Vesoul

Sister cities

• Gerlingen

History

Vesoul is first mentioned in a document dated 899. That document describes an elevation with a fortified watchtower and speaks of "Castrum Vesulium". Castrum is a fortification, and "Vesulium" has the syllable ves which meant hill or mountain in a language that was spoken before the Celts. Today, there is a castle that forms the centre of the city. The first houses were built inside the walls of the castle. Newcomers who found no place settled outside the city walls, on the flanks of the hill. Wine growing was popular. The town was severely affected by the plague in 1586. It became part of France in 1678. In 1814, after the fall of the First French Empire, a buffer state was created, with Vesoul as its capital. The principality was that of Franche-Comté, of the Vosges and of Porrentruy. Today, one of the main factories of Stellantis, formerly an installation of PSA Peugeot Citroën, is near Vesoul.

Geography

Vesoul is located in eastern France, about 100 kilometers from the German and Swiss borders and between the Jura and Vosges mountain ranges. Vesoul is also situated in the center of the Haute-Saône department, which is in the north of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. In this region, Vesoul is included in the Pays de Vesoul et du Val de Saône, a geographic region composed the Vesoul area and the northern part of the Saône valley. By road, Vesoul is from the towns of Luxeuil-les-Bains, from Lure and from Gray. Relative to the bigger cities in the French East region, Vesoul is located from Besançon, from Belfort, from Dijon, and from Nancy. Equidistant from Dijon and Mulhouse, Vesoul is from Paris, at the intersection of national roads N19 and N57. Vesoul station is on the SNCF Paris–Mulhouse railway line, and has connections with Paris, Belfort, Mulhouse and Chaumont. The Vesoul area is also included in the Pôle métropolitain Centre Franche-Comté which is a government structure unifying the biggest areas of central Franche-Comté. Nine communes border the town of Vesoul. Vesoul is crossed by four watercourses: two rivers (Durgeon and Colombine) and two streams (Vaugine and Méline). All four are tributaries and sub-tributaries of the Saône, the fourth longest river in France at 473 km, and a tributary of the Rhone, which flows at about ten kilometers to the west of Vesoul.

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  377
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  333
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  299
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  296
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  295
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  258
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  257
• Eurasian Blackcap

  Sylvia atricapilla (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  210

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2023-03-22
  1 km NW of Pont-de-Roide, France
• M 3.9 — 2022-09-10
  1 km WSW of Zimmersheim, France
• M 4.1 — 2021-12-24
  2 km WSW of Blamont, France
• M 4.1 — 2016-12-03
  2 km SE of Damparis, France
• M 2.5 — 2008-08-27
  2 km S of Jeanménil, France
• M 2.7 — 2008-07-22
  3 km N of Devecey, France