Burgundian gate
The Burgundian Gate ( Trouée de Belfort in French ) is the approximately 30-kilometer-wide, flat saddle at an altitude of 400 meters between the Vosges and the Jura , which connects the Rhine Valley and the foothills of the Saône Valley formed by the Ognon and Doubs . Geologically, the gate running in a south-west-north-east direction is part of the trench system of the Mediterranean-Mjosen zone as a transition zone between the Upper Rhine and Bressegraben .
The Alps form a natural border between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. Plants and animals from more southerly regions are practically unable to immigrate via the main Alpine ridge, and the Alps also represent a barrier to weather events. The Burgundian Gate, like the Vienna Basin further to the east, is a gateway.
The mild climate in north-west Switzerland and in south-west Germany is largely determined by the flow of Mediterranean air from the Rhone Valley through the Burgundian Gate. Numerous animals and plants use this gateway on the way north. Only at the northern end of the Middle Rhine Valley does the climate get significantly cooler. Even during the last change between cold and warm periods, this lowland formed an important route between south-west and central Europe and thus enabled the survival and, today, the immigration of numerous animal and plant species. There is no comparable route to the southeast, where the Alps form a natural barrier.
The gate directly connects the French cities of Mulhouse and Besançon along the lowest line via the Ill and Doubs valleys , past the cities of Belfort and Montbéliard, which is just a few kilometers southwest of the saddle . Due to the saddle location, various traffic routes are bundled here, such as the Route nationale 83 , the Rhine-Rhône Canal built from 1784 , the Paris – Basel railway, the A 36 autoroute built in the 1970s and the Rhin-Rhône high-speed railway . The paths running here were of strategic importance even in ancient times. There were only a few difficult crossings over the Vosges, and a crossing or bypassing the Jura was even more difficult. The importance of the Belfort Citadel was correspondingly great up to the 20th century ; its location covered both western exits of the gate and was often subjected to sieges.
Politically, since the end of the Western Roman Empire, the area formed part of the border area between the empires of the Alemanni and the Burgundians , which both became part of the Franconian Empire a little later while maintaining the boundary. The Germanic - Romance language border was formed. Since the Treaty of Meerssen in 870, the north-east part belonged continuously to the East Franconian or Holy Roman Empire , where it was initially part of the Duchy of Swabia . The south-western part was initially also part of the East Franconian Empire, but from 888 it belonged to the newly formed Kingdom of Hochburgund , which re-established the old border. Finally, the united Burgundy fell back to the empire in 1033. On the lower level, the larger north-eastern part with Belfort belonged to the County of Pfirt , the south-western part to the County of Mömpelgard (Montbéliard). By marriage, Pfirt came to Habsburg in 1325 and to the Habsburg Sundgau and Mömpelgard in 1397 to Württemberg . In the Peace of Westphalia , the Habsburg Sundgau fell to France in 1648 before areas much further west. Montbéliard was occupied by revolutionary France in 1793 and ceded by the Reich in the Peace of Lunéville in 1801 , for which Württemberg was generously compensated in 1803 in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss .
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71) from November 3, 1870 to February 16, 1871, Belfort was besieged by German troops. After the fall of Paris, the city of Belfort, together with the Citadel of Bitsch, was the last besieged place in France and only surrendered on the express order of the French government, since the surrender of the German side was made a condition for the extension of the armistice. The task took place with the payment of military honors . In 1871, when the Alsace-Lorraine border was drawn, the orientation was not on the old political, but on the language border, which resulted in the Territoire de Belfort , the French-speaking part of the old Sundgau . Thus today the French department Territoire de Belfort is centrally located in the Burgundian Gate.
Troops of the Western Allies, who had landed on the Rhone Delta as part of Operation Dragoon , moved very quickly up the Rhone in August 1944. On September 11, 1944, troops of the French 1st Infantry Division met reconnaissance units of the US 6th Armored Division from General Patton's 3rd US Army in Saulieu , west of Dijon . At the same time the right wing of the 7th US Army had reached the Burgundian Gate at Montbéliard .