Vitry-le-François

• Name — Vitry-le-François • Commune Status — Subprefecture and commune • Arrondissement — Vitry-le-François • Canton — Vitry-le-François-Champagne et Der • Insee — 51649 • Postal Code — 51300 • Mayor — Jean-Pierre Bouquet • Term — 2020–2026 • Intercommunality — Vitry, Champagne et Der • Elevation M — 105 • Area Km2 — 6.45

The present town is a relatively recent construction, having been built in 1545 at the behest of King Francis who wished to replace Vitry-en-Perthois on a new site 2.5 miles to the South-West, which had been entirely destroyed in 1544 by the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V during the 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.

• 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.

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

• René Gateaux (1889–1914), mathematician • Guy Georges (born 1962), serial killer • René Herbin (1911–1953), classical pianist • Abraham de Moivre (1667–1754), mathematician • Daniel Demoivre (fl. 1695-1731), musician • Étienne-Gabriel Morelly (1717–1778), proto-communist philosopher • Mary de Vitry, person executed for their gender identity • Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry (fl. c. 1100), Talmudist