Neuf-Brisach | |
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 An aerial photograph showing the layout of the town and the way it was built as a fortification. | |
.svg) Coat of arms | |
Location of Neuf-Brisach  | |
  Neuf-Brisach  Neuf-Brisach | |
| Coordinates:48°01′04″N7°31′43″E / 48.0177°N 7.5285°E /48.0177; 7.5285 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Grand Est |
| Department | Haut-Rhin |
| Arrondissement | Colmar-Ribeauvillé |
| Canton | Ensisheim |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | Richard Alvarez[1] |
Area 1 | 1.33 km2 (0.51 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 1,944 |
| • Density | 1,500/km2 (3,800/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 68231 /68600 |
| Elevation | 194–198 m (636–650 ft) (avg. 197 m or 646 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Neuf-Brisach (French pronunciation:[nœfbrizak]ⓘ or[nøbrizak];German:Neubreisach;Alsatian:Nei-Brisach) is afortified town andcommune of thedepartment of Haut-Rhin in the Frenchregion of Alsace. The fortified town was intended to guard the border between France and theHoly Roman Empire and, subsequently, the German states. It was built after theTreaty of Ryswick in 1697 that resulted in France losing the town ofBreisach, on the opposite bank of theRhine. The town's name meansNew Breisach.
The town is aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site because of quintessential military fortifications and its testimony to the influence ofVauban on military architecture during the 17–19th centuries.[3]
Work began on the fortified town in 1698, to plans drawn byVauban, a military engineer at the service ofLouis XIV. Vauban died in 1707 and this, his last work, was completed byLouis de Cormontaigne.[4] The city's layout was that of an 'ideal city', as was popular at the time, with a regular square grid street pattern inside an octagonal fortification.[4] Generous space was given to a central square across the fourblocks at the middle, flanked by an impressive church. Individual blocks were offered for private development, either as affluent houses in private gardens, or as properties for commercial rent. Simpler housing was provided in long tenement blocks, built inside each curtain wall, which also had the effect of shielding the better houses from the risk of cannon fire. Access was provided by large gateways in the principal four curtain walls.
The fortifications are Vauban's final work and the culmination of his “third system.”[4] There are two lines of defence, an innerenceinte de sûreté, the bastion wall around the city, and an outerenceinte de combat, a system of concentric star-shaped earthworks. The curtain wall was largely octagonal, with each flank separated roughly into three and the outer bastion projecting slightly, so as to flank the centre of the walls. Each corner had a raised outwardly projecting pentagonal bastion tower, the highest points of the system. The outer earthworks were deep and occupied a greater area than the city itself. The inner walls were surrounded bytenailles before the centres of the curtain walls andcounterguards before the bastions. In front of the centre of each curtain face was a large tetrahedralravelin, those in front of the gateways also being topped by areduit to the rear. Outside all of these earthworks was acovered way.[4]
The city suffered damage inWorld War II, but still represents a very clear example of the latest in fortification work at the beginning of the eighteenth century. During World War II, it wasoccupied by Germany, which operated a Dulag transit camp forFrench prisoners of war.[5]
In 2008, theville neuve of Neuf-Brisach was listed as aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site as part of theFortifications of Vauban group.
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