Pays de Bitche
The Pays de Bitche (German Bitscher Land , French also Bitcherland ) is a natural landscape in eastern France in the Moselle department in the Grand Est region . It corresponds to today's French share of the territory of the former Bitsch dominion .
geography
The Bitscher Land with its 57 municipalities in total includes a portion of the Northern Vosges Nature Park in the east . In the west and south-west it is part of the agriculturally characterized Westrich plateau . In the south it borders on the so-called Crooked Alsace , which belongs to the Arrondissement Saverne , and in the east to the canton of Weißenburg . In the north, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland adjoin , while in the west the cantons of Sarralbe and Saargemünd-Land border the arrondissement of Sarreguemines , which also includes Bitscher Land. The canton Rohrbach extends here as far as the Saar . The north-south line Lied Various - Rahling describes the very sharp separation of the different landscapes. To the west of this line, the subsoil is almost exclusively characterized by the predominant limestone, while to the east of it, wooded red sandstone hills extend, which are divided up by deep valley incisions. Since the 16th century, many ponds and lakes have been created in this part of the landscape, mostly for agricultural and industrial purposes.
The main drains ( Schwalb , Bickenalb , Hornbach ) run mainly in a south-north direction and drain over the Blies to the Saar.
The Falkensteinerbach and the Northern Zinsel , which have their source brooks in the Lviv region, run southeast towards the Rhine . The Ache flows to the west and flows into the Saar near Kalhausen . The lowest point in Bitscher Land is Baerenthal on the northern Zinsel and directly on the border with the canton of Reichshoffen at 190 m, the highest point at 510 m is not far from it (about 6 km away) at Garnfirst near Philippsbourg , also directly on the border with the canton Reichshoffen.
history
middle Ages
As in the entire region, there are also numerous Roman evidence in Bitscher Land, such as Bettviller . The real story begins with the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which resulted in the establishment of the Lorraine rulership. Eberhard I von Zweibrücken , co-regent Walram I and Simon II , organized an exchange agreement with Lorraine in view of the territorial fragmentation , which sealed a reorganization of this area in the treaties of May 13, 1297 and July 1, 1302.
The county of Zweibrücken-Bitsch until 1604
In 1333 the house of Zweibrücken-Bitsch was finally established when Eberhard and his brother Walram II agreed to split the county of Zweibrücken into two more or less homogeneous areas. This can be seen as the hour of birth of Bitscher Land as a historical area, which at that time also comprised a large area that today belongs to the Saarland communities of Gersheim and Blieskastel and to the Rhineland-Palatinate community of Pirmasens-Land in the Zweibrücker hill country . In the 19th century the name German Lorraine was still in use for this landscape . The seat of this new rule was initially in Lemberg and was soon moved to Bitsch . In 1447 Bitsch was occupied by Messrs Jakob and Wilhelm von Lützelstein . This occupation aroused general disapproval in the empire and ultimately led to the extinction of the rule of Lützelstein in 1452. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Peasants' War reached the area around Bitsch, with Hans Zoller from the town of Rimling being the regional leader of the movement. The castles in Bitsch and Lemberg and the Sturzelbronn Abbey went up in flames. The peasants' war ended, however, with the defeat of the peasants and a massacre of them by the victorious princes.
