Various monumental public equipment buildings are counted in the
city. The main ones consist of high portals or even vast courtyards.
The Town Hall is an imposing building whose origins date back to
1619, but which was restructured and renovated in 1769 and in 1811. Used
as a hospital, the building was completely redeveloped in 1935 as a town
hall and then inaugurated on May 29, 1938. It is equipped with furniture
classified as a historical monument, including a fresco by Albert
Decaris located in the lobby.
The Paul-Morel Hospital is a large
building with foundations dating back to 1603 and which was initially a
Capuchin convent. Since the seventeenth century, the building has
undergone multiple renovation operations and has been transformed many
times (military hospital, infantry barracks, ecclesiastical secondary
school ...). Converted into a hospital in the 1930s, it has been disused
since 2009. The building is particularly remarkable thanks to its chapel
and its courtyard surrounded by arcade. It houses furniture protected as
historical monuments such as paintings and carpentry.
Although
having been a stronghold for a long time, Vesoul has however been able
to preserve only a few vestiges of military infrastructure from its
past. The fortifications of Vesoul and the Castrum Vesulium that once
existed and which have been reformed several times have practically
disappeared; the city gates that surrounded the city, were all destroyed
between 1765 and 1800. However, part of the rampart and some towers
remain on rue Charrière des Grands Murs. We also note the existence of
an old barracks located near the city center. This imposing military
complex, formerly called the "Luxembourg Quarter", was built in 1740. In
1776, a few buildings came to accompany the initial building and from
1843 to 1858, several structures were erected, most of which were
stables, thus allowing the 11th regiment of mounted hunters to be
stationed there. These buildings now house public organizations and
housing.
Among the buildings erected in the eighteenth century,
we can mention the courthouse, built from 1765 to 1771 by the architect
Charles-François Longin. It houses in particular an interior staircase
with wrought iron banister and a courtroom with a rich woodwork
decoration. It has been registered as a historical monument since
December 7, 1976. The building of the academic inspection of Haute-Saône
is a large building, which formerly housed the normal school of
teachers. The prefectural hotel of Haute-Saône was erected in 1770 under
the orders of the mayor of Vesoul Beauchamp. Renovated and enlarged in
1859 and 1860, it is particularly remarkable for its gate equipped with
sixty-four golden-tipped spears.
Old granting offices remain in
Vesoul. Among these, we can mention the central office of the grant
(1864) built by the Vésulien architect Charles Dodelier and the office
of the grant of the Rhine (1830), built according to the plans of the
architect Ridoux, in neoclassical style and comprising a portico of four
columns and two pillars at the ends. Of Spanish-Mexican architecture,
the prison was designed by the architect Le Beuffe in 1837 on a surface
of 4,162 meters2. It was built on land belonging to an old religious
establishment.
In the twentieth century, several transport
infrastructures were created. The city has a railway station
commissioned on February 22, 1858, by the Eastern Railway Company. The
passenger building extends over more than 110 meters. The station of the
local railways of Vesoul was built in 1910, rue du Commandant Girardot,
to manage the departmental network of the Haute-Saône. It is one of the
largest in France built for this type of network. Today it hosts the
main post office of the city of Vesoul.
Vesoul's commercial heritage includes some monumental commercial
buildings, particularly in the city center. Located on the Place de la
République, the Vesoul market halls were built in 1868. This covered
market with an area of more than 1,000 m2 underwent work carried out
during the post-war period which modified its main facade. There are
also old buildings in the streets of the city center that housed or
still house postal services, wholesalers or banking services such as the
Hotel de la Caisse d'épargne, built in 1908 and adorned with multiple
elements of Art Deco architecture.
The industrial heritage
includes various testimonies inherited from the industrial revolution.
Listed in the General Inventory of cultural heritage, the tobacco
factory (converted into a sports complex) is a disused industrial store
dating from 1898 composed of three buildings made of coated limestone
rubble, around a rectangular courtyard. Regarding the important
buildings built in the twentieth century, we can mention the
Dollé-Chaubey factory, built in 1908 in the south-west of the city,
which was one of the most important French manufactures of agricultural
machinery. Classified in the general inventory of cultural heritage, the
establishment is now occupied by workshops of the PSA factory.
