Haute-Saône

Haute-Saône (French pronunciation: ​[ot.soːn]; Arpitan: Hiôta-Sona; English: Upper Saône) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of Northeastern France. Named after the Saône River, it had a population of 237,242 in 2016. Its prefecture is Vesoul; its sole subprefecture is Lure.

Haute-Saône

Hiôta-Sona  (Arpitan)
Department of France
From top down, left to right: Étobon, the Ognon River in Pesmes, the Saône River in Bucey-lès-Traves, Clairegoutte, Source du Planey in Anjeux, view of the village of Corcelles in Saulnot
Coat of arms
Location of Haute-Saône in France
Coordinates: 47°35′N 06°00′E
CountryFrance
RegionBourgogne-Franche-Comté
PrefectureVesoul
SubprefectureLure
Government
 • President of the Departmental CouncilYves Krattinger (PS)
Area
 • Total5,360 km2 (2,070 sq mi)
Population
 (2016)
 • Total237,242
 • Rank83rd
 • Density44/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Department number70
Arrondissements2
Cantons17
Communes539
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries and lakes, ponds and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Administration

Haute-Saône is divided into 2 arrondissements and 17 cantons.

History

The department was created in the early years of the French Revolution through the application of a law dated 22 December 1789, from part of the former province of Franche-Comté. The frontiers of the new department corresponded approximately to those of the old Bailiwick of Amont.

The department was also marked by the Franco-Prussian War with the battles of Héricourt, and Villersexel but also the proximity of the Siege of Belfort. The department welcomes Alsatians fleeing the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine.

The department has an important mining and industrial past (coal, salt, iron, lead-silver-copper mines, bituminous shale, stationery, spinning, weaving, forges, foundries, tileries, mechanical factories).

  • Emblematic industries of Haute-Saône
  • Arthur de Buyer Coal Mine (1.010 m) the deepest coal mine in France between 1900 and 1910
  • Gouhenans Saltworks is one of the most important saltworks in France in the 19th century
  • Interior view of the Varigney factory (Dampierre-lès-Conflans), the iron industry was developed until the middle of the 20th century
  • Creveney bituminous shale distillation plant, a rare operation in France between the two world wars

Geography

Haute-Saône is part of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. Neighbouring departments are Côte-d'Or to the west, Haute-Marne to the north-west, Vosges to the north, Territoire de Belfort to the east, Doubs to the south and east and Jura to south.

The department can be presented as a transitional territory positioned between several of the more depressed departments of eastern France and the so-called Blue Banana zone characterised, in recent decades by relatively powerful economic growth.

  • Landscape
  • The country of Lure and the Vosges in the east of the department
  • Landscape in the southeast
  • Ray-sur-Saône in the west of the department

Economy

The department is overwhelmingly rural, despite the area having been at the forefront of industrialisation in the eighteenth century. The industrial tradition endures, but industrial businesses tend to be on a small scale. In 2006 employment by economic sector was reported as follows:[1]

* Agriculture 4,919 employees
* Construction 4,504 employees
* Industrial sector 18,747 employees
* Service sector 44,865 employees

Demographics
Population Changes between 1872 and 2005 (source:INSEE). The baseline on this graph is set at 200,000 people, and the increments represented by the horizontal grid lines are of 10,000.

In common with many rural departments in France, Haute-Saône has experienced a savage reduction in population, from nearly 350,000 in the middle of the nineteenth century to barely 200,000 on the eve of the Second World War, as people migrated to newly industrialising population centres, often outside Metropolitan France.

During the second half of the twentieth century the mass mobility conferred by the surge in automobile ownership permitted some recovery of the population figure to approximately 234,000 in 2004.

The rural nature of the department is highlighted by the absence of large towns and cities. Even the department's capital, Vesoul, still had a population below 20,000 in 2010.

Politics

Current National Assembly Representatives
ConstituencyMember[2]Party
Haute-Saône's 1st constituency Barbara Bessot Ballot La République En Marche!
Haute-Saône's 2nd constituency Christophe Lejeune La République En Marche!

Tourism
gollark: Okay then, I now need... 96 iron ingots.
gollark: 32 of them.
gollark: Well, I'll rephrase that, I just need iron ingots.
gollark: What's the lowest price?
gollark: I need someone to buy 32 iron ingots from wolfmall.

See also

References
  1. Agreste Franche Comté : Agriculture
  2. http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/
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