# Vienne (department)

Vienne (French pronunciation: vyen; Poitevin-Saintongeais: Viéne) is a landlocked department in the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It takes its name from the river Vienne. It had a population of 438,435 in 2019.

## History

Established on 4 March 1790, during the French Revolution, Vienne is one of the original 83 departments. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Poitou, Touraine, and Berry, the last being a part of the Duchy of Aquitaine until the 15th century.
The original Acadians, who settled in and around what is now Nova Scotia, left Vienne for North America after 1604. Kennedy (2014) argues that the emigrants carried to Canada their customs and social structure. They were frontier peoples, who dispersed their settlements based on kinship. They optimized use of farmland and emphasized trading for a profit. They were hierarchical and politically active.

## Geography

The department of Vienne has an area of 6,990 km$^2$ (2,700 sq mi). Part of the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine, it borders Maine-et-Loire to the northwest, Indre-et-Loire to the north, Indre to the east, Haute-Vienne to the southeast, Charente to the south and Deux-Sèvres to the west. It is crossed by the river Vienne, a tributary of the Loire.

### Principal towns

The most populous commune is Poitiers, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 6 communes with more than 7,000 inhabitants:
| Commune | Population (2019) |
| Poitiers | 89,212 |
| Châtellerault | 31,487 |
| Buxerolles | 10,060 |
| Jaunay-Marigny | 7,600 |
| Saint-Benoît | 7,267 |
| Chauvigny | 7,062 |

## Demographics

Population development since 1801:
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
| 1801 | 240,990 | — |
| 1806 | 252,351 | +0.93% |
| 1821 | 260,697 | +0.22% |
| 1831 | 282,731 | +0.81% |
| 1841 | 294,250 | +0.40% |
| 1851 | 317,305 | +0.76% |
| 1861 | 322,028 | +0.15% |
| 1872 | 320,598 | −0.04% |
| 1881 | 340,295 | +0.66% |
| 1891 | 344,355 | +0.12% |
| 1901 | 336,343 | −0.24% |
| 1911 | 332,276 | −0.12% |
| 1921 | 306,248 | −0.81% |
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
| 1931 | 303,072 | −0.10% |
| 1936 | 306,820 | +0.25% |
| 1946 | 313,932 | +0.23% |
| 1954 | 319,208 | +0.21% |
| 1962 | 331,619 | +0.48% |
| 1968 | 340,256 | +0.43% |
| 1975 | 357,366 | +0.70% |
| 1982 | 371,428 | +0.55% |
| 1990 | 380,005 | +0.29% |
| 1999 | 399,130 | +0.55% |
| 2006 | 418,460 | +0.68% |
| 2011 | 427,193 | +0.41% |
| 2016 | 436,069 | +0.41% |
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. :
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## Politics

Édith Cresson, France's first woman prime minister from 1991 to 1992, was a deputy (MP) for the department. The president of the Departmental Council is Alain Pichon, elected in 2020.
Vienne has three arrondissements: Poitiers, the prefecture, and the subprefectures Châtellerault and Montmorillon.

### Current National Assembly Representatives

| Constituency | Member | Party |
| Vienne's 1st constituency | Lisa Belluco | The Ecologists (France) |
| Vienne's 2nd constituency | Sacha Houlié | La République En Marche! |
| Vienne's 3rd constituency | Pascal Lecamp | MoDem |
| Vienne's 4th constituency | Nicolas Turquois | MoDem |

## Religion

The capital, Poitiers, is the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poitiers, which pastorally serves the department.

## Tourism and sights

The most famous tourist sites include the Futuroscope theme park, Poitiers (city of Art and History), the Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, a UNESCO world heritage site, the animal parks of Monkey's Valley in Romagne and the Crocodile Planet in Civaux.

## Economy

The production of goat cheese is an important industry in Vienne.

## International relations

Vienne has a partnership relationship with:
| Esslingen am Neckar, Germany Berkshire, England Oulu Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland | Shenzhen, China, since 1993 Udine, Italy Velenje, Slovenia Wrocław, Poland |

## Notable people

* Benoît-François Bernier (1720–1799), New France army officer, served as financial commissary of wars

## Gallery

* Notre-Dame of Poitiers
* Saint-Martin-l'Ars
* Romagne
* Blanzay
* Tympanum of the church of Civray