History of Saint-Dizier

Of Prehistory at the end of Antiquity

If the oldest discoveries in the immediate surroundings of Saint-Dizier date from the higher Paléolithique (arrowheads), the first human testimonys on the territory of the commune date from the Neolithic final (flint blades). The excavations have then made it possible to format at the day a pin head of round slice dating from average bronze (of -1500 with - 1250).

The discoveries of 1992, on the site of the Holy Oak Amand , reveal for the first time the real traces of habitat. They date from final Bronze (- 900) and present a whole of holes of posts with pit containing of ceramics being used as silo.

The few huts which constituted Saint-Dizier know a continuity throughout the age of Iron, particularly with the Tène. This evolution is highlighted by the burials updated on the site of BA 113, the archeologists having found in funerary enclosures of the ornaments (torques, bracelets, Fibule S), ceramics and pottery. Many holes of posts were also found there.

The inhabitants of its some huts undertake, apart from the agricultural activity, a work of craft industry of pottery, helped by local clay layers. Necessary to the development, an activity of essartage exists also, highlighted by the discovery of axes of bûcheronnage.

The living conditions are facilitated by the nature of the grounds rather rich (the silt of the Perthois) giving better harvests that in calcareous zone, a good hydrographic network and the forest.

Geographically, Celtic Saint-Dizier is between the two old establishments which formed Châtelet de Gourzon and Perthes, joined enters they by a way which will be still used later on: the way of Langres to Trawl-nets out of Champagne by the valley of the the Marne and which passed on the current commune. It politically forms part of the tribe of the Catalaunes, group cultural which is closest for him in its lifestyle (funerary rite, art, weapons).

For the Gallo-Roman period, the village becomes Olonna . The name could come from the Celt oln , the alder, the tree of moist environments which does not miss in the area. The village develops with after J. - C., knows then a compressing at the beginning of before beginning again in the middle of the 3rd century. The village is typical of this time: a small habitat of huts with framework in wood side and villae.

Life romanize, as well in the design of the apartment buildings as in the use of new ustensils in the daily life. At the site Fouled the , archaeological research updated an important habitat, a villa, with privative thermal baths. It occupied until the 4th century, probably partially destroyed during the great migrations and will be re-occupied for the period mérovingienne. The material of excavation gives glassmaking, ceramics, ornaments, rings, tesselles of mosaic, funeral urns out of glass, currencies and other tools.

The economy is based on agriculture but it is of this time that one finds the first traces of iron and steel industry on the territory of Saint-Dizier. The slags updated at the Fouled , dated from, are testimony.

The rise of Olonna starts paradoxically with the disturbed period of the great migrations. The fire of Langres by the Vandals in 264 then after the destruction of Perthes, capital of the Pagus Partensis , by the Huns towards 451 precipitates the populations towards Olonna. Even if it does not have any historical value, the tradition wants that the survivors of Langres brought with them the relics of their bishop, Desiderius, Didier. Olonna then became place of worship under the name of Sancti Desiderii Fanum , at the origin of the name of Saint-Dizier. Olonna will give its name to one of the suburbs of the commune: the Valley .

In 1544, whereas the city very close to Vitry-le-François had been destroyed by the armies of Charles Quint, Saint-Dizier resisted to them for six months. The legend wants that François I {{er}}, speaking later about the inhabitants of Saint-Dizier, qualified them good sort . From this expression the current name from the inhabitants, the Bragards would derive.

It is also the place of the last victory of Napoleon i at the time of the countryside of 1814, vis-a-vis the Prussian and Russian troops.

In 1952, the first new city of France, the district of Green-Wood (in the beginning " Saint-Dizier-the-Nine ") was initiated by Edgard Pisani, then prefect of Haute-Marne. This creation results from the increase in population due to the industrial expansion and the extension in a strategic air base. It made it possible to practically double the number of inhabitants of Saint-Dizier in two decades.

The city has known for one decade, of deep changes in the nature even of its aspect. The road cut between the Green-Wood and the remainder of the city is erased, the new infrastructures are created.

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