Chicourt (; german: Diexingen) is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the Moselle department in

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administra ...

in north-eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Geography

Chicourt lies in Saulnois, 34 kilometers northeast of Nancy, 32 kilometers southeast of

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

, and 26 kilometers southwest of

Saint-Avold Saint-Avold (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Sänt Avuur'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is situated twenty-eight miles (45 km) east of Metz, France and seventeen miles (27 km) southwest o ...

. Neighboring towns are Château-Bréhain in the southeast, Oron in the south west, Frémery in the northwest, and Villers-sur-Nied in the Northeast. Chicourt sits at an altitude between 239 and 340 meters above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. The area of the commune is around 5.52 square kilometers (552 hectares). The commune's territory is bounded on the south by the Nied française river.

Planning

Typology

Chicourt is a rural commune, belonging to a group of municipalities with low or very low density as defined by the INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies). (This is according to the zoning of rural and urban municipalities published in November 2020, in application of the new definition of rurality validated on 14 November 2020 by the interministerial committee of ruralities.)

Land Use

The land use in the commune, as it appears in the European database Corine Land Cover (CLC), is marked by the importance of agricultural land (88.3% in 2018), a proportion identical to that of 1990 (88.4%). The detailed breakdown in 2018 is as follows:

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for th ...

(60%),

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

(28.4%),

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s (11.6%). The National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

) also provides an online tool to compare the evolution over time of land use in the commune (or in territories of different scales). Several periods are accessible in the form of maps or aerial photos: the Cassini map (18th century), the staff map (1820–66), and the current period (1950 to today).

Place Name

Chicourt was recorded in 1121 and 1180 as ''Diekesinga''. (1476: ''Chiecourt''.) Ernest Nègre acted on the assumption that the place name was a compound of the Germanic name ''Cadulus'' and the

medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functione ...

word ''curtis'' (homestead) and therefore means "Homestead of Cadulus." *Diekesinga (1121 and 1180), Diekesingen (1121), Cheecourt (1296), Chiecourt (1337), Chiefcourt (1375), Chiecourt (1476). * formerly Tichecort: Tiche- (German) + -cort (court). * Diexingen from 1915 to 1918 (during annexation), Dixingen from 1940 to 1944 (during Nazi occupation).

History

Today, Chicourt is part of the canton of Le Saulnois. The fief of Chicourt belonged to the châtellenie of Amance and was former property of the priory of

Saint-Nicolas-de-Port Saint-Nicolas-de-Port () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle ''département'' in north-eastern France. The town's basilica, '' Saint Nicolas'', is a pilgrimage site, supposedly holding relics of Saint Nicholas brought from Italy. It is one of ...

. Until the beginning of the 17th century, there was a Benedictine priory in Chicourt. This village dates from a rather distant time: in 1335, it, along with several other localities, was dedicated by Adémar, the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

, to Pierre de Bar, master of Pierrefort. Henri Lepage, ''Le département de La Meurthe : statistique historique et administrative'', deuxième partie, 1843 in 1594, Chicourt looked to the provost of Amance in the bailiwick of Nancy; then from 1751 to the bailiwick of

Château-Salins Château-Salins (; , from 1941–44 ''Salzburgen'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Until 2015, Château-Salins was a subprefecture of the Moselle department. History The town is relatively recent. ...

under the customary law of

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

. The

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...

dom of Neufchère was located in what is today the municipality of Chicourt, about halfway to Villers-sur-Nied. It was noted in 1594 in the

chartulary A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll ('' rotulus'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the f ...

of the Salival

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

(today part of the Moyenvic commune) and appears as Neuf-Chaire on a 1780s map by Jean Dominique, Count of Cassini (1748–1845). From 1790 to 2015, Chicourt was a commune in the former canton of Delme. In 1793, Chicourt received the status of a commune in the course of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, and in 1801 received the right to local self-government. From 1801 to 1871, it belonged to the former Département Meurthe, which was then renamed as the Département Meurthe & Moselle. in 1871, the commune was incorporated into the newly created German imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine due to territorial changes that were a consequence of the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). The imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine existed until the end of the First World War (1914–18) and was then dissolved. As a Francophone village, Chicourt was one of the last 247 municipalities whose name was

Germanized Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...

on 2 September 1915, during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The name was changed to "Diexingen" and was the official place name until 1918. At that time, Chicourt was in the Département Moselle. This change was retained in 1918 when Moselle was again granted to France.

Demographics

Changes in the number of inhabitants are documented in the population

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

es carried out in the commune since 1793. From 2006, the legal population of municipalities has been published annually by INSEE. The census is now based on an annual collection of information from each municipality in turn over a period of five years. For communes with less than 10,000 inhabitants, a census of the entire population is carried out every five years, and the official population numbers in intervening years is estimated by extrapolation. For Chicourt, the first exhaustive census falling under the new system was carried out in 2005.Calendrier départemental des recensements rchive sur insee.fr. In 2018, the commune had 93 inhabitants, an increase of 9.41% compared to 2013 ( Moselle: -0.32%, France excluding

Mayotte Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loca ...

: + 2.36%).

Local Culture and Heritage

Heraldry

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

of the commune is red, bearing a silver hatchment in the middle and showing three golden balls (''besants''), of which two are in the upper part and one at the peak. The silver hatchment comes from the coat of arms of the castellany of Amance. The golden balls are attributes of the patron saint

Nicholas of Myra Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day Demre ...

Places and Monuments

* Église Saint-Nicolas (1831). * Chapelle Notre-Dame de Neufchère.

Infrastructure

The nearest airport is Metz-Nancy-Lorraine Airport, 19.7 kilometers northwest of Chicourt.