Colroy-la-Grande: Fave, Forest and Heritage

Colroy-la-Grande combines a landscape shaped by the Fave with historic buildings serving different purposes. To get a sense of the place, it is worth looking at both: the river valley and woodland on the one hand, and the churches, railway viaduct and boundary markers on the other.

Landscape Along the Fave

The Fave flows through Colroy-la-Grande. The valley widens significantly where it meets the Sainte-Catherine River. To the north, the Voyemont Massif forms the boundary of the town; its elevation is given as 793 metres. Forest covers 76 percent of the municipal area.

The settlement also follows its own spatial pattern: the historic settlement is concentrated along the Fave, while the valley widens at its confluence with the Sainte-Catherine. The proportion of forest and the elevation of the massif describe two other aspects—land use and topography. The river course, the opening of the valley, the northern ridge and the amount of forest each highlight a different aspect of the landscape.

Church and Chapel

The parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste is located near Devant l'Eglise and was rebuilt in 1772. The Chapel of Saint-Sébastien is at 2 Faubourg Saint-Sébastien. It preserves statuettes of the saint and was probably built in the 16th century to house an ossuary.

An ossuary is a structure used to house human bones. So, alongside the preserved statuettes, the chapel’s presumed original purpose is another distinct part of its history.

The two religious buildings can be distinguished by their different connections to the past: for Saint-Jean-Baptiste, the focus is on a dated rebuilding; for Saint-Sébastien, both its date of construction and its purpose as an ossuary are only presumed. The statuettes add another specific feature of the chapel.

Viaduct and Boundary Markers

Another type of structure is the railway viaduct on Rue Cachée. It carries the railway over the Dirangoutte stream valley, has six arches and is 86 metres long. The Compagnie de l'Est built it between 1923 and 1928.

Its function and design offer different insights: the railway crossing describes what the viaduct is for, while its six arches and length of 86 metres give a sense of its construction. It was built after the parish church was rebuilt in 1772 and after the chapel, probably constructed in the 16th century. This also makes it possible to distinguish the buildings by period.

Boundary markers also add to the history of the town. A series of ten markers dating from the Ancien Régime includes Colroy-la-Grande and is spread across several named municipalities. The markers are made of pink sandstone. The number ten refers to the series as a whole, not to ten markers in Colroy-la-Grande alone. This distinguishes the series from the individually named churches and the viaduct: it combines a shared material with a distribution across several municipalities.

Discover more destinations: Plombières-Les-Bains, Bellefontaine, Thaon-Les-Vosges, Ban-De-Laveline, Anould, Le Val-D'ajol, Neufchâteau, Uzemain

View the broader travel guide: Vosges.