Felon (Territoire de Belfort)
Felon is a town in the French department of Territoire de Belfort in the Franche -Comté.
Geography
Felon is at 388 m, about twelve kilometers northeast of the town of Belfort ( a straight line ). The former village street lines extends to the north of the Burgundian Gate, on the plateau near the Vosges mountains, east of the stream of Margrabant.
The area of 4.11 km ² municipal area includes a portion of the weakly in relief landscape in the Burgundian Gate ( trouée de Belfort ). The main part of the area is occupied by the plateau in the Vosges foothills, which is on average 390 m. It is mostly covered with arable and meadow land, but also shows some larger forest areas. The plateau is drained by the Margrabant and a side creek south to the Ruisseau de Saint -Nicolas. In the valleys there are several ponds that were once created for fish farming. On the north-west, the municipality's area extends up the slope of the Châtelet, a Vorhügels of the Vosges. On the wooded height, the highest elevation of Felon is achieved with 520 m.
Neighboring communities of Felon are Romagny -sous- Rougemont and Petitefontaine in the north, Lachapelle- sous- Rougemont to the east, Angeot in the south and Saint- Germain- le- Châtelet in the West.
History
Is first mentioned Felon in 1227 under the name Vuolon. Over time, the spelling on Furlon ( 1235 ) and Foulon ( 1565) transformed to Felon ( since 1585 ). The origin of the village could be (French moulin à foulon ) a fulling mill. Felon belonged to the rule Rougemont- le -Château. Middle of the 14th century came the village under the suzerainty of the Habsburg dynasty. Together with the Sundgau Felon came with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia to the French crown. Since 1793 it belonged to the Department of Haut -Rhin, however, remained in 1871 as part of the Territoire de Belfort as opposed to the rest of Alsace in France. In 1984 the village moved from Canton to Canton Fontaine Rougemont- le -Château. Today Felon is affiliated with 13 other municipalities for municipal association Communauté de communes du Pays Sous- Vosgien.
Population
With 252 inhabitants ( 1 January 2011) Felon is one of the small communities of the department of Territoire de Belfort. After the population had decreased in the first half of the 20th century (1901 171 persons were still counted ), a continuous population growth was recorded since the early 1970s again. Since then, the population has almost doubled.
Attractions
The church of Saint -Antoine, originally a chapel was enlarged from 1767 to 1774. The bell tower was added in 1836.
Economy and infrastructure
Felon was until well into the 20th century a predominantly by agriculture (crops, orchards and livestock ), fish farming and forestry embossed village. In addition, there are today some of the local small business enterprises. Meanwhile, the village has been transformed into a residential community. Many workers are also commuters who engage in urban Belfort and Mulhouse their work.
The village has good transport links. It is located near the main road N83, which runs from Belfort to Mulhouse. The nearest links to the A36 motorway is located at a distance of about six kilometers. Further road links exist with Petitefontaine and Romagny -sous- Rougemont.