Bethoncourt | |
|---|---|
 The overflowing Lizaine river in Bethoncourt | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Bethoncourt  | |
  Bethoncourt  Bethoncourt | |
| Coordinates:47°32′07″N6°48′17″E / 47.5353°N 6.8047°E /47.5353; 6.8047 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Bourgogne-Franche-Comté |
| Department | Doubs |
| Arrondissement | Montbéliard |
| Canton | Bethoncourt |
| Intercommunality | Pays de Montbéliard Agglomération |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | Jean André[1] |
Area 1 | 6.54 km2 (2.53 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 5,288 |
| • Density | 810/km2 (2,100/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 25057 /25200 |
| Elevation | 315–410 m (1,033–1,345 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Bethoncourt (French pronunciation:[bətɔ̃kuʁ]) is acommune in theDoubsdepartment in theBourgogne-Franche-Comtéregion in easternFrance.[3]
Bethoncourt lies north ofMontbéliard, close to the border with theHaute-Saône department and theTerritoire de Belfort and very near the Swiss border. TheLizaine, formerly called the Luzine, flows through it.
In theFranco-Prussian War, many citizens of Bethoncourt fled from the Prussians across the border to Switzerland, where many had relatives in the Swiss Jura region.
In the early twentieth century, Bethoncourt grew from a small town into a thriving city of nearly 11,000 inhabitants. Since 1975, however, it has shrunk to just over half that size.
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| Source: EHESS[4] and INSEE (1968-2017)[5] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bethoncourt possessed rich iron mines that provided ore for all the foundries in the region in such towns asChagey andAudincourt.
Shafts from 1 to 3 meters in diameter were dug to a depth of 40 meters. These led to horizontal galleries that allowed extraction of the mineral.
The ore was brought to a washing station (still extant), a sort of lock on the Lizaine between Bethoncourt andBussurel. There the nodules of iron were washed out of the soil matrix.
The workers, mostly peasants, were well paid for this difficult and dangerous work. The galoshes (Gollutch) they wore became the nickname for the residents of Bethoncourt.[6]
In the mid-nineteenth century, an important segment of the population consisted of highly skilled watchmakers. However, the entire Jura watchmaking industry was hit hard by the importation of cheap factory-made American watches, which were of equal or higher quality.
In the 1930s, up to 600 workers were employed in thetextile mill.
Bethoncourt lies on the Strasbourg-Lyon line of theSNCF and on departmental highway D438.
Bethoncourt istwinned with:
Silmiouglou, Burkina Faso
