Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, Vosges Département, Grand Est, France

🇫🇷 Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, commonly referred to as just Saint-Dié, is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.

Geography Saint-Dié is located in the Vosges Mountains 80 km (50 mi) south-east of Nancy and 80 km (50 mi) south-west of Strasbourg. This route in the valley of the river Meurthe was always the more frequented, and first to get a rail line in 1864, so now it accommodates the primary road.

Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, principal town of an arrondissement of the same name, belongs to the Vosges département of France. This commune with a little town in her centre, is approximately 50 km (31 mi) north-east of Épinal, and connected by two roads, south through the passes of Haut-Jacques and Bruyères or north by the pass of Haut-du-Bois and the ancient land of Rambervillers. By rail, Épinal is 61 km (38 mi) from Saint-Dié.

The river Meurthe flows in the Permian basin of Saint-Dié surrounded by wooded mountains Ormont, Kemberg and La Madeleine. The peaks of these mountains are 550 metres (1,800 feet) high, and are composed of Triassic formations, especially the so-called "Vosges sandstone", a kind of red sandstone.

Features The town was nearly completely redesigned and rebuilt in the French Uniform Style after the fire of 1757. A major part was destroyed in November, 1944 and was rebuilt largely in a material imitating red sandstone. Its cathedral has a Gothic nave and choir designed in the 14th century; the portal of red stone was created by Giovanni Betto in the beginning of the 18th century. A cloister, begun in the 14th century but never finished, contains a stone pulpit, and connects with the Petite-Eglise or Notre-Dame-de-Galilée, a well-preserved specimen of Romanesque architecture of the 12th century. All of the monuments were restored or rebuilt in the same manner after 1950.

Since 1880, the Council House"Mairie" has held a marvelous theater, a library with some old and valuable manuscripts, a reading hall and a museum of rocks and antiquities collected by the members of the Vosges Philomatic Society. This society, which engaged in the collection and diffusion of knowledge, was founded in 1875 by Henry Bardy, who was soon an editor of the first local republican paper named La Gazette Vosgiennne. All this centre of town was destroyed in November 1944.

After 1948, a new hôtel-de-ville was built 100 metres (330 feet) to the west. At its west side there is now a monument by Merci to Jules Ferry, long ago in an old union place under the Cathedral. Born in the town in 1832, Jules Ferry was a great French politician of the conservative Republic, constitutionally called Third Republic in 1875.

After World War II, the right side of the Meurthe was completely razed and most people lived outside the town in wood cabins for decades. The radical plan created by Le Corbusier in 1945, which called for a large plaza with factories and other buildings in the heart of the city, was rejected in 1947, and only one private factory belonging to Jean-Jacques Duval was ever built. There were no means nor materials in this terrible period and the great street called "rue Thiers" was finished only at the end of 1954.

Economy The town was industrial in nature long before the local economy reaped the benefits from a migration of Alsatians, who arrived after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. Its industries included the spinning, weaving and bleaching of cotton, wire-drawing, metal-founding, the manufacture of hosiery, woodwork of various kinds (toleware), machinery, iron goods and wire screen. Since the world wars, major industrial activities have declined precipitously. Now the town is primarily a centre of public services, educational institutions, a hospital, and businesses in the service industries, such as supermarkets.

Higher education University Institute of Technology: IUT (Institut universitaire de technologie)

• Robotics

• Electronics

• Computing

• Internet

• Graphic design

• Communication.

History Saint-Dié (Lat. Deodatum, Theodata, S. Deodati Fanum) is named for Saint Deodat. A holy man who was known as "le bonhomme", he founded a ban (a political and Christian subdivision of the royal territory) in the 7th century that was originally called Foresta. Some religious historians believed he was the bishop of Nevers, Deodatus of Nevers. Deodatus gave up his official functions to retire to a desert dwelling. Other sources connect the name, however, with an earlier saint, Deodatus of Blois (d. 525).

Archeological and historical records confirm the total time that this area has been inhabited. One hypothesis holds that a column constructed by Romans on a site originally dedicated to Tiwaz – Tius, god of war – might explain ancient ceremonies in the old Saint-Dié chapel at the foot of Kemberg mountain (locally called Saint-Martin). Deodatus, who could have been an episcopus hiberniensis (bishop from Ireland) or an episcopus niverniensis (bishop from Nevers), would have lived in an old monastery or vieux moutier above the old chapel and a water source.

Legends originating in the 11th century as well as popular traditions say that Saint Deodatus himself dreamed of a new monastery to be built upon a little hill called la monticule des Jointures, visible on the other side of the river. A little monastic community dedicated to Saint Maurice was probably founded during Carolingian times, as there is evidence of its presence there since the 10th century. After 1006, the monastery took the name Saint-Dié. The little monastery was partially destroyed by fire in 1065 and again in 1155.

The date on which the site became a chapter of canons is uncertain. Historians deny that Brunon de Dabo-Egisheim, future Pope Leo IX, was a young monk and great provost here, but his family did play a great role in the elevated status of this religious place, giving their coat of arms to it after the First Crusades. Canons who subsequently held the rank of provost or dean came from very rich and noble families, among them Giovanni de Medici and several princes of the ducal House of Lorraine. Among the extensive privileges enjoyed by them was the coining of money; the Duchy of Lorraine was the last to hold this privilege, in 1601.

Though they co-operated in building the town walls in 1290, the canons and the dukes of Lorraine soon became rivals for the authority over Saint-Dié. The institution of a town council in 1628 which appropriated part of their temporal jurisdiction, in addition to numerous French occupations, diminished the financial influence of the canons. During the Stanislas reign and after the Lorraine annexation in 1776, the establishment in 1777 of a bishopric condemned the venerable institution, with the first bishop Monseigneur de Chaumont. With the French Revolution all the religious people were completely swept away.

The town was repeatedly sacked during the wars of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The little but religiously very prestigious town was partially destroyed by fire in 1554 and 1757. Funds for the rebuilding of the portion of the town destroyed by the last fire were supplied by Stanislas, last duke of Lorraine.