VESOUL  , a

town of eastern France, capital of the department of Haute-Saone, 236 M . E.S.E. of Paris on the Eastern railway to Belfort . Pop . (1906) 8702 . Vesoul is situated between the isolated conical hill of La Motte (1263 ft.) and the river Durgeon . The vine-clad hill, from which there is a fine view of the Jura and Vosges mountains, is crowned by a votive chapel which in 1855 replaced the old fortification . The medieval walls of the town, dating from the 13th and 15th centuries, still exist on its northern side, and in the narrow and winding streets are many old buildings . The church of St George dates from the 18th century . In the pleasant south-eastern quarter are the promenade and the Place de la Republique, with a monument to the Gardes Mobiles who fell in the war of 1870-71 . Vesoul is the seat of a prefect, a tribunal of first instance and a court of assize, and has a lycee for boys, training colleges for both sexes, and a branch of the Bank of France . Distilling and the manufacture of files and tapioca are among the industries . The town is a market for farm-produce and cattle .

Vesoul (Vesulium Castrum, Visolium, Vesulum) is of

ancient origin, but in existing records is first mentioned in the 9th century . It was originally a fief of the church of Besancon, and passed afterwards to the house of Burgundy, becoming, in the 13th century, capital of the bailiwick of Amont . The castle was destroyed in the 17th century . The town suffered much during the wars of religion and the Thirty Years' War . Vesoul be-longed temporarily to France after the death of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy; was returned to the empire when Charles VIII., king of France, broke off his marriage with the daughter of Maximilian, king of the Romans; and again became part of France under Louis XIV. after the peace of Nijmwegen in 1678 .