VIDELIACUS

If we look at a map of Villey Le Sec surroundings, we note that its landscape is the result of a deforestation between Chaudeney and Gondreville woodlands, at the corner of Haye’s forest, and the Moselle river left bank. There are no records of when the clearing happened except that it became the estate of a person named Videlius who established his Videliacus domain.

In the year 602, a devout widow named Pretoria, donated the property to Toul’s bishop, Eudulus, who in turn donated it to the monks of Saint Epvre.

This later donation was validated later on by renowned personalities such as: Frotaire, Toul’s bishop in 836, the King Charles II or Charles the Bald in 873, Saint Gauzelin in 936 and many others.

The estate kept flourishing as the monks added a part of the Moselle valley forest they had cleared and converted in meadow.
This brought them a lawsuit with the people of the Villa Orcada (Ochey), lawsuit they won as judges noted that they never failed to pay their property rent (cens du territoire). The original contract was acknowledged by the Lord of Ochey in 1474 and was still in effect in the first part of the 16 century.

Over the years, Videliacus became Villey le Sec and fell under the Duke of Lorraine protection. Located on the borders of his duchy and Toul’s bishop estate, stone landmarks engraved on one side with the Cross of Lorraine for the duchy and with a Fleur-de-Lis, French emblem, on the other side, can still be found in the woods.