In 1559, Count Jakob inherited the rule of Ochsenstein , which had been ruled by the Zweibrücken-Bitsch-Ochsenstein branch since 1485. He was the last Count of Zweibrücken-Bitsch, with him the family died out in 1570. His daughter and niece were entitled to inheritance, one of whom was married to Count Philipp I of Leiningen-Westerburg , the other to Count Philipp V of Hanau-Lichtenberg . As a result, Lorraine recognized the right to inherit from Hanau-Lichtenberg . Philip V , however, introduced the Reformation according to the Lutheran confession in all his countries in 1572, whereupon he was summoned to the Duke of Lorraine in 1572 due to complaints from the Abbot of Stürzelbronn. When he refused to appear, the southern part of Bitscher Land - the three current cantons and a few communities in what is now Saarland - was occupied by Lorraine and the Catholic religion was reintroduced. Philip, who was not up to the military might of Lorraine, then took legal action before the Imperial Court of Justice . The prerequisites for success were not in place because the treaties of 1297/1302 stipulated a sovereignty of Lorraine.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Lorraine tried to reach an amicable border settlement with the neighboring rulers. First of all, the border to the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken was established in 1601 during a meeting in Hornbach and the stone was laid. This stoning is still being checked at certain intervals by representatives of the Saargemünd arrondissement and the Südwestpfalz district . On February 6, 1604, a border treaty followed with the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg. 68 localities remained in the Lorraine region of Bitscher Land. By and large, the present-day border between France and Germany was also intended for this region.
The Bitsch region in Lorraine
The administration was modernized, the jurisdiction reorganized and there followed a certain economic upswing, which turned into a long-lasting recession in the second quarter of the 17th century. As a result of the Thirty Years' War, the people had to deal with marauding troops of Croats, Cossacks, Swedes and French ( Richelieu ) and rampant epidemics (plague epidemic 1627) that drained the country. After all, the country was devastated and depopulated. Some towns and numerous castles had completely disappeared. The resettlement began in 1662 with Swiss immigrants, followed by newcomers from Picardy in 1670 . They were also the first to bring the French language with them to the until then purely German-speaking area. They were followed by Savoyards from 1672 . The next setback occurred shortly afterwards with the Palatinate War of Succession . Turenne , who had conquered the area on the left bank of the Rhine for France, visited Bitsch in the winter of 1674 and convinced Louis XIV to build a fortification at this strategic point. Thus Vauban in 1675 with the construction of the Citadel of Bitche commissioned and initially but is working to 1679. As with the formation of the Augsburg Alliance began the fate of Louis XIV. To turn this a policy of scorched earth , in the Bitche area and in Zweibrücken led to the destruction of around 400 localities including the city of Zweibrücken . The people fled to the Vosges forests. In 1678, the Peace of Nijmegen envisaged the reintegration of the Duchy of Lorraine and thus also of the Bitscher Land into the confederation of states of the Old Kingdom, but Duke Charles V did not accept the terms of the treaty, which included the cession of his capital Nancy to France. Thereupon the French king kept the country occupied. As a result, the granting of tax and land privileges brought about a revitalization of the area, so that around 60 villages were founded or re-established. In the Peace of Rijswijk in 1697, Lorraine was returned to Duke Leopold I as the son and successor of Charles V.
When the War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1701 , Bitsch was again occupied by the French. From 1709 to 1714 there were famine years that ripped away thousands. During this time it was also ordered that German and French should be taught side by side in schools.
When Franz I Stephan passed away from his father-in-law Karl VI. was persuaded in 1735 to renounce Lorraine in favor of the abdicated King of Poland Stanislaus I. Leszczyński , this also meant that with Lorraine, the Bitscher land would again fall to France. Work on the citadel of Bitsch began immediately under Marshal Bournay and, from 1740 under Count Henri François de Bombelles. In 1744 an Austrian attack was successfully repulsed. In a decree of September 26, 1748, French was officially introduced as the official language in Bitscher Land. Economic hardships during this time - just like in the neighboring Palatinate - prompted many people to emigrate, mainly to the Banat and Batschka regions in the Kingdom of Hungary . After the death of Stanislaus Leszczynski, the last Duke of Lorraine, Bitsch also formally became French territory. The administrative reform at the end of the 18th century led to the division of Bitscher Land into five cantons, in addition to the three cantons still existing today, Rohrbach, Bitche and Volmunster, there were also Breidenbach and Lemberg. The latter two were integrated into the first three after 1802. Subsequently, between 1870 and 1945, due to three wars that hit the country particularly bitterly because of its border location and which also led to escape to inner France and to evacuation, the state affiliation with the entire Moselle department changed six times.
