VESOUL, a town of France, chef-lieu of the department of Haute-Saône, is situated 147 miles south-east of Paris by the railway to Mülhausen, at the junction of branch lines to Gray and Besançon, on the river Durgeon, which here receives two tributaries. The isolated conical hill of La Motte (1483 feet), which shelters the town on the north, affords fine views of the Jura and the Vosges Mountains. On the summit is a votive chapel (1854). The chief features of Vesoul are the palace of justice, the church of St George with a fine altar, the promenade with a monument to the gardes mobiles of the department who fell at Belfort in 1870 and 1871, a library of 20,000 volumes, and an archaeological museum. The population in 1881 was 9431 (commune 9553), the corresponding figures for 1886 being 9602 and 9733.

Vesoul, which is first mentioned in the 10th century, was originally a fief of the church of Besançon. It afterwards passed to the house of Burgundy, and was fortified. The castle was destroyed in the 17th century. The town suffered much during the Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years’ War. Vesoul belonged temporarily to France after the death of Charles the Bold, was returned to the empire when Charles VIII. broke off his marriage with the daughter of the emperor Maximilian, and again became part of France under Louis XIV. after the peace of Nimeguen.