Bitche ( ) is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.

It is known for its large citadel. The surrounding territory is known as le Pays de Bitche in French and Bitscherland in German.

Geography

Bitche is located near the German border on the Orne, at the foot of the northern slope of the Vosges between Haguenau and Sarreguemines, about south of Landstuhl, Germany.

Sites and history

There is a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church, a classical school and an academy of forestry. The town of Bitche, which was formed of the villages of Rohr and Kaltenhausen in the 17th century, derives its name from the old stronghold (mentioned in 1172 as Bytis Castrum) standing on a rock some 80 m. above the town. This had long given its name to the countship of Bitsch, which was originally in the possession of the dukes of Lorraine. In 1297 it passed by marriage to Eberhard I of Zweibrücken, whose line became extinct in 1569, when the countship reverted to Lorraine. It passed with that duchy to France in 1766.

After that date the town rapidly increased in population. The citadel, which had been constructed by Vauban on the site of the old castle after the capture of Bitche by the French in 1624, had been destroyed when it was restored to Lorraine in 1698. This was restored and strengthened in 1740 into a fortress that proved impregnable in all succeeding wars. The attack upon it by the Prussians in 1793 was repulsed; in 1815 they had to be content with blockading it; and in 1870, though it was closely invested by the Germans after the battle of Worth, it held out until the end of the war. A large part of the fortification is excavated in the red sandstone rock, and was rendered bomb-proof; a supply of water was secured to the garrison by a deep well in the interior.

The town is near the Maginot Line, into which the citadel was integrated.

In March 1945 the U.S. 100th Infantry Division broke through the Maginot Line in the Bitche area and liberated the town, which had been occupied by German troops.

Twin towns

Bitche has been twinned with Lebach, Saarland, Germany since 1979.

The town of Bitche was mentioned in BBC comedy panel game QI, in episode 9 of season 3 (or series "C", as the show refers to the series by letters of the alphabet). Bill Bailey commented on the comical nature of seeing a sign "You are now leaving Bitche".

See also

• Communes of the Moselle department

References

External links

• Bitche website