Baerenthal
Baerenthal
Main page
1867335

Baerenthal

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Baerenthal

Baerenthal (French pronunciation: [bɛʁəntal]; German: Bärental; Lorraine Franconian: Bäredal) is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France.

The village belongs to the Pays de Bitche and to the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park.

The village is located in heavily wooded country, 15 kilometres from Bitche and 12 kilometres from Niederbronn, at the south-eastern border of the canton of Bitche. It has a population of 750 and is located at an altitude of 240 meters, in the lush green valley of the northern Zinsel river.

When founded, during the age of the franc compté (feudalist Frankish counts) of the eighth to tenth centuries, Baerenthal was located in Nordgau, in Alsace. It was a part, during the Carolingian era, of the bishopric of Strasbourg, just at the border with the bishopric of Metz.

The medieval period of the village is very rich thanks to the presence of the châteaux of Château de Ramstein and Château de Grand-Arnsberg on its land. The nobles of Ramstein were cited for the first time in a document dated 22 October 1291. The village of Baerenthal was mentioned later in 1318, under the name Berendal, in the valley of Bero. Regarding secular power, Baerenthal was under the rule of Ramstein, and later, starting in 1355, under that of Falkenstein. After this began the sinister period of pillaging by robber-knights (Raubritter) for the 'Berebdal unter Ramenstein' (the rock of the ravens).

By an act of sale dated 3 September 1467, Count Louis V of Lichtenberg became the owner of the southern half of the village as well as the chateau of Grand-Arnsberg and in 1569 the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg became the owners of the whole village. The names of several regions of Baerenthal date back to this time:

Starting from 1480, Berendal passed through the hands of the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg and followed their fate. In 1606 milestones were placed which separated the duchy of Lorraine and the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg from the hamlet of Melch to that of Bannstein. In 1648, Baerenthal was a part of the baillage of Lemberg, near the Pirmasens dans le Palatinat, in the landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt. Its landgrave, Louis VIII, was the son-in-law of count Johann-Reinhardt of Hanau-Lichtenberg and became his heir in 1786. In 1793, Baerenthal, as well as the neighboring territory of Philippsbourg in the canton of Bitche, were detached from Alsace and became part of the district of the Moselle. It was the Convention that made this decision during the French Revolution.

In the eighteenth century, the northern Zinsel river was used to supply the factories and ironworks that brought work and life in the valley. In 1745, the first factory was built in Baerenthal. It was an armament factory (producing side arms) and grew rapidly. A second factory was built to transform the ore coming from Franche-Comté into cast iron and steel. With the creation in 1807 of a steel mill, a cast-ironworks and sheetworks factories, industry grew along the length of the Zinselbach. This activity reached a peak in the middle of the nineteenth century, but slowed down at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1932 the last factory closed. The rest-stop in the village was taken by the Chaiserie Lorraine and destroyed during the Second World War. Reconstructed and again devoted to steel work, mechanics/mechanics workshops were replaced by a factory producing tableware.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.