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.
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).
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-Comtéregion, 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
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:[4]
* 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%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
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:[3]
_-_01.jpg)
.jpg)
