Puzieux () is a
commune in the
Vosges department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in
Grand Est in northeastern
France.
Inhabitants acre called ''Putéoliens''.
Puzieux in the Vosges département should not be confused with the
Pusieux in the
Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
département to the north.
Geography
Puzieux is sited on the north-east of the Vosges Plain, close to the neighbouring
Meurthe-et-Moselle département. The village is within the
Canton of Mirecourt, itself some to the south-east. Beyond the south side of Puzieux is the approach path for the
local airport.
The communal territory is traversed by two streams called Les Pierres and Oëlleville. The streams are set in grassland, while the slightly drier land in the commune is used for
arable farming. Around the village there are some
orchards along with the surviving traces of old
vineyards. Save at the outer limits ff the commune, little remains of the forest which probably covered most of the land here in ancient times.
History
The name Puzieux has mutated from the
Gallo-Roman period name which was Puzeoli. Various ideas have been advanced concerning the ancient origin of this name, but the most plausible is that it refers to a pit dug in the ground for the storage of grain. It is known from other sources that Pusieux was at the heart of the Xantois region which produced large amounts of
farmed wheat at that time: the presence of grain storage facilities at the heart of such a region would therefore not be surprising.
During the
Thirty Years' War the village was destroyed by invading
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
forces. The first half of the seventeenth century was a miserable period. During the reign, in France, of
Louis XIII Puzieux was subjected to the ravages of the
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
invaders supported by their savage northern allies. At one point it was reported that only three houses of the village remained.
It was only with the return of some measure of peace in 1670 and, more particularly, after 1697 when the
Treaty of Ryswick confirmed the restoration of Lorraine to the
Dukes of Lorraine, that the village could be reconstructed. Modern research suggests that the village rebuilt during the early decades of the eighteenth century was actually the result of the fusion of three villages that had been destroyed by the Swedes, being those previously known as Puzieux, Méréville and Fontenelle.
See also
*
Communes of the Vosges department
References
Communes of Vosges (department)
{{Vosges-geo-stub