Last modified: 2006-12-23 by ivan sache
Keywords: doubs | ornans | tower (white) | lion: half (yellow) |
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![[Flag of Ornans]](../images/f/fr-25-or.gif)
![[Flag of Ornans]](../images/f/fr-25-o1.gif)
Flag of Ornans, as used in Ornans (left) - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 February 2006; as used in La Tour-de-Peilz (right) - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 7 January 2006
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The municipality of Ornans (4,128 inhabitants - Ornanais; 3,624 ha; 330 m asl) is located 25 km south-east of Besançon in the valley of the river Loue, a tributary of the Doubs. Due to its ancient houses lined along the river, Ornans is often nicknamed the "Green Venice" (Venise verte).
Ornans was mentioned for the first time in a chart dated 1151 but was
granted its own chart only in 1244 by the Count of Burgundy (then la
Comté de Bourgogne, later incorporated into the province of
Franche-Comté, but different of the Duchy of Burgundy). According to the chart, Ornans was ran by a Municipal Council called magistrat. The Council was presided by the Mayor, assisted by four échevins
(Deputy-Mayors) and twelve jurés (Councillors). The Municipal Council
was elected every year by the householders older than 25. Among the
richest burghers, the magistrat appointed 12 notables to check the
finances of the municipality. Ornans was granted the right of asylum
and strongly defended this right. The Parliament once arrested a
refugee in Ornans and jailed him in Dole; the magistrat complained at
Emperor Charles V, the remote suzereign of the country, who ordered the
immediate return of the man to Ornans. The Comtois were known as
quibblers. In Ornans, there were 1,500 inhabitants but eight lawyers,
eight attorneys-at-law, seven bailiffs and six notaries.
The municipal militia watched the city from the castle dominating it.
The watch towers were so cold and windy that they were nicknamed
engoule-vent (windsweep) or froidcul (cold ass). However, they were
always volunteers to serve in the militia since a shooting contest hold
every year exempted its winner from taxes.
Ornans was located on a strategic place along the so-called chamin
saulnois, the road of salt. Salt was produced in Lons-le-Saunier and
Salines and exported to Montbéliard and Switzerland via the valley of
Loue. The lord of Ornans took care of the roads and the ford, later a
bridge, over the Loue, and perceived a toll on each salt shipping
crossing Ornans.
Othon IV, the last Palatine Count of Burgundy (1237-1303), was born in
the castle of Ornans. His daughter Jeanne married King of France Philippe V le
Long (1316-1322). His grand daughter Jeanne de France married Duke of
Burgundy Eudes IV, which was the first step to the reunification of the
County and the Duchy of Burgundy. Othon's arms are used on the modern
banner of arms of Franche-Comté.
In 1475, Duke of Burgundy Charles le Téméraire (1467-1477) built near
the gate of the castle "a kind of big donjon", with three floors each
protected by a cannon, in order to repel a potential attack from
Switzerland. Since the Swiss did not come, Charles entered Switzerland
and was defeated in Granson and Morat / Murten.
Ornans is the cradle of the Granvelle family. Nicolas Perrenot de
Granvelle (1486-1550) was appointed Minister by Emperor Charles V, as
well as Imperial Marshal in Besançon and Councillor at the Parliament
of Dole. His son Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586) was
appointed Bishop of Arras in 1540. Granvelle was one of the
"Burgundian" councillors of Charles V during the Council of Trento and
the redaction of the Treaty of the League of Smalkalde, signed by the
Emperor and the Protestants after the battle of Mühlberg (1547).
In 1550, Antoine succeeded his father as the Keeper of the Seals of the
Hapsburgs and became a very efficient diplomat. He negociated with
Count of Egmont the marriage of Philip II of Hapsburg with Queen of
England Mary Tudor (1554); he wrote the speech given in the States of
Flanders for the abdication of Charles V and the coronation of Philip
II (1556), and contributed to the redaction of the Treaty of
Cateau-Cambrésis, signed with France (1559). As a reward, Philip II
appointed Granvelle Councillor of his half-sister, Marguerite of Parma,
Governor of the Low Countries. Granvelle took very unpopular measures:
he increased the Spanish occupation troops, founded new inquisition
courts, ruined trade with protectionist orders and ruled the country
like a tyran. He was appointed Bishop of Mechelen in 1560 and Cardinal in 1561, but could not prevent the uprising of Flanders led by Count of
Egmont. Accordingly, Philip II sacked him in 1564. The next year,
Granvelle was member of the conclave that elected Pope Pius V
(1566-1572). He retired in Besançon but showed up again as Vice-Roy of
Naples in 1571 and President of the Supreme Council of Italy and
Castilie in Madrid in 1579. His last significant act was the
negociation of the marriage of infant Catherine and the Duke of Savoy.
