Grandfontaine, Bas-Rhin
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Grandfontaine (; german: Michelbrunn; gsw-FR, Grossbrunn) is a
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
Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...
department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in
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 It superseded three former administrat ...
in north-eastern
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.INSEE commune file
/ref> In the
German dialect German dialects are the various traditional local varieties of the German language. Though varied by region, those of the southern half of Germany beneath the Benrath line are dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant s ...
of the region it is called ''Grosbrun''.


Name

For many centuries the names ''Grandfontaine'' and ''Framont'' were used interchangeably. The name ''Grandfontaine'' and its Alsatian equivalent, ''Grosbrun'', both describe an abundant
water spring A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fresh w ...
. The name ''Framont'' comes from the name of the mountain that overlooks the village, derived from the latinate name ''Ferratus mons'' (Iron-rich mountain) recorded in 1261. Today the name ''Framont'' is used only for a small site at the bottom of the valley where metal based industries grew up.


Geography

The village is positioned in the south of the
Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...
département and on the departmental boundary with the
Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
département. west of
Molsheim Molsheim () is a commune and a subprefecture in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
, Grandfontaine stretches out beside several mountain streams which feed into the river Bruche at
Schirmeck Schirmeck () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is the location of the Alsace-Moselle Memorial museum. The name of the town means "protected place". In Lorraine dialect it is called "Chermec". T ...
to the east. This is a mountain village, with most of the buildings at between 400 and 700 meters above sea level, and the rest of the territory being occupied almost entirely by the forest. Surrounding peaks include the Donon (1008m), the Tête des Blanches Roches (916 m), the Corbeille (899 m), the Maxe (863 m), the Rond Perthuis (849m), the Tête Mathis (838 m) and the Haut de la Charaille (758 m). Following the boundary changes of 1872 (see below) whereby the land imputed to Alsatian Grandfontaine was expanded to include forests which, formerly, had been part of Lorraine, two rivers that flow through
Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...
, the Plaine and the White Sarre, both have their source in the commune. By road Grandfontaine is accessible using the departmental road RD 392 which runs from
Schirmeck Schirmeck () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is the location of the Alsace-Moselle Memorial museum. The name of the town means "protected place". In Lorraine dialect it is called "Chermec". T ...
a short distance to the south-east through Grandfontaine to the Donon Pass (718 m) which is where the road leaves Alsace and enters Lorraine. The nearest railway station, at Schirmeck, is on the
regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
Strasbourg-Molsheim-Saales-Saint-Dié-Épinal line.


Adjacent communes

Wisches lies to the north-east,
Schirmeck Schirmeck () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is the location of the Alsace-Moselle Memorial museum. The name of the town means "protected place". In Lorraine dialect it is called "Chermec". T ...
to the south-east, Moussey to the south-west, and Vexaincourt, Luvigny, Raon-sur-Plaine and Raon-lès-Leau are all over the mountains to the west.
Turquestein-Blancrupt Turquestein-Blancrupt (german: Türkstein-Kleinweißbach) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. See also * Communes of the Moselle department The following is a list of the 725 communes of the Moselle ...
is to the north-west.


