Vienne

Vienne
Vienne
	— Department —
	Prefecture building of the Vienne department, in Poitiers
	; Coat of arms
	; Coat of arms
	Location of Vienne in France
	Coordinates: 46°30′N 00°30′E / 46.500°N 0.500°ECoordinates: 46°30′N 00°30′E / 46.500°N 0.500°E
Country	France
Region	Poitou-Charentes
Prefecture	Poitiers
Subprefectures	Châtellerault; Montmorillon
	Government
• President of the General Council	Claude Bertaud
	Area
• Total	6,990 km2 (2,700 sq mi)
	Population (2007)
• Total	421,891
• Rank	56th
• Density	60/km2 (160/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Department number	86
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	38
Communes	281
	^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

This article is about a department of France. For the city in France, see Vienne, Isère.

For other uses, see Vienne (disambiguation).

Vienne (French pronunciation: [vjɛn]) is a department in the Poitou-Charentes region of France named after the river Vienne.

History [edit]

Vienne is one of the original 83 departments, established on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Poitou, Touraine, and Berry. The original Acadians who settled in Nova Scotia and what is today other maritime provinces of Canada, left Vienne for North America after 1604.