Ramonchamp () is a large

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 ...

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 It superseded three former administra ...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 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 ''Ramoncenais''.

Geography

Downstream of

Le Thillot Le Thillot () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. See also *Communes of the Vosges department The following is a list of the 507 communes of the Vosges department of France. The communes cooperate in t ...

and upstream of

Ferdrupt Ferdrupt () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. See also *Communes of the Vosges department The following is a list of the 507 communes of the Vosges department of France. The communes cooperate in the ...

, Ramonchamp is positioned in a narrow section of the upper Moselle valley. The only main road is the National road RN66 which connects with

Remiremont Remiremont (; german: Romberg or ) is a town and commune in the Vosges department, northeastern France, situated in southern Grand Est. The town has been an abbatial centre since the 7th century, is an economic crossroads of the Moselle and Mos ...

some to the south west and the Bussang Pass 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 ...

en route for

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...

to the east-southeast. In other directions, the mountain slopes are too steep to afford easy access to

Saulxures-sur-Moselotte Saulxures-sur-Moselotte (, literally ''Saulxures on Moselotte''; ) is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France.

, positioned in an adjacent valley to the north, though for the intrepid a relatively direct route exists courtesy of the 791-meter-high Morbieux Pass ''(Col de Morbieux)''. Ramonchamp traditionally featured mountain style agriculture, but in recent decades many of the little family farms have been purchased by outsiders and transformed into second homes.

Population

History

First recorded under the Latin name 'Romanici Campus', Ramoncamp was at one stage the administrative centre of a "ban" (medieval territory) and then of a canton, but that was before the commune of

had come into being. The territory of Ramonchamp (''Le ban de Ramonchamp'') originally covered the entire upper valley of the Moselle, upstream of

. It fell under the bailiwick of

while the church, dedicated to Saints Rémi and Blaise, was within the

Diocese of Saint-Dié In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

in the deanery of Remiremont. Around 1730 the parish was divided up into the parishes of

Le Ménil Le Ménil () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. It is sometimes called ''Le Ménil-Thillot'' to distinguish it from nearby Ménil-de-Senones. Inhabitants are called Guédons. Geography The commune is pos ...

and

Fresse-sur-Moselle Fresse-sur-Moselle (, literally ''Fresse on Moselle'') is a commune in the Vosges department of Grand Est in northeastern France. The name Moselle refers to the river Moselle that bypasses. In the left of Fresse sur Moselle is situated Le Thill ...

. Civil boundary changes were imposed by a decree of 30 June 1860 which at the same time created the new commune of

, 4 kilometres upstream of Ramonchamp. By the same decree Ramonchamp lost to Le Thillot its status as the cantonal capital. 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 ...

arrived in the 1830s: it received a boost after 1871, thanks to the arrival of refugees from

wishing to avoid becoming

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

. For two months in 1944 the commune found itself on the frontline between

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and US forces: Ramonchamp suffered considerably from the bombardments involved. The second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century were a golden for the textile businesses, but after 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 ...

the industry faced a difficult period of restructuring and modernisation, which involved large scale job losses: there was some compensating increase in employment opportunities involving newer business sectors such as plastic and metal manufacturing, however.

Personalities

Jean-Joseph Brice, famous for his height of 2.45 meters, was born at Ramonchamp in 1835.

Twin towns

Since 1972 Ramonchamp has been twinned with

Ober-Olm Ober-Olm is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Neighbouring municipalities Ober-Olm's neig ...

(near

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...