History

For a more detailed political history of the district, please refer to the entry on Salm-en-Vosges (currently only available in
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
). The history of Grandfontaine is closely linked to the exploitation of the iron deposits in the adjacent hills, which predates written records and probably dates back to antiquity, but was certainly the defining activity of the community during the later Middle Ages and, above all, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first surviving mention of the metal extraction arises in connection with the troubled the thirteenth century when the area found itself caught between the expansionist ambitions of the
Counts of Salm Salm is the name of several historic countships and principalities in present Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. History Origins The County of Salm arose in the tenth century in Vielsalm, in the Ardennes region of present Belgium. It was r ...
and the wish of the
Bishop of Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Es ...
, Jacob of Lorraine, to limit the power of the major secular land owners. The resulting struggles dislocated the
metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
businesses of "Ferratus Mons" ''(the Iron Mountain)''. The industry appears to have been restored by the sixteenth century when mining and the associated
iron works An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...
reached a hitherto unprecedented scale, marked in the middle of the century by the introduction of modern blast furnaces which were able to last for several years and, weather permitting, produce
Cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
blocks. These more robust and profitable furnaces were introduced to Grandfontaine by Thierry Buron from
Varennes-en-Argonne Varennes-en-Argonne (, literally ''Varennes in Argonne'') or simply Varennes (German: Wöringen) is a commune in the Meuse department in the Grand Est region in Northeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 639. Geography Varennes-en-Ar ...
, site of another booming iron business a hundred or so kilometres to the west. The exercise involved transferring a successful technology from the iron works controlled by the Counts of
Salm Salm may refer to People * Constance de Salm (1767–1845), poet and miscellaneous writer; through her second marriage, she became Princess of Salm-Dyck * Salm ibn Ziyad, an Umayyad governor of Khurasan and Sijistan * House of Salm, a European ...
to an iron area on the frontiers of
Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...
and
Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
. The resulting climate of exceptional prosperity together with the monopoly over iron production in the region enjoyed by the Salm family were lost following the destruction inflicted by the
Thirty years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an es ...
, and the subsequent warring between
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and The Empire which continued until after the death of
Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...
, by which time Alsace was becoming accustomed to being part of France. After 1715, the focus of French expansionism moved increasingly overseas: the death of the Sun King triggered a return to prosperity for the iron foundries of Grandfontaine. Under the dynamic leadership of a new director named Pierre Launay the Forges of Framont quickly regained their reputation: in 1720 the
Duke of Lorraine The rulers of Lorraine have held different posts under different governments over different regions, since its creation as the kingdom of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Prüm, in 855. The first rulers of the newly established region were kings of t ...
looked no further for the iron castings needed for the construction of his new château at Lunéville. Along with the rest of Alsace, the community experienced a prolonged period of prosperity through the rest of the eighteenth century. By the middle of the nineteenth century it was becoming more difficult to provide cast iron product of consistent quality, the best veins of ore having by now been exhausted. Recovering the remaining ore became more expensive and the economics of the smelting process were adversely affected by the increasing cost of
charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
. The loss of profitability prompted several attempts to reorganise the business, but the best years were clearly over and on April 7, 1863 the forges were closed. In 1871 Grandfontaine benefited from a last minute renegotiation following the
surrender Surrender may refer to: * Surrender (law), the early relinquishment of a tenancy * Surrender (military), the relinquishment of territory, combatants, facilities, or armaments to another power Film and television * ''Surrender'' (1927 film), an ...
of Alsace and Lorraine to
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 ...
. France was keen to retain a railway line of which, under the terms originally imposed, six kilometres near Avricourt would have ended up in Germany. The Germans were however
persuaded Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for influence. Persuasion can influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviours. Persuasion is studied in many disciplines. Rhetoric studies modes of persuasio ...
to return the small amount of land involved to France in return for a large area of woodland surrounding the nearby communes of Raon-sur-Plaine and Raon-lès-Leau in Lorraine. The woodland provided excellent scope for profitable forestry and contributed to the prosperity of Grandfontaine (now in Germany). After
1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the c ...
and again in 1944, when Alsace and Lorraine were transferred back to France, there was no appetite for returning to the pre-1871 frontier between Alsace and Lorraine: the lucrative forests remain in Alsace and the Grandfontaine commune has retained them, notwithstanding the protests from Raon across the
mountains A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher th ...
in Lorraine.


Notable people

British author
Nicolas Freeling Nicolas Freeling (born Nicolas Davidson; 3 March 1927 – 20 July 2003), was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the "Van der Valk" series of detective novels. A television series based on the character was produced for the Brit ...
died at his home in Grandfontaine on July 20, 2003.


Points of interest

Les Minières is a nineteenth-century iron ore mine restored to operational status by the local commune, complemented by a small museum retracing the operation of the mine over the centuries and displaying some of mineralogical riches of the region.


See also

*
Communes of the Bas-Rhin department The following is a list of the 514 communes of the Bas-Rhin department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2020):Grandfontaine official website


References

{{authority control Communes of Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia Salm-Salm