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
Vosges
The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...
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 It superseded three former administra ...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 northeastern
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 ...
.
Inhabitants are called ''Mousséens''.
Geography
Positioned on the eastern side of Grand Est, the village of Moussey is the last inhabited settlement along the Senones Valley before, eventually, the road crosses the Prayé Pass (Col de Prayé) into
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
and on to
Mont Donon
Mont Donon is the highest peak in the northern Vosges. It is a Category 2 climb in the Tour de France.
On Donon, there is an 80 metre tall lattice tower for TV transmission. Its TV transmission antennas are covered by a polymeric cylinder, which ...
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
word 'Monticellus' meaning 'little mountain'. The village is set on a small hill at the foot of which a fast flowing mountain stream fully deserves its name, the River Rabondeau (in Latin, 'rapidus aqua' / 'fast water').
Moussey is one of several communes that formerly belonged to Senones Abbey: subsequently it fell within the Principality of Salm-Salm until 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 ...
, following which the former principality became a part of France. Numerous documents from the 18th century, now archived at the
mairie
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
testify to the way the princes of Salm-Salm were happy to accommodate the presence of such prominent
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
scholars as
Dom Calmet
Antoine Augustin Calmet, O.S.B. (26 February 167225 October 1757), a French Benedictine monk, was born at Ménil-la-Horgne, then in the Duchy of Bar, part of the Holy Roman Empire (now the French department of Meuse, located in the region of ...
.
Fortune arrived Moussey in the 19th century thanks to the
textile industry
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry.
Industry process
Cotton manufacturi ...
. The first
textile mill
Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...
was constructed in 1836: an adjoining chateau was built between 1858 and 1863. The business was operated successively by three families, being the Charlot, Lung et Laederich families, but in 1966 the machines fell silent. Since 1988 various surviving elements of the Moussey textile business have enjoyed protected
historical monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...
status.
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
Moussey was a supporting town for the joint SAS-SOE Operation Loyton of 1944, designed to use Allied special forces to inspire an insurrection amongst the local Maquis forces and thus prepare the ground for offensive action by the American Seventh Army. The Allied forces were eventually forced to retreat, which in turn led to mass deportation from Moussey with 187 people being sent to Natzweiler-Struthof of whom 144 never returned. Among the deportees was the man who had been mayor since 1917 (Abel Gassman), the director general of the Laederich Business: Jules Py died at Dachau on 24 January 1945.
After the Second World War, Moussey was personally delivered a letter of thanks by Major Eric Barksworth and Colonel Christopher Sykes for their services towards the Special Air Service during the war. It praised the "selfless devotion" and "memorable courage" of the inhabitants of Moussey, especially in their collective refusal to expose the SAS unit concealed within the Senones Valley.Lewis. ''SAS Nazi Hunters: The Ultra Secret Unit and the Hunt for Hitler's War Criminals'' (Quercus, London (2015)).