Vitry-le-François

The present town is a relatively recent construction, having been built in 1545 at the behest of King Francis who wished to replace, on a new site, Vitry-en-Perthois, which, in 1544, had been entirely destroyed as part of the backwash from the king's Italian War of 1542–46. The new Vitry was to be a modern city, constructed according to a plan produced by Girolamo Marini. The king's role in its creation resulted in Vitry-le-François receiving the king's name as part of its own name. At the beginning of World War I in August 1914, Joseph Joffre established the Grand Quartier Général at the Place Royer-Collard. In 1961, a terrorist attack took place on a train going between Strasbourg and Paris. ==Demography==

• Its church of Notre-Dame is a 17th-century building with fine 18th-century monuments. • A convent of the Récollets was later converted to contain the town hall, the court-house, a library and a small museum. • There is a bronze statue of Pierre Paul Royer-Collard (1763–1845), the politician and philosopher, a native of the district. ==Twin towns==

Vitry-le-François is twinned with: • Tauberbischofsheim, Germany, since 1961 ==Personalities==

• René Gateaux (1889–1914), mathematician • Guy Georges (born 1962), serial killer • René Herbin (1911–1953), classical pianist • Abraham de Moivre (1667–1754), mathematician • Étienne-Gabriel Morelly (1717–1778), proto-communist philosopher • Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry (fl. c. 1100), Talmudist ==Climate==

{{Weather box|width=auto ==See also==