Established in 1610 to the west of the city, Gérôme College is one of
the oldest educational institutions in the department. Formerly, the
building was used in particular as a central school in 1796, as a
secondary school in 1802, as an Imperial high school in 1907 to finally
be converted into a college in 1975.
The memorial heritage in
Vesoul is diverse and includes some monumental structures; the oldest
monument to the dead of Vesoul is the memorial column of the Mobiles of
the Haute-Saône, located on the Place de la République and designed in
1874 by the architect Charles Dodelier. In addition, the monument to the
dead of the Alleys, inaugurated in 1925 by the architects Boutterin,
Landes and Humbaire, has been registered as a historical monument since
2022. Among the commemorative works, there are also some statues paying
tribute to local personalities, one of the oldest of which is the bust
of Doctor Gevrey, inaugurated on September 27, 1890 near the town hall.
The ornamental heritage is represented by various elements such as
fountains (obelisk fountain, fountain of the Water Chapel) and a kiosk
located on the Place des Allées.
The funerary heritage of the
city of Vesoul includes three cemeteries, the most historic of which is
the Old cemetery, composed of more than 3,000 graves, containing a large
number of monumental burials as well as a military square of 200 graves.
Built in 1783, the Old cemetery currently covers an area of more than 2
hectares. The other two cemeteries in the city are the New cemetery,
inaugurated on June 5, 1944 and extending over more than 3 hectares and
the Jewish cemetery, acquired in 1832 and with an area of 18 acres.
Other buildings that have now disappeared, linked to local history,
can be cited as the Marcel Bon printing house, a commercial warehouse
built during the second quarter of the twentieth century and destroyed
in 2014, which consisted of a square floor, an extra floor and a
long-sided roof in mechanical tile. Formerly, the city had 3 mills: the
Saint-Martin mill (built in the eighteenth century, bought by the city
in 1826 and which ceased its activity before 1880), the Meadow mill and
the Pontarcher mill.
Labeled "Flower Town", Vesoul lists 98 hectares of green spaces,
including about 3,300 trees, 4,500 shrubs and 80,000 annual plants and
20,000 biannual plants, maintained by municipal services.
The
oldest public garden in the city is the English Garden, the first public
park classified as a "remarkable garden" in Franche-Comté. Laid out in
1863 as part of the regional horticultural exhibition by the landscape
architect Brice Michel, it is retraced into an English garden in 1976.
Extending over 3 hectares, the English garden includes more than 850
varieties of plant species and consists in particular of a rockery, a
waterfall, a pergola, a rose garden as well as alignment trees and
various shrubs, annual and perennial plants.
In addition, a green
flow adjoins the English garden along the Durgeon River. Built in the
1980s, this wooded promenade extends over several hundred meters along a
North-South axis.
Apart from the public green spaces, there are
several private gardens in Vesoul listed in the general inventory of
cultural heritage and located in the city center: the vegetable garden
of the house of Diocesan Works as well as the pleasure gardens of
Saint-Maur, the Nicolas Barré fraternity, the Prefecture hotel, the
property of Trévillers and the property of 18 rue Baron-Bouvier. There
are also 68 allotment gardens, located on Lake Avenue.
In
addition, the Vesoul agglomeration is connected by two greenways, which
are mostly lined with trees, vegetation, bushes and hedges: the Green
Path (1980), one of the oldest greenways in France built on a railway,
and the Curlew Trail (2008). These communication routes are reserved for
non-motorized travel.
Due to the large number of facilities for the practice of cultural
activities that it has, the city of Vesoul is one of the main cultural
centers of the region. The cultural offer is marked by the presence of
conservation and exhibition establishments as well as places of
documentary resources and various archive services. In addition, the
city has several art exhibition halls that allow all types of artists
including painters, sculptors and photographers to present their works.
There are also modern, large and specific performance halls that
offer multidisciplinary programs several times a week. The city also has
cultural centers that present a variety of socio-cultural events
throughout the year.
The main place of artistic and historical exhibition of the city is
the Georges-Garret Museum, which benefits from the label "Museum of
France". Founded in 1882 by Victor Jeanneney, the museum has been housed
in the former Ursuline convent since 1981. Consisting of fourteen
exhibition rooms in which more than 3,000 works are gathered, the museum
is divided into two sections covering more than 1,200 m2: the first
level is devoted to archaeology, which exhibits ancient monuments found
on the territory of Haut-Saône and the second level is devoted to fine
arts, the majority of which is reserved for the art of the second half
of the nineteenth century, in particular around the Vesulian painter and
sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme. The town also has two temporary art
exhibition rooms: the chapel of the town hall (158 m2) and the Ursuline
Room (96 m2), which allow artists to exhibit their works.
