Raon-lès-Leau
| Raon-lès-Leau | ||
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| region | Grand Est | |
| Department | Meurthe-et-Moselle | |
| Arrondissement | Luneville | |
| Canton | Baccarat | |
| Community association | Saint-Dié-des-Vosges | |
| Coordinates | 48 ° 31 ' N , 7 ° 6' E | |
| height | 411-550 m | |
| surface | 1.31 km 2 | |
| Residents | 38 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 29 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 54540 | |
| INSEE code | 54443 | |
 Town hall and school building in Raon-lès-Leau |
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Raon-lès-Leau is a French commune with 38 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in the Grand Est region (until 2015 Lorraine ). The municipality belongs to the Arrondissement of Lunéville and to the municipal association of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, founded in 2017 .
geography
Raon-lès-Leau is located in the western foothills of the Vosges , about 52 kilometers east-southeast of Lunéville . Here in the extreme southeastern tip of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department, the municipal area of just 1.31 km² extends almost to the Vosges ridge. The striking peak of the Donon (1009 m) is only four kilometers away from Raon-lès-Leau. In the east, the municipality borders on the Bas-Rhin department in the former Alsace region ; in the south, the upper reaches of the Plaine form the border with the Vosges department . Raon-lès-Leau is surrounded by the neighboring communities of Grandfontaine in the north and east, Raon-sur-Plaine in the south and Bionville in the west.
Road connections to and from Raon-lès-Leau only lead via the immediately adjacent municipality of Raon-sur-Plaine. The nearest train station on the Strasbourg – Saint-Dié line is in Schirmeck, 15 kilometers away .
history
In an archive in 1138 a village called Rawons appears for the first time , which already had a stone church. Rawons comes from the Gallic language and indicates a water crossing or a ford (the Vosges community of Raves also has the same name origin). The current municipality of Raon-lès-Leau has only existed since 1751, when the left bank of the Plaine fell from the County of Obersalm (Vogtei Blâmont ) to the Duchy of Lorraine . The right bank of the Plaine and thus the larger southern part of Raon (today Raon-sur-Plaine ) remained with the Principality of Salm-Salm . In 1782 the village was called Raon-lès-l'Eau , in 1793 there was the spelling Raon les Laux Already in Gallo-Roman times there was considerable economic activity in and around Raon. In particular, logging benefited from the Roman roads built through the forests, the remains of which are well preserved to this day. At the end of the 14th century, the population of both raons began to decline rapidly, due to a plague epidemic and climate changes. Agriculture gradually withdrew down the valley to Luvigny and Allarmont (there were still vineyards and fruit trees in the Plaine Valley at that time). The Little Ice Age made agriculture in the upper Plainetal impossible. The church of St Mansuetus in the "great Raon" (Raon-sur-Plaine), which had existed since the 12th century, fell into disrepair over time and had to be demolished in 1640. The construction of a new church was delayed due to organizational and financial problems. For more than six decades, the residents of Raon had to go to the church in the neighboring parish of Luvigny, two and a half kilometers away, before the new church in Raon-sur-Plaine was inaugurated. Since then, tithing has been shared by the County of Salm, the priests of Luvigny and Senones Abbey . The pastorate in Raon was not restored until 1721, financed by shares in meadows and fields as well as taxes on the newly imported potatoes. In the 19th century Raon-lès-Leau also received a modest church. Services have been held in the church of Raon-sur-Plaine since 1906 - when the last pastor retired. However, one historical event still shapes the municipalities of Raon-lès-Leau and Raon-sur-Plaine today: the loss of around 1,000 hectares of municipal territory. After the Franco-Prussian War , the border between France and the German Empire was established in the Peace of Frankfurt of 1871 . The western border of the now German empire Alsace-Lorraine ran primarily from an economic and military point of view. Thus, the remaining for the Haut-Rhin belonging Belfort with environment (today Territoire de Belfort ) due to the wishes of the Prussian military (shortest possible line between Vosges and Jura) in France. Small parts of the Vosges département , which were mostly east of the ridge line of the Vosges in the upper Breuschtal or west of it in the upper Plaine valley , came to the Lower Alsace district, namely the canton of Schirmeck , which belonged to the Haut-Rhin département until 1795, and parts of the canton Hall . As early as 1872, the municipalities of Raon-lès-Leau and Raon-sur-Plaine came back to France, but with a strange division of their municipal areas, in that the large forest areas on their landmarks remained largely in Alsace-Lorraine (municipality of Grandfontaine ). This condition continues to this day.
Population development
| year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2007 | 2016 |
| Residents | 59 | 47 | 37 | 16 | 24 | 27 | 39 | 40 |
| Sources: Cassini and INSEE | ||||||||
Attractions
- Church of the Birth of Our Lady ( Église de la Nativité-de-la-Vierge )
Economy and Infrastructure
There are hardly any job opportunities in the small community of Raon-lès-Leau. Most of the residents are commuters and retirees. A few scattered former farms were converted into holiday apartments.
Road connections to and from Raon-lès-Leau only lead via the immediately adjacent municipality of Raon-sur-Plaine in the Vosges department . Départementsstraße 329, which follows the Plainetal, leads to Badonviller and Raon-l'Étape in the west, and to Schirmeck in the east of Alsace . The nearest train station on the Strasbourg – Saint-Dié line is in Schirmeck, 15 kilometers away .
supporting documents
- ^ Henri Lepage - Dictionnaire topographique du département de la Meurthe
- ↑ toponym on cassini.ehess.fr (French)
- ↑ Raon-lès-Leau on cassini.ehess.fr (French)
- ^ Raon-lès-Leau on INSEE