Granvelle's relations with Philip II, as well as his general behaviour,
has been often compared to Richelieu's relations with Louis XIII.
(After Encyclopaedia Universalis)
In 1674, Louis XIV invaded Franche-Comté. Duke de Luxembourg,
commanding 3,000, besieged the old castle of Ornans, which capitulated
the next day, on 5 May 1674. The garrison was granted the honours of
war but the castle was totally dismantled. Its only remain is a chapel
and a few stones.
One of the last captains of the castle of Ornans (1622-1637) was the
engineer, geometer and artilleryman Pierre Vernier (1580-1637). He is
the inventor of the device called vernier. The device is made of two
graduated rulers, the biggest being fixed and the smallest moving along
the first. It is used to measure accurately the subdivisions of a
scale. A circular vernier is used to mesure arcs. The vernier is an
essential part of a calliper rule.
The most famous child of Ornans is the painter Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), whose birth house has been transformed into a museum. Several of his paintings were inspired by Ornans and its neighborhood, for instance Le Château d'Ornans, La Source de la Loue, L'Après-Dîner à Ornans and his most famous work, Un Enterrement à Ornans. Courbet is one of the founders of modern painting and his works were often violently rejected. Among his friends were the poet Baudelaire and the socialists Proudhon and Champfleury. The latter coined the word réalisme to define Courbet's painting. Delacroix called Courbet a revolutionary. L'Enterrement à Ornans caused a great fuss in the Salon in 1850 and was deemed macabre. In 1853, Les Baigneuses was the first non-academic representation of nudes; the painting was deemed "dreadfully ugly" and Emperor Napoléon III is said to have striken it with a riding crop. In 1855, the Salon refused L'Atelier; the painter showed it with some 40 other works in a booth called Le Pavillon du Réalisme. However, Courbet's ideas prevailed in England and Germany. The painter was eventually awarded the Legion d'Honneur, which he refused to remain loyal to his political opinions. After the Commune de Paris, Courbet was considered responsible of the taking down of the Colonne Vendôme, jailed and sentence in 1873 to fund the revamping of the column. The only evidence against him was articles he had written against the aesthetics of the column, and it now admitted that he did not condone the violence of the insurrection. Courbet exiled to La Tour-de-Peilz, in Switzerland, and died in Vevey. His tomb was brought back to Ornans.
The erudite Beauquier, Deputy of Doubs, writes in his book Le Blason de Franche-Comté that the expression musique d'Ornans was used to designate a cacophony. The origin of this dates back to the 1840s, when King Louis-Philippe came to Besançon and reviewed the National Guard. The battalion of Ornans expected to be congratulated for its music but the King's son, Duke de Nemours, ordered them to stop playing, saying: "Dad says you made a terrible racket" (in the original French: "You are breaking Dad's ears"). The angry battalion came back to Ornans and they played a cacophony in the village of La Vèze, therefore the complete expression la musique d'Ornans passant par La Vèze.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 7 January 2006
The flag of Ornans, as shown in Le patrimoine des communes du Doubs (vol. 2, Flohic, Paris, 2001), is vertically divided blue-red-yellow. The colours are taken from the municipal coat of arms of Ornans.
The flag of Ornans, as used in La
Tour-de-Peilz, is vertically divided blue-white-red with the municipal
coat of arms in the middle of the white stripe.
The municipal arms of Ornans are (GASO):
Coupé : au premier d'azur semé de billettes d'or au lion issant du
même brochant sur le tout, au second de gueules à la tour d'argent,
maçonnée de sable, ouverte et ajourée du champ.
Timms gives a simpler blazon: Coupé: au 1er, Bourgogne-Comté; au 2e, de gueules à la tour d'argent maçonnée de sable (Per fess azure billetty a demi-lion rampant issuant or and gules a tower argent masoned sable).
The chief of the shield bears the arms of Franche-Comté, as it is the
case in several other towns, for instance Luxeuil.
The website of the Communauté de Communes du Pays d'Ornans claims that the
tower represents the donjon built by Charles le Téméraire beside the
gate of the castle of Ornans.
Nicolas Vernot, Pascal Vagnat, Nicolas Deprez & Ivan Sache, 11 February 2006