In
terms of documentary resource center, the municipal library of Vesoul
was founded in 1771. The general fund of the library lists 60,000
documents and 40,000 old printed materials, including 400 manuscripts
and incunabula. Its main site, the Louis-Garret Library, was built in
1981 and houses a reading space of more than 1,800 m2. The library
totals more than 3,000 subscribers each year and makes more than 100,000
loans. The municipality is also equipped with two other, smaller
libraries: the Vesoul annex library and the Liseron associative library.
We also note the presence of a media library housing more than 35,000
documents on loan, available in different formats.
Regarding the
archive services, Vesoul counts on its territory the departmental
archives of the Haute-Saône, located in a building built in 1965 and
renovated many times. The organization offers cultural and educational
actions in addition to its main archival missions. The Municipal
Archives, open since September 1, 1992, are located in the town hall and
preserve documents relating to Vesoul after 1900.
The regional
center for the restoration and conservation of works of art (CRRCOA) is
based in Vesoul. Created in 1985 by the departmental council of
Haute-Saône, the establishment is equipped with more than 2,000 m2 of
workshops and laboratory and operates in the conservation of heritage by
restoring furniture such as sculptures, paintings on canvas and
textiles. Vesoul is also the headquarters of the society of agriculture,
letters, sciences and arts of the Haute-Saône, one of the oldest learned
societies in Haut-Saône, created on April 9, 1801 and recognized as a
public utility in 1925. Its actions are centered on the defense of the
Haut-Saône heritage, research on genealogy and history.
For live performances, the town is equipped with the Edwige-Feuillère
Theater, a building with a room housing 700 armchairs and a large stage
of 350 m2, and which offers musical, scenic and theatrical performances.
The first conventional stage in France to be labeled "Children's Voices
/ scenic space", the theater receives annually, on average, more than
30,000 spectators, who attend nearly 100 performances by artists of
local to national notoriety.
For conferences, meetings and
congresses, the city of Vesoul has on its territory the Haute-Saône
Exhibition Center. With a covered area of 3,200 m2 and located on a plot
of 2 hectares in the Technologia zone, the complex has a capacity of
more than 3,000 people and can host events and events such as trade
fairs, meetings, concerts, congresses and fairs. Finally, other rooms
used for show performances are located in the town such as the Parisot
room, with a capacity of 400 seats or 1,500 standing places and the
Calypso room that can hold 250 people.
The cinematographic show
is represented by various structures, the main one of which is the
Majestic - Espace des Lumières, one of the largest cinema complexes in
the region, totaling more than 350,000 admissions each year. Opened on
July 6, 2005, this multiplex, classified "Art and Essay", has 1,893
armchairs distributed in 10 rooms, all equipped with air conditioning,
accessibility for the disabled and digitization. The city also has a
cinema room with a capacity of 330 seats, integrated into the social and
cultural center "Espace Villon".
The municipality has two
cultural centers that offer cultural and educational activities
throughout the year as well as show productions: the Villon space, a
social and cultural center housing four rooms, and the Jean-Marie-Goux
cultural center, an institution that brings together the municipal
schools of music and drawing of Vesoul and which houses several specific
and spacious classrooms. Also, the city has a departmental music school
created in 1985, of the conservatory type with intercommunal radiation
(CRI).
In addition, the agglomeration has two nightclubs that
contribute to the local nightlife: Manouchka (2 rooms), the oldest
nightclub in the region, open since November 22, 1972 and the 3rd World
(3 rooms). These establishments regularly welcome musical artists of
regional and national reputation.
The headquarters of the
departmental association for the development and initiative of music and
dance in Haute-Saône (ADDIM 70) is located in Vesoul. Created in 1983,
by the departmental council of Haute-Saône and the regional directorate
of cultural affairs of Franche-Comté, this association's main mission is
to promote artistic development, especially in the choreographic and
musical field.
The city of Vesoul has been mentioned in various artistic and
literary works.
