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 It superseded three former administra ...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 ''Raonnais'' in French.
Geography
Raon-aux-Bois is positioned in the district known as the
Vôge Plateau
The Vôge plateau is a sandstone plateau in north east France, straddling the departments of Vosges and Haute-Saône, between Vittel, Saint-Loup-sur-Semouse and Remiremont. It covers approximately 700 km² of Lorraine and Franche-Comté, and ...
, on the western edge of the
Vosges Mountains
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 ...
. As the name of the commune implies, the district has retained its woodland countryside, with traditional mature timberland in the south and conifer plantations to the north.
A small river, the , crosses the centre of the village on the way to
Arches
An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it.
Arches may be synonymous with vault ...
where it joins up with the Moselle. The river's source is in the Forest of Humont to the south.
The word 'Raon' is believed to share the same root as the English word 'ravine', and to indicate, in this instance, the confluence
of several streams; here the Champée, the Prés Roussel and the Racine all feed into the Niche.
History
The earliest traces of human activity date back only to the late Middle Ages, suggesting that throughout and beyond the first millennium the thick forest of this part 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 ...
were left to nature.
Deuring the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there are records of people from Raon repopulating the neighbouring village of Bellefontaine, which had been abandoned a century or so earlier, probably as a result of
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
.
There are few surviving records of Raon from its early centuries, but it is believed to have been controlled at various times by one of three lordships, while on the ecclesiastical side the church, dedicated to Amé de Remiremont, fell 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
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 ...
.
In 1790 the village was placed within the canton of Éloyes, an arrangement which lasted virtually ten years. The present administrative structure is based on dispositions effected in 1800.
During the nineteenth century and well into the first part of the twentieth century, the village experienced a steady prosperity based on the spinning and starching industries.
Personalities
Julien Absalon
Julien Arnaud Absalon (born 16 August 1980) is a French cross-country mountain biker.
Career
2003: Absalon won his first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
2004: Gold at World Champions and the Athens Olympic Games.
2005: Absalon again won the Wor ...
, a mountain biker born in 1980 at nearby
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 ...