Remiremont
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| Commune of Remiremont | |
| Location | |
| Longitude | 06° 35' 26" E |
| Latitude | 48° 01' 03" N |
| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Région | Lorraine |
| Département | Vosges |
| Arrondissement | Épinal |
| Canton | Remiremont |
| Intercommunality | Communauté de communes de la Porte des Hautes-Vosges |
| Mayor | Jean-Paul Didier |
| Statistics | |
| Altitude | 379 m–762 m (avg. 400 m) |
| Land area¹ | 18 km² |
| Population² (1999) |
8,538 |
| - Density (1999) | 474/km² |
| Miscellaneous | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 88383/ 88200 |
| ¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq. mi. or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| ² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel). | |
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Remiremont is a town and commune in eastern France, in the département of Vosges. Population (1999): 8,538 (Romarimontains).
Contents |
[edit] Geography
Remiremont is located on the Moselle, close to its confluence with the Moselotte, 25 km southeast of Épinal. Remiremont is surrounded by forest-clad mountains.
[edit] Sights
The abbey church, consecrated in 1051, has a crypt of the 11th century in which are the tombs of some of the abbesses, but as a whole belongs to the late 13th century. The abbatial residence (which now contains the maine, the court-house and the public library) has been twice rebuilt in modern times (in 1750 and again after a fire in 1871), but the original plan and style have been preserved in the imposing front, the vestibule and the grand staircase. Some of the houses of the canonesses dating from the 17th and 18th centuries also remain.
[edit] History
Remiremont (Romarici Mons) derives its name from Saint Romaric, one of the companions of Saint Columban of Luxeuil, who in the 7th century founded a monastery and a convent on the hills above the present town. In 910 the nuns, menaced by the invasion of the Hungarians, took refuge at Remiremont, which had grown up round a villa of the Frankish kings, and in the 11th century they permanently settled there. Enriched by dukes of Lorraine, kings of France and emperors of Germany, the ladies of Remiremont attained great power. The abbess was a princess of the empire, and received consecration at the hands of the pope. The fifty canonesses were selected from those who could give proof of noble descent. On Whit-Monday the neighboring parishes paid homage to the chapter in a ceremony called the Kyrioles; and on their accession the dukes of Lorraine, the immediate suzerains of the abbey, had to come to Remiremont to swear to continue their protection.
The War of the Scutcheons (Panonceaux) in 1566 between the duke and the abbess ended in favor of the duke; and the abbess never recovered her former position. In the 17th century the ladies of Remiremont fell away so much from the original monastic rule as to take the title of countesses, renounce their vows and marry. The town was attacked by the French in 1638 and ruined by the earthquake of 1682. With the rest of Lorraine it was joined to France in 1766. The monastery on the hill and the nunnery in the town were both suppressed in the French Revolution.
[edit] References
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- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
