Belfort

Belfort (in Inhabitant of Franche-Comté: Béfô ) is a town of Franche-Comté, on the Tasty one, chief town of the department of the Territoire of Belfort. Historically, it belongs to the High-Alsace, subdivision of the historical province of Alsace which corresponds to current the department of Haut-Rhin, the Low-Rhine and the territory of Belfort. This last was created in 1922 on the old part of Alsace not-annexed by Germany and was integrated into the Franche-Comté area. Many personalities, even of the politicians, continue to locate (wrongly) Belfort in Alsace.

It is the seat of the school inspectorate of the Territory of Belfort and the diocese of Belfort-Montbeliard.

Its inhabitants is called Belfortains.

Established in Belfort Gap, the city plays a big role as of the 14th century under the name of beautiful/extremely (referring to the castle which dominates already the city). This strategic situation in the middle of Belfort Gap made of it a military fortified town and a city of garrison.

Proclaimed sixth green city of France, the prefecture belfortaine enjoys a quality of life recognized with many parks and gardens. It has a rich person historical heritage and cultural.

Toponymy

A first written mention of the city is made in 1226 in the treaty of Grandvillars: the name of the city appears for the first time, it probably comes from beautiful and strong, referring to the castle dominating the city already.

Geography

Situation

Localization

The town of Belfort enjoys a situation privileged on the European axis structuring called “the Rhine-Rhone”, transportation route between the North Sea and the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Europe of the South. It is located more precisely in Belfort Gap (a plate located between the northern end of the chain of the Jura and the southernmost part of the solid mass of the Vosges). Its altitude varies between 345 meters and 400 meters.

It is in the North-East of the Franche-Comté area and is distant approximately 140 kilometers of Dijon, with 50 kilometers of Basle and 90 kilometers of Besancon to the doors of Alsace, Germany and Switzerland. Its distance with the capital is of 500 kilometers.

Belfort belongs to the underground railway network the Rhine-Rhone made up in 2004 with the towns of Dijon, Mulhouse, Besancon and Montbeliard.

Climate

Belfort is subjected to a double climatic, oceanic influence on the one hand (important precipitations as well in quantity as in frequency) and a strong continental influence on the other hand with hard winters (strong frosts, snows) and of the hot and dry summers. Generally, the climate of Belfort is characterized by a strong variability, as well during a season as one year on the other. The following table gives an idea of the climate belfortain in comparison with the national average and some symbolic systems cities:

With 1.050 millimetres of precipitations per annum, the city one of is sprinkled country in company of Brest (1 109 mm/an) and Biarritz (1483 mm/an). These precipitations take place per annum on average 175 days, of which about thirty days with snowfalls. It profits in spite of that from good a 1.800 hours sunning per annum. It freezes on average 83 days per annum.

The records of maximum and minimal temperature on Belfort are respectively of 38°C on July 31st, 1983 and - 21,4°C on January 1st, 1985. The annual average temperature is of 9°C.

Transport and communications

Transport in Belfort, as in many other European cities, is dominated by the car whose traffic has increased continuously for several years. The highway has 36 Beaune - Mulhouse, which passes to the South of the city, is the main axis connecting it to the other French and foreign cities. A trunk road, the NR 19 connecting Paris to Switzerland constitutes the other main axis.

The city profits from a good service road by the train, in particular thanks to the national traditional line Lyon - Strasbourg. The railway service road is supplemented by lines FOR THE THIRD TIME towards Besancon and Montbeliard, Dole worms and Dijon like worms Haut-Doubs and Switzerland. A first branch of the LGV the Rhine-Rhone is currently in the course of construction which will stop at a new station of agglomeration as from 2011 and will shorten run times towards Strasbourg, Paris and Lyon.

Belfort profits from the proximity of the airport EuroAirport Basle-Mulhouse.

The urban transport is represented mainly by the company of bus Optymo (ex CTRB) which serves 7 urban lines and 7 lines périurbaines, the network is dense.

Site

The site of Belfort is located in Belfort Gap. The city is surrounded by several hills whose majority are strengthened: Salbert, Miotte, Justice.

Urban morphology

Districts

The town of Belfort is divided into several districts:

  • District of the Residences (10 000 inhabitants)
  • District of the Glacis of the castle (3 592 inhabitants)
  • District of the Mount and the Bars
  • District of Dardel
  • District of Miotte and the Forging mills
  • District Jean Jaurès
  • District of the Downtown area
  • District of the Old city and the Furnace
  • District of the Seedbed

Urban fabric

The historical center and the center town date from 14th at the 19th century.

