Darney

Coat of arms

Darney

Location within Grand Est region

Darney

Coordinates: 48°05′09″N 6°02′48″E / 48.0858°N 6.0467°ECoordinates: 48°05′09″N 6°02′48″E / 48.0858°N 6.0467°E

Country

CC Vosges côté Sud-Ouest

Government

• Mayor (2008–2014)

Hervé Buffe

Area¹

7.92 km² (3.06 sq mi)

Population (2006)²

1,325

• Density

170/km² (430/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

INSEE/Postal code

88124 /88260

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

²Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Darney is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France.

It is located in the Vôge Plateau, around the location of the source of the river Saône. Darney is known for its forest of oak and beech trees.

Darney is built on a promontory dominating the valley of the Saône. The Romans built a castle here to control the area, and watch the forested countryside. As a fortified town in the Middle Ages, Darney had towers and two fortified gates, and was known as the "city of thirty towers". Theobald II, Duke of Lorraine gave the town its church in 1308. The town suffered during the Thirty years war, being razed by the Swedes led by Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, who were allies of the French, in 1634. The castle of the time was destroyed in 1639. Remnants of this castle still exist, as well as the current, smaller castle, which was built in 1725.

During the First World War, Darney was the rallying point for Czech and Slovak volunteers, where they were stationed at Camp Kleber. Due to their presence, on 30 June 1918, Czechoslovakian independence was proclaimed in the village. The French President, Raymond Poincaré inspected 6,000 Czech and Slovak legionnaires, before handing over the Czechoslovakian army flag to Edvard Beneš, Minister of the Interior and of Foreign Affairs within the Provisional Czechoslovak government. This flag became the flag of the 21st rifle regiment.

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Wikipedia