Bouxières-aux-Dames
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Bouxières-aux-Dames () is a commune in the
Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a '' département'' in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. Its prefecture and largest city is Nancy and it borders the departments of Meuse to the west, Vosges to the south, ...
department in northeastern
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.


Geography

The village is located on the slope of a hill, directed south-north. It overlooks the confluent of
Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) 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 joins at Koblenz. A sm ...
and of Meurthe within its north-north-west. It is located at the north-north-east of Nancy, along the motorway A31. The village is divided into five parts: * the top of the village around the remainders of the abbey and the lawn, on the summit part of the hill. * the heart of the village around the church and the town hall, * the recent district of Neveaux on the northern side of the hill, * the district of the ''Noisetiers'' in the small valley of the brook of the Moret pond, * the areas along Meurthe.


History

The name of Bouxières comes from the Latin word '' buxus '' which means
boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost So ...
. The history of Bouxières-aux-Dames is closely related to its
abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
of chanoinesses or ''ladies'' ("dames" in French), founded by
Saint Gauzelin Gauzelin (died 7 September 962) was a French people, French Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Toul from 922 until his death. He has been named as a saint. Life Gauzelin was born to noble Franks, Frankish ...
. Issued from a noble
Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...
family, he was a notary of the royal chancellery when King
Charles the Simple Charles III (17 September 879 – 7 October 929), called the Simple or the Straightforward (from the Latin ''Carolus Simplex''), was the king of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a memb ...
made him
bishop of Toul The Diocese of Toul was a Roman Catholic diocese seated at Toul in present-day France. It existed from 365 until 1802. From 1048 until 1552 (''de jure'' until 1648), it was also a state of the Holy Roman Empire. History The diocese was erect ...
. Following a visit to
Fleury Abbey Fleury Abbey (Floriacum) in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, France, founded in about 640, is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, and possesses the relics of St. Benedict of Nursia. Its site on the banks of the ...
near
Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (, literally ''Saint-Benoît on Loire'') is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. Monastery This town hosts the '' Abbaye de Fleury'', also known as the ''Abbaye de Saint Benoît'' (Saint Benedic ...
he founded in Lorraine the male monastery of Saint-Epvre and the female monastery of Bouxières-aux-Dames. He lived in poverty and died into 962. The legend says that a stag appeared to him indicating where to found the abbey. Later on, to be a chanoinesse, several districts of
nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...
will be required. The treasure of the abbey is kept in Nancy cathedral. It comprises in particular five objects: a
chalice A chalice (from Latin 'cup', taken from the Ancient Greek () 'cup') is a drinking cup raised on a stem with a foot or base. Although it is a technical archaeological term, in modern parlance the word is now used almost exclusively for the ...
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a patenebr>
a
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
boo

covered with a binding of goldsmithery, a ring of the prelate and a
comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...
of ivory. Some rare stone remainders are visible on the top of the hill in "rue des chanoinesses" (chanoinesses street). The abbey persisted until 1787 when the chanoinesses who were bored with Bouxières-aux-Dames wanted to take advantage of the city life and settled in Nancy close to Bonsecours. The abbey was used as a stone quarry and was destroyed after French Revolution. Several houses re-used its stones. Another significant event in the history of the village is
battle of Nancy The Battle of Nancy was the final and decisive battle of the Burgundian Wars, fought outside the walls of Nancy on 5 January 1477 by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, against René II, Duke of Lorraine, and the Swiss Confederacy. René's ...
, 5 January 1477, where, with its mercenaries,
condottiere Condottieri (; singular: ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian military leaders active during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The term originally referred specifically to commanders of mercenary companies, derived from the ...
Campobasso Campobasso (, ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in southern Italy, the capital of the region of Molise and of the province of Campobasso. It is located in the high basin of the Biferno river, surrounded by Sannio and Matese mountains. Campobas ...
betrayed Charles I, Duke of Burgundy and massacred on the bridge of Bouxières the remainders of the flying army of the duke of Burgundy. The chroniclers said that frozen Meurthe was red of blood. Indeed, there were only three bridges on Meurthe at that time in Jarville, Nancy and Bouxières. The troops of Charles I could not pass on western bank and thus had to remain on eastern bank, while trying to flee towards
Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...
, while troops of Rene II and their allies followed them. In 1914, the ''Grand Couronné'' battle (September 4–13 1914) occurred on the bottom of the hill. From 1943 to 1947,
Marian apparition A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance of Mary, the mother of Jesus. While sometimes described as a type of vision, apparitions are generally regarded as external manifestations, whereas visions are more often understood as ...
defrayed the chronicle and divided the parishioners of the village.


Population

Its inhabitants are called ''Bouxiérois'' in French.


See also

*
Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department The following is a list of the 591 communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2025):


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouxieresauxdames
Communes of Meurthe-et-Moselle