In the remote places today the population is decreasing dramatically, on the other hand there are also places with an increasing population. This is also due to the fact that the lower real estate prices have been increasingly attracting resettlers from Germany for several years.
economy
Agriculture continues to play its role, especially in the west of Bitscher Land. In the east, forestry should be mentioned accordingly. The fish farming promoted by the Abbots of Sturzelbronn has largely lost its economic importance. In contrast, the glass industry that emerged in the Middle Ages still has some status today, especially in Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche and Goetzenbruck . However, the companies are now in the hands of corporations. In contrast, the crystal glass factory in Montbronn still works independently today. In the second half of the 18th century, the iron industry, which was dependent on wood and water, developed on the Vosges stream east of Lemberg. In contrast to glass production, this has not been preserved to this day. A specialty is the candle production of Petit-Réderching . The importance of tourism is mainly concentrated in the canton of Bitsch with the town of Bitsch itself and the picturesque Vosges villages. You can find good restaurants and various places to stay.
traffic
The Bitscher Land is crossed in a west-east direction by the D 620 and the D 662, the former Route nationale 62 , which represent the main traffic axes. South of Bitsch, the D 620 joins the D 662, which continues in the direction of Niederbronn. The D 35a connects to the German federal highway 424 at the Schweyen border crossing .
In 1869 the Haguenau – Falck-Hargarten railway was opened, which crosses the Bitscher Land from east to west. There is currently (as of 2015) no train connection in the Niederbronn – Sarreguemines section. In the extreme southwest, the canton Rohrbach is touched by the regional express connection Saarbrücken- Sarreguemines- Strasbourg - Offenburg . In Kalhausen there is a stop on this route with the option of changing in the direction of Sarre-Union .
Culture and sights
Attractions
The typical wayside crosses that one encounters at every step are characteristic of the Bitscher Land. The main attraction, however, is the Bitsch Citadel, which can be visited with a multimedia tour. From there the Garden of Peace leads into the city, which was designed as part of the Gardens Without Borders project . Much evidence of the Maginot Line can still be found in the area. The ruins of Lemberg Castle testify to the former importance of this first Bitscher count's seat. Little is left of the Abbey in Sturzelbronn, the Romanesque buildings in Schorbach are more important, especially the ossuary is a much-visited destination.
On the road between Mouterhouse (Moselle) and Wingen-sur-Moder (Bas-Rhin) you will find the Twelve Apostle Stone , a prehistoric menhir that has been a border mark between Alsace and Lorraine since the Middle Ages.
In Soucht the wooden shoemaker's museum reminds of this extinct craft. The pottery technique is demonstrated in the Hérisson pottery in Philippsbourg. The only candle factory in the department can be seen in Petit-Réderching.
Meisenthal , a former center of the French glass industry, has a glass museum and an international center for glass art.
Culture
The Volmunster -Platt-Theater tries to preserve the traditional Franconian dialect , which has been largely displaced by French over the past 150 years. Attempts with bilingual kindergartens and schools, as made possible some time ago by cultural policy, have so far only come about in very isolated cases.
Leisure and Tourism
The Bitsch Citadel is also the first destination for tourism. But the Route of the Crystal, which leads from the glass factories in Bitscher Land to Baccarat , is a tourist magnet. The Vosges Club has marked a dense network of hiking trails in the Vosges forests . There are also lakes and campsites here. However, between Bitsch and Sturzelbronn there is also the Bitsch military training area , which leads to restrictions and nuisance. In the open landscape of the west, the European Mill Cycle Path, which runs along the Schwalb and Bickenalb, is intended to stimulate tourism. Among other things, the Moulin d'Eschviller with an interesting mill museum is located on it.
Web links
- Official website for the city of Bisch and the surrounding area
- Tourist information. Retrieved February 10, 2019 .
- Information on all locations
- Bitscher and Saargemünder Land
literature
- Le Pays de Bitche , Didier Hemmert 1990.
- Bitche et son pays , André Schutz 1992.
- Les grelots du vent, images et mirages du Pays de Bitche , Bernard Robin 1984.