near
NEAR or Near may refer to:
People
* Thomas J. Near, US evolutionary ichthyologist
* Near, a developer who created the higan emulator
Science, mathematics, technology, biology, and medicine
* National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR), a form ...
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin (, ; Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; german: Oberelsass, ) is a department in the Grand Est region of France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means ''Upper Rhine''. Haut-Rhin is th ...
Grand Est
Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten;
Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administra ...
in north-eastern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
Vosges mountains
The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...
.
History
The town is first mentioned about 1250. Before the early 1900s the town was known only as Bitschwiller. It was destroyed by
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
mercenaries during the Hundred Years' War. By 1624 about 100 people lived in this village.
Immigrants from
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and Switzerland arrived during the 1650s. The entire Alsace region was fought over many times between the French and Germans. Germany ruled this area (including Bitschwiller) in 1874-1918 and again 1940-1945.
This was and continues to be an industrialised area. Iron mining began in the 1470s but only for a short while. Mining returned in 1735 and a metalworks was built. A
foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
opened in 1739. A weaving factory opened in 1826. As the industrialization continued, steam engines and locomotives were built beginning in 1836, although rail lines did not yet come to Bitschwiller and the locomotives were transported from Bitschwiller by oxen.
The Dampf Pfifla (or
Steam Whistle
A steam whistle is a device used to produce sound in the form of a whistle using live steam, which creates, projects, and amplifies its sound by acting as a vibrating system (compare to train horn).
Operation
The whistle consists of the fo ...
) was invented there about 1836.
On 25 October 1838 the first locomotive ever built by French engineers was tried on the St. Cloud and Paris Railway. Its name was the ''Alsace''. The locomotive was a success, attaining a speed of about 33 miles per hour. It was built at the manufacturing plant of Messrs. Stehelin and Huber, in Bitschwiller. The firm was large enough to supply locomotives at a rate of 12 per year at that time."Mechanics' Magazine", Museum, Register, Journal and Gazette, Saturday December 8, 1838, page 160
The Catholic Church named St. Alphonse is in Bitschwiller, whose famous Callinet organ dates back to 1838. Alsace has over 1350 organs and has been called the world capital of the organ.
The peak of population was 3,379 people in 1856.
Smaller surrounding villages include Erzenbach, Busenbach and Wickenbaechle.
Emigration began about 1845-1846 and continued for over 20 years. Currently the village population is about 2,000 people.
Geography
The elevation near the town center is about 357m but rises quickly to as high as 920m within . The town lies roughly north-northhwest to south-southeast along the Thur River with the main road leading through town this way. The surrounding hillsides are forested.
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Cfb''). The average annual temperature in Bitschwiller-lès-Thann is . The average annual rainfall is with December as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Bitschwiller-lès-Thann was on 7 August 2015; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 12 January 1987.
Population
Family names from and around Bitschwiller-lès-Thann