Editing Ardennes (department) (section)

=== Territorial organization ===
[[File:Carte des communes des Ardennes.png|thumb|right|Map of the [[communes of the Ardennes department]].]]

The Ardennes is composed of 452 communes which are grouped into 19 cantons and four arrondissements of varying sizes.

The largest arrondissement of the department is that of [[Arrondissement of Charleville-Mézières|Charleville-Mézières]] while the smallest is [[Arrondissement of Sedan|Sedan]] which is half the size. The two arrondissements that occupy the northern part of the Ardennes, however, have four-fifths of the departmental population.

The other two arrondissements, [[Arrondissement of Rethel|Rethel]] and [[Arrondissement of Vouziers|Vouziers]], occupy the southern part of the department with roughly comparable areas but are very sparsely populated.

Before the Poincaré decree of 10 September 1926 which removed many sub-prefectures in France, the department had five arrondissements. In addition to the four mentioned above, the fifth was that of [[Rocroi]] –  a small historic city in the north-west of the department close to Belgium – which has been since annexed in its entirety to the district of Charleville-Mézières. The former arrondissement of Rocroi then consisted of six cantons – including four on the border with Belgium – which were [[Givet]], [[Fumay]], [[Revin]], [[Rocroi]], [[Rumigny, Ardennes|Rumigny]], and [[Signy-le-Petit]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://splaf.free.fr/dep.php?depnum=08|title=Le SPLAF - Ardennes|website=splaf.free.fr}}</ref>

[[File:Givet - Hôtel de ville.jpg|thumb|upright|The Hotel de Ville in [[Givet]], a border town with [[Belgium]].]]

Under the intercommunality framework,{{Clarify|date=April 2024}} Ardennes consists of an urban community organized around the city préfecture, called ''Heart of Ardennes'' and has fifteen communities of communes including in Sedan the ''Communauté de communes du Pays sedanais'' which is the most important.

In addition, the Ardennes has 33 communes that do not adhere to any Intercommunal cooperative organisation (EPCI).

<gallery widths="200px" heights="160px">
File:Rocroi vu des remparts.JPG|The small town of [[Rocroi]] was a sub-prefecture of Ardennes until 1926.
File:La Meuse à Sedan 1.jpg|La [[Meuse (river)|Meuse]] at [[Sedan, Ardennes|Sedan]], sub-préfecture and second city of Ardennes.
File:Bibliothèque et église saint Nicolas Rethel.jpg|[[Rethel]], sub-préfecture of Ardennes and third city of the department.
File:Saint-Maurille 03.jpg|[[Vouziers]], the smallest sub-préfecture of the Ardennes department.
</gallery>