Marna (department)

The area is 8162 km². The Marne and Vel rivers flow through the department .

The department includes 5 counties, 44 cantons and 620 communes.

The department was formed on the territory of the historical province of Champagne on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution in pursuance of the law of December 22, 1789 . The basis of this law was the idea that residents should not spend more than 2 days on horseback visiting the prefecture of their department and returning home. Therefore, the vast territory of the former province of Champagne was divided into four departments: the Ardennes , Marne, Ob and Upper Marne . The name comes from the Marne River.

The post of prefect of the department was established on February 17, 1800 (28 pluviosis VIII). The first prefect of Marne was Claude-Laurent Bourgeois de Jessan, who held this position for 38 years.

Until 1998, the administrative center of the department was called Chalon-on-Marne .

Ancient Roman era

The Romans gave the name Belgica province, which stretched from the Vosges mountains to the North Sea, and Reims , the main settlement of the Gallic tribe of Rems ( French Rèmes ), became the main city of this Roman province and received the name Durocortorum ( lat. Durocortorum ). Guy Julius Caesar in his Notes on the Gallic War writes “Of all the Gauls, the Belga are the most courageous, and among the Belga the most outstanding are the Remus” ^[1] .

The tribes of Remus and cataluns are considered allies of the Romans, since no evidence of rebellion against Roman rule was found. On the territory of the department, many archaeological excavations were carried out, as a result of which various objects of the Gallo-Roman era were discovered and extensive knowledge about the lifestyle of that era was obtained. As a result of peaceful life, temples in the glory of the gods of Jupiter , Mars and Apollo were unhindered in the region. Christianity came to these parts in the III century and was adopted by the inhabitants without resistance.

The barbarian tribes themselves considered this territory neutral and peaceful, and when Attila left the city in the middle of the 5th century after the siege of the capital, it was defeated by the combined Franks led by Merovey , the Visigoths led by Theodoric and the Roman legions under Flavius ​​Aetius .

From Clovis to Charlemagne

Roman domination was gradually replaced by the monarchy of Clovis . This territory was included in Australia , the northeastern part of the Frankish state , and Reims was its capital for some time.

Under Charlemagne, this territory, due to the expansion of the empire, became part of Neustria . However, royal power existed here essentially only formally, since the real power was concentrated in the hands of the bishops of Reims and Chalon , whose powers corresponded to the title of count - both were peers of France , had the right to gather an army of up to 60,000 people, and the bishop of Chalon had the right to mint a coin.

The hereditary dynasty of the Counts of Champagne, founded by Thibault , was to be based on the recognition of two bishops in the territory of Champagne , and its members never questioned the authority of the bishops.

Middle Ages

John I , who was the only heir to the 14th Earl of Champagne Henry III , married King Philip IV of France in 1284 , and Champagne, as a dowry, passed into the possession of the crown of France.

The first attacks on Champagne during the Hundred Years War were commanded by the infamous Robert Nolles , and these attacks were repulsed by the Bishop of Troyes Henri de Poitiers.

The Age of Revolutions and Napoleon

The Battle of Valmy on September 20, 1792 was the first military victory of revolutionary France (even though this victory was achieved by bribing the Duke of Braunschweig , who commanded the Prussian forces). The events of the Overseas Campaign of the Russian Army of 1813-1814 also developed on the territory of the Marne Department.

After the victory of the troops of the seventh coalition at the Battle of Waterloo ( June 18, 1815 ), Austrian troops were stationed in the department and the occupation lasted from June 1815 to November 1818 .

Franco-Prussian War of 1870

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, after the defeats of the French in Alsace and Lorraine, Prussian troops entered the territory of the Marne department, where the French army strengthened. On August 25, 1870, near the commune of Passavan-en-Argonn, 49 mobile guards (soldiers of the mobile national guard) were brutally killed and a hundred were injured; witnesses of this drama report on the “savage deeds” of Prussian soldiers ^[2] . MacMahon with his troops retreated to Chalon. During the offensive, they were blocked near Beaumont-en-Argonne and tried to take refuge with the Emperor Napoleon III in the Sedan fortress, in the Ardennes, where they surrendered to the Prussian troops on September 2, 1870 ^[3] .

World War I

Before the First World War , defensive fortifications were built on the territory of the department, which, together with the fortifications of Dijon , Langra , Lana and La Fer, formed a second defensive line in the north-east of France . Among these fortifications are, first of all, the fortress of Vitry-le-Francois and, secondly, the fortifications erected around Reims , which was important due to the intersection of a large number of railway lines: the Ronzier stronghold near Chenet, the fortress Berlier de Metz in Saint-Thierry , the battery of Saint Paul in the Loire , the fortress of Drouet in Brimont , and 6 more fortresses and 3 batteries around Reims.

The Russian expeditionary force was stationed in the Murmelon camp.

A large number of army forces were transported through the department’s territory (along highways, along the historic Sacred Road to the besieged Verdun and by rail). Two significant battles of the First World War took place on the territory of Marne — the First Battle of the Marne (September 5–12, 1914) and the Second Battle of the Marne (July 15–20, 1918) ^[4] .

Consequences of World War I

World War I had very negative consequences for the Marne department. The area of ​​the “red zone” (land withdrawn from economic use as a result of hostilities) in the department amounted to “only” one- seventh of the entire “red zone” in France, but this soil was so degraded that it was forbidden by law to plant forests and engage in other activities.

The two largest tourist attractions of the Marne department attract more than one million tourists each year - the Reims Cathedral and Lake Der Chantecoc ( FR. Lac du Der-Chantecoq ) ^[5] .

Natural Attractions

• The largest artificial lake in Europe, Der Chantecock Lake
• Montagnes de Reims and its Regional Natural Park
• Champagne Vineyards
• Argon forest
• Swamps of Saint-Gon
• Verzy : rare beech forms in the Verzy forest

Historic Sites

• Reims : Reims Cathedral , residence of the Archbishops of Reims , To Palace , St. Remigius Basilica , Fujita Chapel
• Chalon-en-Champagne : Cathedral of Saint-Etienne , church of Saint-Alpen, church of Notre-Dame-de-Vaux , town square (Jard)
• Epernay : Avenue de Champagne - famous Champagne wineries
• L'Epin : Basilica of Notre Dame de l'Epin
• Mondman-Monzhivrou : Memorial for the First Battle of the Marne
• Valmi : Valmi Mill

• Vallage

• Prefecture website
• Conseil Général website (link not available)
• http://www.reims-tourisme.com/