At the 19th century, districts close to the first crown, such as the Bars, the Seedbed, the Mount, Miotte… Viotte… make important great strides. These districts present today a dense fabric of buildings not exceeding five or six stages and of suburban zones.

After the Second world war and during all the baby-boom, the requirements in residences are important: great units are built along a East-West axis, with in particular Glacis, the Residences, Dardel. Few of these districts know operations of demolition-rebuilding and rehabilitation.

Structure

The old center constitutes an architectural whole homogeneous and dense and made up of old residential buildings and well preserved public edifices.

The majority of the buildings are built there out of sandstone of the Vosges.

Belfort, crossed by Tasty the, a torrent-like river domesticated by pink sandstone quays, is located in the middle of the Belfort Gap (flat between the Vosges in north and the Jura in the south, also named Porte of Burgundy, to see Géographie of the Territory of Belfort). The city initially developed with the foot of the " Roche" , calcareous cliff on which draws up the castle, then extended towards the west, in the alluvial basin of the river. Belfort is surrounded by hills: Miotte, Justice, Poles, Bellevue, the Mount and finally Salbert, glaze of a forest of leafy trees which constitutes a place of walk for the townsmen. Belfort is one of the rare towns of France from which the territory extends on two different mountainous solid masses. In the south-east of the city, the Rock and Miotte geologically form part of the links of the Jura septentrional. On the other hand, Salbert is a mountain of the Vosges. One of the consequences of this typical location is the color of the rock and thus of the ground. Thus in the west of the pond of the Forging mills, close to the camp-site, it is red (likings of the Vosges), whereas in the east, it is gray (limestone of the Jura).

History

The city was always a place of required passage between Rhenish world and Romance world. Its history is an essential component of the Histoire of the Territory of Belfort.

  • 58 av JC Jules César invaded Alsace by the Belfort Gap to pare the German directed by the sanginaire king Suève Arioviste.

  • 1226 : Treaty of Grandvillars: the name of the city appears for the first time, it probably comes from beautiful and extremely , referring to the castle dominating the city already.
  • 1307 : The count of Montbeliard, Renaud of Burgundy, grants a charter to the town of Belfort, thus releasing it from all drudgeries.
  • 1349 : Epidemic of plague
  • 1350 - 1359: The city becomes Austrian following the marriage of Sleeve-board, girl of Jeanne of Montbeliard, with the duke Albert of Austria.
  • 1431 : Catch of the city by Philippe the Good.
  • 1439 - 1445: The Flayers, led by the Dolphin of France, devastate the Alsace. The city is occupied.
  • 1525 : War of the Peasants.
  • 1563 : The Ferdinand emperor of Austria repurchases the pledge of the lord of Morimont and Austria manages the city directly.
  • 1619 : Construction of the Convent of the Capuchins by the archduke Léopold
  • 1632 - 1636: War Thirty Year old: the city is besieged by the Swedes, catch, is reconquered and in fate devastated.
  • 1636 : Louis de Champagne, Count of Suze takes possession of the city in the name of the King of France.
  • 1648 : The Traité of Westphalia puts an end to the hostilities, Belfort becomes French city. It is strengthened by Gaspard de Champagne.
  • 1654 : It is the Fronde, Belfort and the Count of Suze chose the bad camp the marshal of Ferté-Senneterre takes again the city in the name of the king who offers it in 1659 to the Cardinal of Mazarin. Hortense Mancini, niece of the cardinal inherits it.
  • 1687 - 1703: Realization of the fortifications under the direction of Vauban. Belfort becomes a fortified town locking the Belfort Gap between the Jura and the Vosges. It is also a garrison town and a road junction from which the roads leave Paris, of Colmar, Basle and Montbeliard.
  • 1790 : Belfort is a chief town of district of the Haut-Rhin.
  • 1800 : Belfort is a Sous-préfecture Haut-Rhin.
  • December 1813 - April 1814: First head office of Belfort after work of Vauban. The commander Legrand faces during 113 days an army of coalition made up of Austrians, the Bavarian one, Cossacks and of Hungarian.
  • 1815 : from June to July: The Lecourbe general, with the head of 8  000 men resists 15 days an army of 40  000 Austrians, who fail to take the city.
  • 1817 - 1842: Reorganization of the fortifications and the fortified camp by the general Haxo.
  • 1822 : Coup attempt of State fallen through against monarchy
  • 1832, 1834 and 1855: cholera epidemics.
  • November 1870 at February 1871: Third seat by the Prussians. The heroic resistance of the population and the garrison under the direction of the colonel Pierre Denfert-Rochereau, at the time of the famous seat which lasted 103 days, was worth in Belfort to remain French after the annexation by the German Empire of the Département of Haut-Rhin, from which the district of Belfort formed part.
  • 1871 : Belfort becomes the chief town of the Territoire of Belfort created on the remainders of the Haut-Rhin.
  • 1872 : Several Alsatian industrial society installs in Belfort of the establishments which will enable them to preserve the access to the French market:
  • the population passes from 8  000 with 25  000 inhabitants in less than twenty years. Many Alsatian which decides to remain French installs in Belfort and in its area.
  • 1873 : August 2nd, the Prussians evacuate the city which they occupied since two years and half.
  • 1880 : The Lion of Belfort, work of Bartholdi, symbolizes the glorious resistance of the city during the war of 1870-1871
  • 1914 - 1918: First World War. The face is stabilized in the east, which does not prevent Belfort from being bombarded by German aviation and, during some time, by a long-range gun out of battery with Zillisheim (Haut-Rhin).
  • 1922 : the Territoire of Belfort acquires the statute of department (the 90e).
  • 1940 - 1944: Second world war. Bombardment of the sector of the station and the ways of railroad. The city is released the November 25th 1944.
In 1944, the marshal Pétain forwards by Belfort after his evacuation by the Germans.

