Petit-Croix is a common French, located in the department of the Territoire of Belfort and the area Franche-Comté. It is administratively attached to the Canton of Fountain.

The village is located in edge of the way of railroad connecting Belfort to Mulhouse. Towards 2011 it will be the place of connection of this way and the line of the TGV the Rhine-Rhone which will pass between Fontenelle and Small-Croix.
From 1803 with 1999, the population passed from 280 to 307 inhabitants with a minimum of 151 listed in 1962.
The territory of the commune extends on 379 ha, it is crossed by the Madeleine, small river which takes its source in the massive of the Vosges. The village is with 346m of altitude.

History

One meets the name of Pilicors for the first time in 1105 in a charter signed by Ermentrude, widow of Thierry Ier, count of Montbeliard - Ferrette, equipping the priory with Froidefontaine which it had just founded. Petit-Croix was summarized then with a simple vault close which a hamlet attached to the town hall of High-Base developed, one of the five districts which composed the seigniory of Belfort. At the 13th century the village was divided in two strongholds belonging, one in Richard of Belfort, the other with the lord of Montreux. One and the other supported the establishment of new exploitations. At the 14th century the vault of Petit Cropt had become parish church dedicated to Notre Dame . In 1441, the village is called Bittikropff and the parish depends on the diocese of Basle because it is only in 1782 that it is attached to the diocese of Besancon. The church is then dedicated to the Nativité of the Holy-Virgin . In 1750, the village sheltered a little more than one hundred of habitants.
The name of the village comes from an error of comprehension: the origin is Petit Hollow (the village is installed in small small valley). The Germanic administration read Creux like Kreuz and interpreted the name of the village in Kleinkreuz . Petit-Croix is the translation of this Kleinkreuz .
August 31st 1915, the ace of aviation Adolphe Pégoud was cut down in the sky of Petit-Croix by a German adversary and its Nieuport was crushed in a field close to the road leading to Cunelières. A monument placed at the center of the village commemorates this fine tragedy.

External bond

See also: the site of an inhabitant of the commune

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