Singers cite the name of the town in their
productions, including Jacques Brel, singer-songwriter of Vesoul (1968),
a world-famous composition with one of its choruses :
"You wanted to
see Vesoul and we saw Vesoul. »
This famous formula is also
accompanied in the work by the popular "Chauffe Marcel! ». The city has
also been mentioned in other significant songs such as It's raining on
Brussels (1981) by Michel Jouveaux interpreted by Dalida, Fous ta
cagoule (2006) by/by the Fatal Bazooka group, The Time of our guitars
(2008) by/by Georges Moustaki and the CD album V'soul Vesoul V'soul!
(1995) from the Franche-Comté Christian Décamps & Fils, co-founder and
members of the Ange Group. And again United States of Franche-Comté
(recorded in 1975 / edited in 2003) by/by Daniel Slimak.
Some
artists have represented the city within the painting. The painter and
caricaturist Henry Blandin made several paintings representing Vesulian
places and monuments, including an oil painting in 1882 called Parade of
the company of the firefighters of the Place Neuve in Vesoul.
Authors have evoked Vesoul, the City, in their literary works: Olivier
Rolin (Paper Tiger), Jacques Lanzmann (Café-Crime), Jean Giraudoux
(Readings for a shadow), Alain Guel (Aârio), Nathalie Démoulin (The Big
Blue), Ali Ghalem (The Seven-headed Snake). In addition, Vesoul, the
song, has been mentioned in various novels and literary works, in
particular: the novel Café-Crime by Jacques Lanzmann (1987), the
chronicles The street trades by Jil Silberstein & Jean Mohr (1990), the
novel Paper Tiger by Olivier Rolin (France Culture Prize 2002), the
novel The paradise opposite by Paul M. Marchand (2007), the noir novel
Lazy Bird by Andrée A. Michaud (2009), the anthology of the Jacques Brel
song, You wanted to see Vesoul by Bernard Belin edited by FC Culture -
Vesoul Edition (2013), We only live for an hour, A trip with Brel edited
at the Threshold (2018) in which David Dufresne conducts an
investigation on the link between Vesoul and Brel.
Cinematographically, no notable films were shot in Vesoul. However, the
city is mentioned in many films such as the Seventh Company by
Moonlight, the Intimate Enemy…
The historical regional language
spoken in Vesoul is Franc-Comtois, a Romance language that was once
spoken throughout the northern part of Franche-Comté.
The gastronomy of Vesoul is mainly focused on the cuisine of
Franche-Comté, which uses products such as cold cuts, red wine,
mushrooms and cheese. Classified as a "Terroir and Heritage Town", the
town is home to about fifty restaurants, cafeterias and breweries as
well as various establishments offering foreign specialties such as
Asian and American cuisine. There is also the School of the French Art
and Taste of Chocolate, an institute founded by the master
chocolatier-pastry chef Mickaël Azouz.
The city has some local
culinary specialties: chicken à la vesulienne, pike à la vesulienne,
trout à la mode de Vesoul, beef jelly à la vesulienne, veal escalopes à
la vesulienne, pike perch à la vesulienne, waffles from Vieux-Vesoul,
gingerbreads from the Sainte-Catherine fair.
Examples of regional
products :
Characteristic dishes: hotpot, salad and chicken with
comtoise, trout with blue cheese, chicken and morel crust, fried carp,
coq au vin jaune…
Cold meats: gandeuillot, Luxeuil ham, Morteau and
Montbéliard sausage, Brazil…
Wines and alcohols: kirsch, yellow and
red wine, absinthe, crémant, Franche-Comté wines, savagnin, trousseau,
macvin, Poulsard…
Cheeses : emmental Grand Cru, carré de l'est, Mont
d'Or, comté, cancoillotte, morbier…
Desserts and pastries: Montbozon
biscuit, griottines, quince paste, Téméraire, galette comtoise…
A first written mention of the city designates it by the term of
Castrum Vesulium (in Latin, Castrum means "fortification" and
Vesulium comes from "mountain") in 899. Over the centuries, the city
has experienced multiple changes of Latinized names including
Vesullum and Visulium, to finally take the name of Vesoul in 1242.
In the Middle Ages, the city is also called castro Vesulio or
castrum Vesolense.
Several explanations have been given on
the origin of the name of Vesoul, one of the most significant
highlights the Celtic root ves (mountain, elevation), which is also
found in the name of Mount Vesuvius. Vesoul is therefore a far
derivative of "mountain" in reference to La Motte, hill where the
city was established and developed.
