Mirecourt

An unusual feature of Mirecourt is the extent to which the local economy continues to be underpinned by the same skilled crafts that have supported the local community for centuries. Both musical instrument and lace making bring significant amounts of wealth and employment to twenty-first century Mirecourt.

Mirecourt's tradition of luthierie seems to date back to the end of the sixteenth century and the travels of the Dukes of Lorraine and their retinues to Italy. The first violin makers date back to as early as 1602 with Mr. Clabec, Jean de Fourcelle and Barbelin, followed by Nicolas Gérard and Demange Aubertin in 1619 and 1623; during the Thirty Years' War (1631–1661), violins were no longer mentioned in city records, but by 1673 four families of violin makers were in Mirecourt.[3] It was particularly in Mirecourt that the business of making stringed instruments took off, with 43 luthiers in 1635, and the business continued to grow into the twentieth century, by when it was claimed that Mirecourt was producing more than 80,000 instruments annually. This is frequently a family business which can grow into a dynastic one: numbered among Mirecourt's Lutherie dynasties have been the Derazey, Mennégand, Aldric, Lupot, Langonet, Gand, Bernard, Jacquot, Nicolas, Mougenot, Charotte, Apparut, Hilaire, Buthod, Collin, Laberte, Magnié, Peccate, Bazin, Ouchard and Vuillaume families including, most famously, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume 1798 - 1875. Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume worked with famous violinist Niccolo Paganini.[3]

Luthier Didier Nicolas (1757–1833) is most likely the first violin maker to manufacture violins repeatedly in Mirecourt.[4] Born and raised in Mirecourt, he did his apprenticeship here and founded his shop A la Ville de Cremonne.[5] He also founded a workshop, called D. Nicolas Aine, which became one of the most successful in Mirecourt.[6]

At the end of the 19th century, H. R. Haweis wrote "Mirecourt now stands out as perhaps the greatest and most excellent emporium of modern violin manufacture," and "the names of Maucotel, Medard, Mennegand, Silvestre, and Derazay, and above all Vuillaume, must always shed an imperishable lustre upon the little town in the Vosges mountains."[7]

By 1925 the craft was organised into 18 workshops and 4 factories employing 680 workers. The economic and political hardships of the mid-twentieth century coincided with the disappearance of the workshops. However, the creation in the 1970s at Mirecourt of the National School of Lutherie (École nationale de lutherie) National School of Violin Making signaled a renaissance which has endured into the present century. Notably, Jean-Jacques Pages has produced outstanding instruments by copying famous eighteenth century models by the likes of Stradivarius and Amati. The Gérome brothers, now retired from making guitars and mandolins, have had their work endorsed by Georges Brassens who has purchased one of their guitars.

The industry is celebrated by the presence in Mirecourt of the Musée de la Lutherie et de l'Archèterie françaises.

Lace making is believed to have been introduced to Lorraine only in the sixteenth century, when the art arrived from Lombardy with the violin makers sponsored by the Dukes of Lorraine. Peter Fourier, the priest at nearby Mattaincourt, who would subsequently become a saint in recognition of his energetic work resisting the Protestant currents from east of the River Rhine, established the Convent of Notre-Dame (Our Lady) and there encouraged instruction in lace making both at the school which was operated by the Sisters and at the orphanage. The project was a great success with daughters of rich families and with girls of the peasant class. By 1790 lace makers from Mirecourt were supplying merchants from abroad, and despite the political and social turbulence of the early nineteenth century, the lace business continued to flourish and grow, with the middle of the nineteenth century a golden age. Nevertheless, by the middle of the twentieth century lace had fallen out of favour and the industry locally was much diminished. It has nevertheless survived, and today, supported by 140 participants, the Mirecourt lace business has recovered some of its international reputation. Lace making courses and permanent exhibitions of the craft remain a feature of the town.

The Vosges psychiatric hospital (le centre hospitalier psychiatrique/CHS) remains the largest employer in the commune of Mirecourt, with over 1,000 salaried staff on the payroll.

The commune's territory also contains the Mirecourt-Epinal aerodrome, which is managed by the departmental Chamber of Commerce.