Sourbrodt

Sourbrodt
Sourbrodt
State :	Belgium
Region :	Wallonia
Province :	Liege
District :	Verviers
Municipality :	Wisdom
Coordinates :	50 ° 28 '  N , 6 ° 7'  E Coordinates: 50 ° 28 '  N , 6 ° 7'  E
Height:	600  m

Sourbrodt ( German  Surbrot ) is a district of the municipality Weismes ( French Waimes ) in East Belgium , Province of Liège , with a predominantly French-speaking population, but with language facilities for the minority of the German-speaking population. Weismes and the municipality of Malmedy form the electoral canton of Malmedy .

history

In 1534 Johan Sourbroit built a hostel on the edge of the Averscheider forest on Via Mansuerisca . Here, at the junctions of the Vennstrasse to Ovifat ( German  Fischvenn ) and Hockai, as well as to Mützenich and Kalterherberg, he hoped for an economic future. He was right. By 1700 there were already around 20 households in the settlement, and around 65 by 1800.

In 1815 Sourbrodt was given to Prussia in the Congress of Vienna . Until 1920 Sourbrodt belonged to the administrative district of Aachen, district of Malmedy in the Rhine province . The reason was the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte , who had previously changed the political map of the continent considerably.

Sourbrodt train station

2004, just before the Vennbahn was shut down

2008, after the line was closed and the building was renovated

With the construction of the Vennbahn , a village-like community developed around the station. Wood processing companies are still located on the old railway line.

In 1893, the Prussian military administration planned the establishment of the Elsenborn military training area in the heath and wasteland north of Elsenborn . The "Sourbrodt station" became a loading station for the units practicing on the square. In addition, the field railway of the Elsenborn military training area was built with a track width of 60 cm and a length of 3.2 km to connect the station and military camp for operation with passenger and freight cars . This small train was primarily used for the transport of oats, barley and straw for the horses. The locomotive and the small train were given the name “ Fiery Elias ”.

After the First World War , Sourbrodt became Belgian ( Eupen-Malmedy Gouvernement ) in 1920 by virtue of the Treaty of Versailles .

In 1939, the small train service to the camp was stopped and the narrow-gauge railway was dismantled.

Until 2004, the Sourbrodt station was still used for the transshipment of military goods for Camp Elsenborn , with trains running via Raeren until 1989 and via Weismes until 2004. In 2004 the Vennbahn was shut down.

Culture and sights

Nicolas Pietkin Monument

The center of the rather sprawling village is the St. Wendelinus Church, consecrated in 1935 . On the rue de Botrange (N 676) stands the monument to Abbé Nicolas Pietkin , which was erected in memory of the pastor of Sourbrodt and his commitment to the Walloon language and identity of the Malmedy Wallonia when it belonged to Prussia (1815 to 1920). The memorial shows the Roman she-wolf feeding Romulus and Remus . In the immediate vicinity is the St. Wendelinus Chapel, the choir of Sourbrodt's former church from 1708, which was badly damaged by fire in the 1890s.

In 1963, the cross in memory of the Russian prisoners was erected 100 m northeast of the Rur Bridge at Bosfange . Between March 1943 and September 1944 there was a camp at this point. The cross, which was renewed in 1992, is designed in the style of the Russian Orthodox Church .

The Rur rises north of Sourbrodt and the "small Rur" (La petite Roer) in the village itself.

Local recreation and tourism

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  Junction system for Belgian cycle routes

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  Draisine rides on the Vennbahntrasse between Sourbrodt-Leykaul (Kalterherberg)

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  Highest point on the Vennbahn line Aachen-Ulflingen

For bike tourists, mainly on the Vennbahntrasse , Sourbrodt, halfway between Aachen and Ulflingen, is the highest point on the route at over 560  m . Hiking tourists appreciate the central location and the proximity to the High Fens , Reinhardstein Castle , Lac de Robertville and the Perlenbachtal .

Personalities

• Didier Comès (1942–2013), cartoonist

Web links

Commons : Sourbrodt  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

1. Jump up at Sourbrodt station. In: The train is coming ... History and Museum Association between Venn and Schneifel, accessed on October 19, 2015 (abbreviated from: Echo de Malmedy, May 5, 1889, based on templates by R. Giet, Sourbrodt). 
2. ↑ Christoph Hendrich: The Sourbrodter train station - heavenly blessing and hellish danger. (PDF; 101 kB) In: Vennbahn-Stories (10 Sourbrodt). May 22, 2013, accessed October 19, 2015 . 
3. ^ Paul Kevers: Belgische spoorlijnen - L. 48: (Aachen / Stolberg) Raeren grens - Sankt-Vith . Last changed on July 28, 2017.