According to the scholar
Éloi Johanneau, the name of Vesoul is made up of the Gaelic words:
bez (construction), nez (tomb) and houl (sun), or literally "tomb of
the sun". According to another explanation, Vesoul would come from
the word tudesque besul, which means pointed, in reference to the
conical shape of the hill of La Motte.
The name of the
inhabitants of Vesoul is Vésuliens. In the past, the inhabitants
were sometimes called Vesoulois.
Some traces and imprints confirm that Vesoul and its
agglomeration were occupied during Prehistory. Objects left by the
populations certify that men made and used tools in the Vesulian
region, during the various prehistoric ages.
Prehistoric
objects, mainly tools, have been found on the different sides of the
hill of La Motte. Also, around Vesoul, objects were discovered at
the camp of Caesar and on the plateau of Cita, two sites located to
the south of the city which provided numerous remains of prehistoric
stone weapons. The Pierre-qui-Vire dolmen, a megalith located 2
kilometers east of Vesoul, is dated between 3,500 and 3,300 BC.
The numerous natural cavities of the agglomeration of Vesoul
have also made it possible to discover tools and animal bones
exploited by man. In the Baume cave, located south of Vesoul, a
Mousterian lithic tool was found thus demonstrating a continuous
occupation of all levels of the ancient Würm. In the southern
gallery of the natural cavity, an occupation of the Final Bronze Age
III has also been demonstrated. Finally, a set of mammoth bones was
discovered in 1989 at the Champdamoy font, east of Vesoul.
There are few details about Vesoul in Antiquity.
Some historians and archaeologists attest to a history during this
period. Indeed, archaeologists have discovered on the Motte, dozens
of objects dating from Antiquity, including weapons, coins and
medals bearing the effigy of the first Roman emperors.
At the
time, the territory where the current city of Vesoul is located
belonged to the Gallic people of the Séquanes, who had in their
possessions a sector between the Rhône, the Saône, the Jura and the
Vosges.
When the Romans colonized Sequania, they were marked
by the defensive advantages offered by the hill of La Motte and
built a small camp there with a military fort. Roman camps were also
created in certain areas of the agglomeration of Vesoul such as the
César camp, the Cita plateau and the Sabot de Frotey plateau. In
addition, we found the existence of six Roman roads that passed on
the site of the current town of Vesoul. All these constructions
certify that the Romans lived in the area of Vesoul.
During
the Gallo-Roman period, the territory of Vesoul belonged to the
pagus Colerensis, which had as its capital Corre and which extended
from the Vôge to the gates of Besançon.
At the end of Roman
rule, in the fifth century, the capital of the pagus was transferred
to the Gallo-Roman city of Port-Abucin, currently the city of
Port-sur-Saône, and was then renamed pagus Portuensis, then took the
name, later, of County of Port, Carolingian constituency whose
territory corresponded approximately to the current department of
Haute-Saône. The barbarian invasions caused many troubles in the
region and the Burgundians then took control of Sequania in the
fifth century.
Vesoul was probably born
between the sixth century and the ninth century; the date of the
founding of the city is unknown. At that time, the territory of the
current city of Vesoul, then located in the county of Port, depended
on the kingdom of Burgundy (534-843). Following the territorial
redistribution of the Carolingian Empire, Vesoul was successively
divided between different kingdoms: the middle Francia (843-855),
Lotharingia (855-870), Eastern Francia (870-888), then the kingdom
of Upper Burgundy (888-937).
The oldest mention of Vesoul in
a historical document dates from 899. At that time, it was a
fortified place called Castrum Vesulium (castle of Vesoul in Latin),
established on the MotteF 6, built by the counts of Portois. Indeed,
the counts abandoned the county capital, Port-Abucin
(Port-sur-Saône), which had been destroyed by the Vandals in 411,
then by the Normans and the Hungarians in the Middle Ages, in order
to find refuge on a site that is more difficult to access: a
conical-shaped witness hill whose summit rises 150 meters above the
plains, located about 10 kilometers south-east of the city of
Port-Abucin. This hill, subsequently called "la Motte" gave birth to
Vesoul which therefore became the capital (residence of the counts),
then subsequently one of the main cities of the county of Port,
which will therefore also take the name of county. from Vesoul. In
982, this county became with the merger of three other counties, the
county of Burgundy. In 988, the castle had its first siege, led by
Duke Henri I of Burgundy and Count Lambert de Chalon.
