Haute-Saône

Haute-Saône (French: [ot soːn] ; Frainc-Comtou: Hâte-Saône; English: Upper Saône) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of northeastern France. Named after the river Saône, it had a population of 235,313 in 2019. Its prefecture is Vesoul; its sole subprefecture is Lure.

Haute-Saône
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; and view of the village of Corcelles in Saulnot
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Haute-Saône in France
Coordinates: 47°35′N 06°00′E
Country	France
Region	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Prefecture	Vesoul
Subprefecture	Lure
Government
• President of the Departmental Council	Yves Krattinger (DVG)
Area 1
• Total	5,360 km2 (2,070 sq mi)
Population  (2021)
• Total	234,296
• Rank	85th
• Density	44/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Department number	70
Arrondissements	2
Cantons	17
Communes	539
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries and lakes, ponds and glaciers larger than 1 km2

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 Franco-Prussian war in Haute-Saône
• 
  Battle of the Lisaine
• 
  Battle of Villersexel
• 
  View of the destruction of Bourg de Villersexel
• 
  German artillery in front of the ruins of castle of Villersexel

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, and is divided into 2 arrondissements and 17 cantons. 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 commune of Champlitte is the largest commune in this department, with an area of 128 km² (49 sq mi).

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 remains, but industrial businesses tend to be on a small scale. In 2006 employment by economic sector was reported as follows:

* Agriculture 4,919 employees

* Construction 4,504 employees

* Industrial sector 18,747 employees

* Service sector 44,865 employees

Demographics

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1801 291,579 —     1821 308,171 +0.28% 1831 338,910 +0.96% 1841 347,627 +0.25% 1851 347,469 −0.00% 1861 317,183 −0.91% 1872 303,088 −0.41% 1881 295,905 −0.27% 1891 280,856 −0.52% 1901 266,605 −0.52% 1911 257,606 −0.34% 1921 228,348 −1.20% 1931 219,257 −0.41% 1936 212,829 −0.59%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1946 202,573 −0.49% 1954 209,303 +0.41% 1962 208,440 −0.05% 1968 214,176 +0.45% 1975 222,254 +0.53% 1982 231,962 +0.61% 1990 229,650 −0.13% 1999 229,732 +0.00% 2006 235,867 +0.38% 2011 239,695 +0.32% 2016 237,242 −0.21% 2019 235,313 −0.27% 2020 234,601 −0.30%
Sources:

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.

Principal towns

The rural nature of the department is highlighted by the absence of large towns and cities. Even the department's capital, Vesoul, still has a population below 20,000. As of 2019, there are 5 communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:

Commune	Population (2019)
Vesoul	14,914
Héricourt	10,646
Lure	8,046
Luxeuil-les-Bains	6,623
Gray	5,553

Politics

The president of the Departmental Council is Yves Krattinger, first elected in 2001.

Current National Assembly Representatives

Constituency		Member	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

• 
  Notre-Dame du Haut by Le Corbusier (UNESCO)
• 
  Château d'Oricourt
• 
  Pesmes
• 
  La Planche des Belles Filles (Tour de France)
• 
  Landscape of Plateau des Mille Étangs

See also

• County of Burgundy - History
• Franche-Comté
• Cantons of the Haute-Saône department
• Communes of the Haute-Saône department
• Arrondissements of the Haute-Saône department
• Arpitan language

External links

• (in French) Prefecture website
• (in French) Departmental Council website Archived 2019-05-07 at the Wayback Machine
• (in French) Tourism website