Vaucouleurs
| Vaucouleurs | ||
|---|---|---|
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| region | Grand Est | |
| Department | Meuse | |
| Arrondissement | Commercy | |
| Canton | Vaucouleurs | |
| Community association | Commercy-Void-Vaucouleurs | |
| Coordinates | 48 ° 36 ' N , 5 ° 40' E | |
| height | 242-372 m | |
| surface | 39.35 km 2 | |
| Residents | 1,943 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 49 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 55140 | |
| INSEE code | 55533 | |
 Main street in Vaucouleurs |
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Vaucouleurs is a French city with 1943 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Meuse department in the Grand Est region (until 2015 Lorraine ). It is the capital of the canton of Vaucouleurs . The name comes from the Latin Vallis Colorum , the inhabitants of the place call themselves Valcolorois .
geography
Vaucouleurs is located on the left bank of the Meuse , about 20 kilometers southwest of Toul .
history
During the Middle Ages, Vaucouleurs was influenced by France as the border town of Lorraine . Count Odo II of Blois had a castle built here for the first time, but it was destroyed in 1023 by Duke Dietrich I of Lorraine on the orders of Emperor Henry II the Holy . Then the lords of Joinville from the Champagne region seized the place and built a castle for their part. Roger de Joinville built on behalf of King Ludwig VI. a circular wall, which was provided with 17 towers and 4 gates in the course of the Middle Ages.
At Maxey-sur-Vaise , four kilometers south of Vaucouleurs, King Louis VII of France and Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa met on February 14, 1171 to defuse the tensions between the two kingdoms caused by the schism and to find something together To take action against the marauding Brabant Zones . Here in 1212, Frederick II and Prince Ludwig VIII of France sealed the Franco-Staufer alliance against Emperor Otto IV and King John of England .
In 1299, King Philip IV the Handsome of France lodged in Vaucouleurs, who then met King Albert I on December 8, 1299 on the meadow of Quatre-Vaux (east of the city, near Rigny-Saint-Martin ) . Here the Roman-German king recognized a new demarcation between the two empires, according to which France would now begin on the left bank of the Meuse instead of the Marne as before . This meant that Vaucouleurs was effectively detached from the association of the Holy Roman Empire and defeated to France, for which it now served as a border town to the empire. At the same time, the marriage between Princess Blanche and Duke Rudolf III. agreed by Austria (Rudolf I of Bohemia).
On December 16, 1334 Anseau de Joinville entered the castle of Vaucouleurs to King Philip VI. from France , in exchange for castles in Champagne. The crown now installed castle captains in Vaucouleurs, who remained loyal to them during the Hundred Years' War . But since the surrounding area was ruled by the Duke of Burgundy , who was an ally of England, the city was an enclave of royal authority. In June 1428 the city was able to withstand a siege by the Burgundians.
Vaucouleurs gained fame above all through the French national saint Joan of Arc . This came from the neighboring Domrémy to the south and asked for an audience for the first time in May 1428 from Captain Robert de Baudricourt , as the only representative of France in the area, but she abruptly refused. At the beginning of February 1429, Jeanne moved into the Royer house and again unsuccessfully asked the captain for an escort through the territory of enemy Burgundy. Then Jeanne moved from Vaucouleurs to Nancy, where she spoke to Duke Charles II of Lorraine, who on this occasion advised him to cast off his mistress. On the way back she visited the church of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port and returned to Vaucouleurs on February 12th. On the same day, she predicted the defeat of the French in the battle of Rouvray ("Day of the Herring") held on the same day off Orléans . In the meantime, Baudricourt had sent a message about the farmer girl's sense of mission to the court of Dauphin Charles VII at Chinon and then subjected Jeanne to a test of her faith by a local priest. After she had passed this, Baudricourt finally granted her the escort under the leadership of Jean de Metz, with whom Jeanne left Vaucouleurs on February 23, 1429 through the French gate towards Chinon.
On October 5, 1870, war journalist and poet Theodor Fontane spent two hours in Vaucouleurs on the way to Domrémy-la-Pucelle . He researched in France for his third war book ( The War Against France 1870/71 ) and made a detour to the Joan of Arc sights. In Vaucouleurs he visited the ruins of the old castle of the castle captain Robert de Baudricourts , the castle chapel and the town church. In his notebook he recorded his impressions on the way in drawings and notes.
Jeanne's brother Jean ( Jean du Lys ) was appointed captain in Vaucouleurs in 1457.
Towards the end of the First World War , a provisional airfield was built three kilometers northwest of the city.
Population development
| year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2007 | 2017 |
| Residents | 3041 | 2846 | 2554 | 2511 | 2401 | 2293 | 2083 | 1943 |
Attractions
- Saint-Laurent Church, built between 1782 and 1785
- the town hall (built 1847–1848) with a museum dedicated to Jeanne d'Arc
- an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc cast in bronze in front of the town hall, which was first erected in 1951 in Algiers and finally in 1966 in Vaucouleurs
- the crypt still preserved from the old castle with the chapel (reconstructed in 1923) which has a statue of the Virgin Mary (called: Notre-Dame-des-Voûtes ) from the XIII. Century contains
- next to the castle chapel is the French gate ( Porte de France ) , which was rebuilt in 1733
Parish partnership
Vaucouleurs has had a partnership with Neidenstein in Baden-Württemberg since 1976 .
Personalities
- Claude Delisle (1644–1720), geographer and historian
- Marie-Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry (1743–1793), was a mistress of the French King Louis XV.
- Alexis-Henri-Marie Lépicier (1863–1936), Cardinal to the Curia
literature
- Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Meuse. Flohic Editions, Volume 2, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-84234-074-4 , pp. 1058-1069.
supporting documents
- ↑ La recontre de Vaucouleurs
- ↑ Theodor Fontane: Notebook D6: Theater of War 1870. Ed. By Gabriele Radecke. Göttingen 2019
