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Grandfontaine Grossbrunn | |
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 The town hall in Grandfontaine | |
.svg) Coat of arms | |
 Location of Grandfontaine | |
  Grandfontaine  Grandfontaine | |
| Coordinates:48°29′36″N7°09′42″E / 48.4933°N 7.1617°E /48.4933; 7.1617 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Grand Est |
| Department | Bas-Rhin |
| Arrondissement | Molsheim |
| Canton | Mutzig |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | Philippe Remy[1] |
Area 1 | 39.52 km2 (15.26 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 391 |
| • Density | 9.89/km2 (25.6/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 67165 /67130 |
| Elevation | 390–1,008 m (1,280–3,307 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Grandfontaine (French pronunciation:[ɡʁɑ̃fɔ̃tɛn];German:Michelbrunn;Alsatian:Grossbrunn) is acommune in theBas-Rhindepartment inGrand Est in north-easternFrance.[3] In theGerman dialect of the region it is calledGrosbrun.
For many centuries the namesGrandfontaine andFramont were used interchangeably. The nameGrandfontaine and its Alsatian equivalent,Grosbrun, both describe an abundantwater spring. The nameFramont comes from the name of the mountain that overlooks the village, derived from the latinate nameFerratus mons (Iron-rich mountain) recorded in 1261. Today the nameFramont is used only for a small site at the bottom of the valley where metal based industries grew up.
The village is positioned in the south of theBas-Rhin département and on the departmental boundary with theMoselle département. 40 kilometres (25 mi) west ofMolsheim, Grandfontaine stretches out beside several mountain streams which feed into the riverBruche atSchirmeck 5 kilometres (3 mi) 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 throughLorraine, thePlaine and theWhite Sarre, both have their source in the commune.
By road Grandfontaine is accessible using the departmental road RD 392 which runs fromSchirmeck 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 theregional Strasbourg-Molsheim-Saales-Saint-Dié-Épinal line.
Wisches lies to the north-east,Schirmeck to the south-east,Moussey to the south-west, andVexaincourt,Luvigny,Raon-sur-Plaine andRaon-lès-Leau are all over the mountains to the west.Turquestein-Blancrupt is to the north-west.
For a more detailed political history of the district, please refer to the entry onSalm-en-Vosges (currently only available inFrench).
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 theCounts of Salm and the wish of theBishop of Metz, Jacob of Lorraine, to limit the power of the major secular land owners. The resulting struggles dislocated themetallurgy businesses of "Ferratus Mons"(the Iron Mountain). The industry appears to have been restored by the sixteenth century when mining and the associatediron works 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, produceCast iron blocks. These more robust and profitable furnaces were introduced to Grandfontaine byThierry Buron fromVarennes-en-Argonne, 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 ofSalm to an iron area on the frontiers ofLorraine andAlsace. 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 theThirty years War, and the subsequent warring betweenFrance andThe Empire which continued until after the death ofLouis XIV, by which time Alsace was becoming accustomed to being part of France.
After 1715, the focus of French expansionism moved increasingly overseas: the death ofthe Sun King triggered a return to prosperity for the iron foundries of Grandfontaine. Under the dynamic leadership of a new director namedPierre Launay the Forges of Framont quickly regained their reputation: in 1720 theDuke of Lorraine looked no further for the iron castings needed for the construction of his newchâteau 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 ofcharcoal. The loss of profitability prompted several attempts to reorganise the business, but the best years were clearly over and on 7 April 1863 the forges were closed.
In 1871 Grandfontaine benefited from a last minute renegotiation following thesurrender of Alsace and Lorraine toGermany. France was keen to retain a railway line of which, under the terms originally imposed, six kilometres nearAvricourt would have ended up in Germany. The Germans were howeverpersuaded to return the small amount of land involved to France in return for a large area of woodland surrounding the nearby communes ofRaon-sur-Plaine andRaon-lès-Leau in Lorraine. The woodland provided excellent scope for profitable forestry and contributed to the prosperity of Grandfontaine (now in Germany). After1919 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 themountains in Lorraine.
British authorNicolas Freeling died at his home in Grandfontaine on 20 July 2003.
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.
Grandfontaine official website
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