Haute-Marne

Haute-Marne
Coat of Arms of Haute-Marne
Location
Administration
Department number:	52
Region:	Champagne-Ardenne
Prefecture:	Chaumont
Subprefectures:	Langres Saint-Dizier
Arrondissements:	3
Cantons:	32
Communes:	432
President of the General Council:	Bruno Sido
Statistics
Population	Ranked 87th
-1999	194,873
Population density:	31/km2
Land area¹:	6211 km2
¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2.

Haute-Marne is a department in the northeast of France named after the Marne River.

History

Haute-Marne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Champagne, Burgundy, Lorraine and Franche-Comté^[1]

In 1814, Chaumont was the unwitting witness to the end of the First Empire. On the 1st of March, Prussia, Russia, England and Austria signed an accord forbidding any individual peace deal with Napoleon the 1st, and to fight until his final defeat.

During World War II, Haute-Marne was split under the German occupation. The canal which runs from the Marne to the Saône served as a border, dividing the department into west and east. The east was a "reserved zone", intended for the creation of a new German state, whereas to the west would be the traditional "occupied zone". Haute-Marne was finally liberated by the Allies, in the form of the division of General Leclerc, between August an September 1944.

Geography

Haute-Marne is part of the region of Champagne-Ardenne and is surrounded by the departments of Meuse, Vosges, Haute-Saône, Côte-d'Or, Aube, and Marne. The nearest big cities are Paris, Nancy, Strasbourg, Basel, and Dijon.

The highest mountain is Haut-du-Sac, in the Langres Plateau, in the southwest of the department, which rise to 516 m (1,693 feet). The lowest points at 117m are found on the plains of Perthois and Der.^[1]

The department is named after the Marne River, whose source is near Langres. This river covers 120 kilometres within the department. The department is to the east of the Parisian basin, and is characterised by a concentric sequence of cliff faces of varying geological origin, oriented northeast/southwest.

Tourism

The fortified town of Langres, the Renaissance castle of Joinville, and the village of Colombey-les-deux-Églises are all major attractions.

See also

• Cantons of the Haute-Marne department
• Communes of the Haute-Marne department
• Arrondissements of the Haute-Marne department

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Haute-Marne, Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia. Research Machines plc. September 8, 2005. accessed on October 19, 2006.

External links

• (French) Prefecture website
• (French) General Council website
• (English) Haute-Marne at the Open Directory Project

• (French)/(English) Official Tourist Board website

Coordinates: 48°05′N 05°15′E / 48.083°N 5.25°E / 48.083; 5.25