Arches

Arches stands on the Moselle, south of Épinal, at the foot of the Vosges. Once a fortified town and the seat of a large provostship, it exercised authority over much of the mountain country and its summer pastures. The Thirty Years' War brought such devastation that Arches emerged from it reduced to a village. The remains of its defences recall the greater importance it once held in the region.