Certainly recognized as an important and strategic place, Vesoul was erected in viscount capital at the beginning of the eleventh century by the palatine count Otte-Guillaume; this feudal administrative district, which replaced the county of Port, had an area which included 28 villages around Vesoul. The first Viscount of Vesoul is mentioned in a charter dated 1019: it is Gislebert I, Lord of Faucogney. On the death of Rudolph III in 1032, Henry II of the Holy Roman Empire inherited his Burgundian property and this is how Vesoul, like the entire county of Burgundy, was attached to the Holy Roman Empire. In 1092, the Viscount of Vesoul Gislebert II founded the priory of Marteroy, a monastery which would become, a few centuries later, one of the largest in the county of Burgundy, in particular thanks to multiple donations from bourgeois. In 1183, Countess Béatrix recognized, by deed, holding the castle of Vesoul as a stronghold of the Church of Besançon.
In the thirteenth century, the village of Vesoul, which had 887
inhabitants in 1240, depended, like other surrounding villages, on
the parish of the Saint-Martin-de-Pont church, a building which was
located in the current northern part. of Échenoz-la-Méline. Founded
in the sixth century, this place was one of the most important
sanctuaries in the region. Subsequently, the city of Vesoul was
authorized to have its own parish, it was then that it erected one
in 1247, which included the hamlets located around La Motte. At the
end of the thirteenth century, the noble family which was supported
by the provost took the family name of Vesoul.
In the
fourteenth century, the Vesulian city appeared as a first-rate
commercial place, frequented by many Jewish traders who arrived from
1306 and in particular the Héliot de Vesoul, a rich banking family
who had clients in France and in many other territories in Europe .
In 1333, the bailiwick of Amont, the largest bailiwick of
Franche-Comté, was instituted by Philippe VI of France; Vesoul
becomes its capital, thus confirming its status as an administrative
town. The Viscount of Vesoul will disappear in the fourteenth
century, given that the house of Faucogney did not have a male
descendant; the last viscount of Vesoul was Henry de Faucogney, in
1347.
In 1348, the
Black Death spread throughout the county and the epidemic killed
many people in Vesoul. As a result, the city's Jews are accused of
having poisoned the city's wells; Eighty of them were subsequently
tortured and killed. The siege of 1360 led by Flayers, decimated
almost the entire population and in 1370, a troop of Germans
destroyed the city: in the space of ten years, the town suffered
heavy damage and lost a good part of its population but the castle
Castrum Vesulium is still standing. Following these events, the
Dukes of Burgundy helped rebuild the city and build military
fortifications.
Prince Philippe le Bon created in Vesoul, in
1430, a corps of aldermen (form of municipality) made up of four
aldermen and in 1442, Jean Sardon, lieutenant general of the
bailiwick of Amont, founded on his land the first Vesoul hospital.
The Castrum Vesulium was besieged on March 17, 1477, then again in
1479; the castle suffered a fire by the troops of Louis XI.
During the Renaissance, Franche-Comté was still
under the possession of the Germanic Habsburg Empire of Spain. In
1525, the Archduchess of Austria ordered his prosecutor to put
Vesoul under arms to push back the appearance of Protestantism in
Vesoul. By letters patent of April 16, 1540, the emperor Charles V
set up the city of Vesoul in town hall and made it benefit from all
the ranks of justice.
In 1552, Comtois humanist Gilbert
Cousin, praises Vesoul in his Description of Franche-Comté: “Vesoul
has very powerful walls and magnificent houses. Its soil is vivid,
specific to the vine, and fertile in remarkable men, by the
austerity of their manners and by their love for letters and their
talents ”. While it had a population of approximately 1,700
inhabitants in 1557, the city was devastated by the plague from 1586
to 1589.
The destruction of the fortress and the French
conquest
Although entirely French-speaking, Franche-Comté belongs
to Spain. Henri IV of France declares war there, on January 17,
1595, in order to attach this French-speaking party to the kingdom
of France. In February, he attacks several cities of Franche-Comté.