As from the years 1970, Belfort develops and is embellished. The difficulties of the secondary industry oblige the local economy to turn more and more to the tertiary sector.

  • January 31st 2006: Belfort celebrates the birthday of the proclamation of the charter of 1307.

Economy

  • Railway (TGV) at Alstom;
  • Constructions electromechanical S;
  • Gas turbines;
  • Electronic;

Belfort is the seat of the Chamber of commerce and industry of the Territory of Belfort. It manages the port.

Administration

The commune of Belfort and the Communauté of agglomeration are members of the Mixed trade-union of the urban surface Belfort Montbeliard Héricourt Delle.

The city is divided into five cantons:

  • the Canton of Belfort-Center account 9  823 inhabitants;
  • the Canton of Belfort-Is account 13  403 inhabitants;
  • the Canton of Belfort-North account 8  555 inhabitants;
  • the Canton of Belfort-West account 9  108 inhabitants;
  • the Canton of Belfort-South account 9  528 inhabitants.
See the list of the cantons of the Territory of Belfort.

Famous characters

Tourist monuments and places

  • Lion of Belfort: work of Auguste Bartholdi made blocks of separately cut pink sandstones then assembled against calcareous cliff of the castle. It measurement 22 m of length and 11 m in height. Work began in 1875 and was completed in 1880. It was carried out in homage to the resistance of Belfort at the time of sound seat of 1870 and to its victims.
  • Monument of the Three Seats (1813, 1815 and 1870), place of the Republic, is a posthumous work of Bartholdi set up on August 15th 1913 in homage to the three defenders of Belfort: Legrand, Lecourbe and Denfert. The monument is surmounted by a group of four characters symbolizing France (with the national cock) supporting the town of Belfort (sword to the hand), a young combatant and small Alsatian.
  • strengthened Citadel: not strategic since, the citadel of Belfort was built by the Count of Suze starting from 1648. In order to lock the passage, because of many foreign invasions, Louis XIV entrusts to Vauban the project to strengthen Belfort. This one proposes in 1687 a pentagonal urban enclosure, protected by advanced works, and reinforced with the angles by bastionnées towers. It is the single example in France of the second system of fortification of Vauban. Then starting from 1817, the Haxo General will transform the castle into a modern fortress.
  • Fortifications of the type Séré de Rivières and dating from: forts of Justice, Miotte, Salbert, strong Hatry, forts of the Poles… All located on the territory of the city. The majority of the forts and works are today still the property of the army, and others are with the abandonment. The visit in is dangerous because of the holes, and of the nonprotected wells.
  • the Door of Brisach (1687), surmounted by a pediment to the weapons of the Sun king, was preserved in its primitive state. The ramparts which surround it are 18th century (photo opposite).
  • the old city, with the Place of Weapons, the Town hall, the Cathédrale Saint-Christophe… was the object of a plan of restoration succeeded undertaken as of the years 1970. The frontages of the houses were repainted very varied colors and the door frames and windows, sculpture and other corner of sandstone walls were pickled and emphasized.
  • the Tower of Miotte: it overhangs the pond of the Forging mills of an easily accessible place from where one can benefit from a vast panorama on the city and the solid mass of the Vosges.
  • the Citadel of Freedom : since July 2007, a historical course of discovery makes it possible to visit the Citadel of Belfort differently. Illustrated terminals, audioguide, video projection and lights in the Large Underground magnifient the site and as many bring elements of interpretation of a place and a rich person city in history.
  • Museums of the Town of Belfort: Belfort has important collections compared to its size. Several fields: archeology, arts and traditions popular (Belfort was a high-place of the imagery), soldiers (as opposed to what one could believe, these collections is not the fruit of its history but comes for the majority from donations), fine art and modern art (Jardot donation - in homage to the merchant of art Kahnweiler). Only one difficulty, these collections are, until now, exploded views: Museum of History in the old barracks of the Citadel; Museum of Modern art - Donation Jardot street of Mulhouse in an old house of Master rehabilitated by disciples of Corbusier street of Mulhouse; Museum of the Art schools Turn 41 and Temporary exhibitions out of Turn 46. Remarkable parts: some beautiful Picasso, Fernand Leger and Georges Directs in the collection of Modern art and André Beaudin, to discover absolutely! Mosaics of Bavilliers!

