Provenchères-sur-Fave (, literally ''Provenchères on

Fave The Fave () is a river in France in the eastern region of Lorraine (region), Lorraine. It flows in the Vosges, Vosges département. It is a tributary of the Meurthe (river), Meurthe, thus a sub-tributary of the Moselle and of the Rhine. It is lon ...

'') is a former commune in the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

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 ...

. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune

Provenchères-et-Colroy Provenchères-et-Colroy () is a commune in the Vosges department of northeastern France. The municipality was established on 1 January 2016 and consists of the former communes of Colroy-la-Grande and Provenchères-sur-Fave.Arrêté préfectoral
22 December 2015 Inhabitants are called ''Provenchérois''. Provenchères-sur-Fave should not be confused with Provenchères-lès-Darney in the same department.

Geography

The population of the commune is divided between the village of Provenchères and surrounding hamlets such as Brafosse. As its name indicates, the commune is positioned beside the river

, on its left bank. The Fave is a tributary of the Meurthe. Provenchères-sur-Fave is on the western side of the

Vosges Mountains The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian (linguistics), Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its France–Germany border, border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the bor ...

. On the horizon the neighbouring

conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

dressed hills of

triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

stand out clearly: to the west the Ormont Mountain has its peak, at 900 meters, well clear of the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

. The Spitzemberg at just 640 meters which at one time hosted an observation fortress dominates the valley: further along the same range are the isolated Voyemont (793 meters) and the high plateau of

Climont Climont (), formerly called "Clivemont" in Old French, and "Winberg" in Old Alsatian, is a conical sandstone peak of the Vosges mountains. The mountain, with a cut-off shape, is known from afar by walkers and modern-day travellers. Situated toda ...

(965 meters) towards the north-east. Nevertheless, within the territory of the commune itself stretched between the Fave Valley and the foot of the Spitzemberg, the altitude rises only to 651 meters, above the hamlet of Truches, and near to the old road connecting with the Grande Fosse pilgrimage route. The village is crossed by the national road RN 420 which connects it with Saint-Dié some to the southeast and, via a not particularly direct crossing of the

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

to the north-east. The western access point to the recently reopened Tunnel Maurice-Lemaire through the mountains towards

Sélestat Sélestat (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Schlettstàdt''; German: ''Schlettstadt'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Grand Est region of France. An administrative division (Subprefectures in France, sous-préfecture) of the Bas-Rhin Depa ...

is some to the south-east. The commune is fully within the Ballons des Vosges Nature Park.

The name

Provenchères-sur-Fave may be identified with "Pervincaria", mentioned in rough Latin notes from the thirteenth century. Subsequent names include Provencheriae, Provenchères and, in the nineteenth century, Provenchères-en-Vosges.

History

Seventeenth century wars including, most destructively, the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

and the invasions of France's allies, the

Swedes Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...

, led to hunger and plague. The early decades of the century also seem to have seen an above average level of poor harvests caused by bad weather: in Provenchères recorded deaths greatly outnumbered recorded births during the middle decades of the century, and there is also evidence of people simply moving away from the devastated region. Around 1660 the parish of Provenchères numbered sixty families, most of them much impoverished. By 1700, however, there were approximately 180 taxable homesteads, indicating significant recovery from the depopulation that characterised the middle part of the seventeenth century, and by the 1760s the population had probably risen to between 800 and 900. It is fair to point out that these population trends echoed the experience of many towns and villages in Lorraine between 1618 and he region's eventual formal incorporation into France when the last duke died in 1766. During the nineteenth century, until

1870 Events January * January 1 ** The first edition of ''The Northern Echo'' newspaper is published in Priestgate, Darlington, England. ** Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed. * January 3 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge be ...

, Provenchères-en-Vosges, was one of the many communes in the Canton of Saales. The

annexation Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held t ...

by Germany of

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

and a large chunk of

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

left the Canton of Saales arbitrarily split down the line of a mountain ridge. Separated from Saales, Provenchères-en-Vosges found itself promoted to the status of an administrative centre of its own commune. Frontier town status seems to have benefited the local economy. Ten years later, in 1881, the name of the town was changed to Provenchères-sur-Fave. In

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...

, in the aftermath of another war, France recovered Alsace-Lorraine, but there was no appetite to recreate the departmental boundaries as they had been before 1870. The Canton of Saales and the Canton of Provenchères-sur-Fave retained their separate identities, and it is for these historical reasons that until 2015 Provenchères-sur-Fave remained the administrative centre of one of the smallest cantons in France.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provencheressurfave Former communes of Vosges (department)

Geography

The name

History

See also

References