Some manage to resist, but Vesoul is besieged and considerably
devastated by an army of 5,000 to 6,000 men: the castle Castrum
Vesulium, which overlooked the city for several centuries, is
totally destroyed. This is the eighth siege that the city of Vesoul
has known. The epidemics and sieges devastating Vesoul proved to be
tragic, since in the space of ten years the city's population had
declined considerably.
Following a pact of neutrality concluded between the province of
Franche-Comté and the kingdom of France in 1611, a time of peace
settled in the city. At the beginning of the seventeenth century,
many monks settled in Vesoul and this is how three convents were
built during this century. In a memoir of 1613, the city is
described as "a small town without a fortress" and in 1614, there
were 1,948 inhabitants. From 1635 to 1644, takes place the Ten Years
'War, Comtois episode of the Thirty Years' War, which opposes France
to the Habsburgs of Spain. This event provoked in the city, the
plague, the famine but especially a great misery; thus the
population of the city falls to 189 inhabitants. Very weakened, the
city was conquered on March 11, 1674, by the Duke of Navailles,
general of Louis XIV. The Treaty of Nijmegen, signed on August 10,
1678, attaches the town of Vesoul as well as the whole of
Franche-Comté to the kingdom of France. The incorporation of
Franche-Comté into France under the power of Louis XIV made it
possible to put an end to many wars and looting; Vesoul had a total
of twelve sieges in its history, the last two were the two phases of
the conquest of Franche-Comté by Louis XIV (1668 and 1674).
After the annexation, the city still kept its municipal
administration and its status as the capital of the bailiwick of
Amont. At the end of the seventeenth century, when the city's
population rose to approximately 2,100 inhabitants in 1688, Louis
XIV endowed the city with a particular control over water and
forests (1692), with a presidial (1696) and a police court (1699).
A period of peace and development
The Age of Enlightenment
offered an era of prosperity to the city as well as to the entire
department, both demographically and economically. With a population
doubled in the space of sixty years (from 2,340 inhabitants in 1716
to 4,870 inhabitants in 1784), Vesoul is experiencing one of the
most important growths in its history. During the 18th century, the
city aroused the attention of a few doctors and authors thanks to
the discovery of the Rêpes mineral waters, located near the current
Rêpes district. The construction, during this century, of private
mansions and public buildings in the city attest to a certain
prosperity. The construction of the courthouse (1765-1771) and the
arrival of renowned magistrates and lawyers allowed Vesoul to forge
an important reputation in judicial matters. In the eighteenth
century, Vesoul was first and foremost an agricultural center which
brought together the trade in grain, timber and animals, in
particular through markets and fairs.
Vesoul, administrative and commercial town
Under the Revolution,
the bailiwicks of Franche-Comté were abolished in 1790, so the city
lost its title of capital of the bailiwick of Amont which it had
acquired during the fifteenth century. In 1791, the city briefly
became the seat of the diocese of Vesoul, an ecclesiastical district
which was finally suppressed ten years later. In 1793, Vesoul was
characterized as a small town with a population of 5,303
inhabitants.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the
main activity of the town was viticulture; Vesoul has a hundred
hectares of vines and is one of the most important wine centers in
the region. On March 12, 1800, the town of Vesoul became the
prefecture of Haute-Saône, in particular thanks to its central
geographical position in the department.
Listed as a “Good
Town” under the First Empire, Vesoul was briefly capital of the
State of Franche-Comté, from January 27 to June 6, 1814. Created at
the fall of the French Empire, this buffer state located between
France and France. He Germany was made up of the former province of
Franche-Comté, the department of Vosges and the principalities of
Montbéliard and Porrentruy. During the colonization of Algeria by
France, in 1853, a few black feet from Vesoul and its region founded
the village of Vesoul-Bénian, located in the north of Algeria. In
1857, the Notre-Dame-de-la-Motte chapel, an emblematic monument of
the city, was erected at the top of the Motte and in 1858, the
Vesoul station was inaugurated on the Paris-Basel railway line,
placing thus the city within an important railway line.
During the Third Republic (1870-1940), Vesoul saw its population
increase considerably (increase of about 50%, from 7,716 inhabitants
in 1872 to 11,926 in 1936). Seat of the Israelite consistory of the
East from 1872 to 1896, Vesoul saw its population increase by 1,500
inhabitants in just 4 years, welcoming in particular many Alsatian
Jews fleeing the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. Around 1880-1890,
the city's vines were destroyed by phylloxera; the winegrowers thus
moved towards new industries and market gardening. On September 27,
1887, the 11th regiment of horse hunters was quartered in the
Luxembourg barracks and remained there for nearly fifty years and
marked the city both economically and demographically. During the
First World War, the city of Vesoul contributed to military
operations but was not attacked.