Events

  • University International festival of Music (FIMU): 3 days of musics in old city of Belfort the weekend of the Pentecost. Hundreds of free concerts in all the kinds by young orchestras come from the whole world, 75000 festival in 2006.
  • Eurockéennes: One of the greatest festivals rock'n'roll of outdoor in France, more than 90000 entries.
  • Semi-marathon of the Lion: 21 km of bitumen between Belfort and Montbeliard.
  • Between sights: International festival of film, mainly devoted to the young authors. Accessible to the greatest number.
  • Festival of Documentary film, in November, organized by the Departmental Media library (admissions free).
  • the fair with the books: several hundreds of thousands of books of occasion, in October - November.
  • In 2007: 700e birthday of the town of Belfort, as from the 10/19/2006 (exposures, conferences, many demonstrations) of which the fire of artfice of December 31st, 2006 of which the organization at summer entrusted to the famous Group F (Olympic Game opening and closure of Athens, passage to year 2000 of Paris…)
  • Stock Exchange with Minerals and Fossils: Stock Exchange organized by the Geological Club Belfortain with many Mineral exhibitors proposing , Fossil, Meteorite S and Gem S.
  • the Flea market of Belfort (one of largest of the east of France)

Specialities

  • Brimbul
  • Belflore
  • Droppings of the lion (in spite of its name, they are chocolates produced in some shops below the Lion of Belfort, the symbol of the city)

Some of the elementary schools

Elementary school Jean Moulin (public school)

Elementary school Jean Jaurès (public school)

Institution Sainte-Marie (private institution also including/understanding a college and a college)

Colleges

  • College Leonard de Vinci (public college)
  • College Vauban (public college)
  • College Signoret (public college)
  • College Bartholdi (public college)
  • College Chateaudun (public college)
  • College Rimbaud (public college)
  • College Notre-Dame (private college)
  • College Sainte-Marie (private college)

Colleges

  • College Condorcet (public lycée)
  • College Billhook (public lycée)
  • Notre-Dame College of the Angels (private college)
  • Vocational school Raoul Follereau (public lycée)
  • Vocational school Diderot (public lycée)
  • Vocational school Rene Cassin (public lycée)
  • Vocational school Saint-Joseph (private college)
  • College Raoul Follereau (public lycée)
  • College Sainte-Marie (private college)

Higher education

Twinnings

See too

References

Books

  • the Territory of Belfort by V. - has. Malta-Brown with the Editions of the Bastion 1882 republished in 1982.
  • the Inheritance of Communes of the Territory of Belfort to the Editions Flohic 1999.
  • Belfort and its Territory by J. Liblin with the Editions of the Tower Gile 1877 republished in 2000.
  • History of Belfort, the origins at our days by Y. Baradel… with the Editions Horvath 1985
  • picturesque and anecdotic History of Belfort and its surroundings by A. Corret 1855 republished by the Editions of the Gile Tower in 1991. More particularly interesting for the first part of the 19th century.
  • Belfort formerly 1871-1914 per Andre Larger, ED. Horvath 1987
  • "The Territory of Belfort in the storm, 1939-1944" , by Marie-Antoinette Vacelet, Cêtre editions, 2004.

External bonds

  • Official site of the city
  • Official site 700 years of the city
  • Tourist office of Belfort
  • (FortsDu90) Site gathering all information on the fortifications of Belfort
  • Site of the Citadel of the Freedom, managed by the company Green Marine

Photograph gallery

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