During the Second World War,
the Wehrmacht took Vesoul on June 16, 1940. The city, as well as a
considerable part of Franche-Comté, found itself in a prohibited
zone; the demarcation line is located only 75 kilometers south of
Vesoul. During the first years of the war, resistance in Vesoul was
organized individually; in 1943, it began to form around Yves
Barbier, who would quickly be considered as the leader of the
resistance in Haute-Saône49. Vesoul is particularly known during the
war to be the seat of Frontstalag 141, the prison camp of the German
Army for the colonial natives of the French army, installed in the
barracks of the 11th hunter on horseback. Capable of totaling up to
5,000 prisoners at a time, it is the only camp in eastern France to
be active from 1940 to 1944. The town of Vesoul was liberated on
September 12, 1944 by the 3rd infantry division US.
After the war, the city of Vesoul, like
the whole of France, experienced rapid growth; the demographic
growth of the municipality is particularly important. Indeed, the
city rose from 11,825 inhabitants in 1946, to 18,173 inhabitants in
1975, an increase of more than 50%, in the space of about thirty
years15. In 1955, the company Udime (Union Des Industries
Métallurgique de l'Est), a subsidiary of Peugeot, invested in the
buildings of the former Dollé factory, one of the largest French
manufacturers of agricultural machinery, active from 1908 to 1953.
Following These investments, many other companies settled down and
built their workshops on the site of the former Dollé factory, like
Indenor in 1959, then Peugeot SA in 1965. Since the 1960s, more than
250,000 m² of workshops have been built. on the site of the PSAC 1
plant. The takeover of Citroën by Peugeot a few years later
accentuated the plant's development.
In order to meet the
housing needs of the strong demographic development, the city built
two large districts north of La Motte, made up of hundreds of
housing units and intended to accommodate several thousand people:
Les Rêpes (1957 - 1961) and Montmarin ( 1967 - 1973). In 1975, the
city established, in cooperation with the State, a “medium-sized
city” contract which consisted in revitalizing the agglomeration
which is developing more and more by developing amusement and
leisure areas. Thus, from 1976, the Vesoul - Vaivre lake was dug
over more than 90 hectares in the western town with the aim of being
the center of a vast recreation area. During the last three decades
of the twentieth century, activity zones were established on the
outskirts of Vesoul such as the Espace de la Motte, the Technologia
zone and Les Haberges.
At the start of the 21st century, the
city of Vesoul played a major role in automotive logistics in
Europe, counting on its territory one of the largest sites of the
manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroën which totaled more than 5,000
employees in 2003 and being the world center of spare parts, which
allows the municipality, both economically and socially, to prosper.
A number of personalities are linked to Vesoul and have for the most
part been appointed honorary citizen of the city; we can count in
particular politicians, musicians, sportsmen, magistrates and
scientists.
Many figures were born in Vesoul, among the most
famous and important we can notably mention the artist Jean-Léon Gérôme,
the engineer Édouard Belin, the pilot Stéphane Peterhansel, the actress
Edwige Feuillère, the resistant Raymond Aubrac, the physicist Alexis
Petit, the poet Charles Grandmougin, the painter Claude-Basile Cariage
and the diplomats Pierre Joseph de Beauchamp and Simon Renard.
Illustrious personalities have died in Vesoul such as the painters
Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret and Jules-Alexis Muenier, the economist François
Ébaudy de Fresne, the military Jacques Bardenet, the filmmaker Alain
Baptizet and the translator Roger Munier. The politician Georges
Lapes-Prachée, the religious Jean-Baptiste Flavigny and the first scorer
of the first football world Cup in 1930, Lucien Laurent are buried in
Vesoul.
Vesoul is also the city where notable personalities have
exercised their professions such as the photographer Marc Paygnard, the
philosopher Théodule-Armand Ribot, the writer André Blanchard as well as
the many mayors of the city including the deputies Alain Joyandet and
Alain Chrétien. Various people have completed their studies in the town,
including the historian Albert Mathiez, the officer Jean Compagnon and
the journalist Eric Dupin.