Breistroff-la-Grande

For other uses, see Breistroff-la-Petite.

Breistroff-la-Grande
Commune
A general view of Breistroff-la-Grande
Coat of arms
Location of Breistroff-la-Grande
Breistroff-la-Grande Show map of France Breistroff-la-Grande Show map of Grand Est
Coordinates: 49°27′27″N6°13′08″E / 49.4575°N 6.2189°E / 49.4575; 6.2189
Country	France
Region	Grand Est
Department	Moselle
Arrondissement	Thionville
Canton	Yutz
Intercommunality	Cattenom et environs
Government
• Mayor (2022–2026)	Michel Schmitt [1]
Area 1	10.63 km2 (4.10 sq mi)
Population  (2021) [2]	834
• Density	78/km2 (200/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	57109 /57570
Elevation	157–242 m (515–794 ft) (avg. 200 m or 660 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Breistroff-la-Grande (German : Breisdorf) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in northeastern France.

The localities of Boler (German: Boler) and Évange (German: Ewingen) are incorporated in the commune.

Breistroff-la-Grande is located between Thionville and Luxembourg (Frisange and Mondorf-les-Bains), between Rodemack, Boust, Dodenom/Roussy-le-Bourg, behind the Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant.

• Coat of Arms: Per pale, six bars or and azure, and or a bear rampant sable, collared gules.

To the right, the arms of Rodemack, to the left, the bear of the Saint Maximin Abbey, both of which were lords of the place. ^[3]

Geography

Breistroff-la-Grande offers a panorama composed of forests, fields, and meadows that are ideal for exploration and walks. The municipality is located a few kilometers from the Franco-Luxembourg border, in the canton of Cattenom.

Hydrography

The municipality is located within the Rhine watershed, part of the Rhine-Meuse basin. It is drained by the Boler stream, the Breistroff stream, the Weihergraben stream, and the Klingenbach stream. ^[4]

The Boler, with a total length of 22.5 km, originates in the municipality of Zoufftgen and flows into the Moselle at Gavisse, after passing through eight municipalities. ^[5]

The water quality of the main watercourses in the municipality, especially the Boler stream, can be checked on a dedicated website managed by water agencies and the French Agency for Biodiversity. ^[6]

Urbanism

Typology

Breistroff-la-Grande is a rural municipality, as it is part of sparsely populated or very sparsely populated municipalities, according to the INSEE municipal density grid ^{[7] [8] [9]}

Furthermore, the municipality is part of the attraction area of Luxembourg (French part), of which it is a crown municipality. ^[10] This area, which includes 115 municipalities, is categorized in areas with 700,000 inhabitants or more (excluding Paris) ^{[11] [12]}

Land Use

The land use in the municipality, as indicated by the European land cover database (Corine Land Cover - CLC), is characterized by the importance of agricultural territories (84.5% in 2018), a proportion nearly equivalent to that of 1990 (85.7%). The detailed breakdown in 2018 is as follows: arable land (45%), meadows (32.7%), forests (11.8%), heterogeneous agricultural areas (6.8%), urbanized areas (3.6%). The evolution of land use in the municipality and its infrastructure can be observed on various cartographic representations of the territory: the Cassini map (18th century), the state-major map (1820-1866), and the IGN aerial maps or photos for the current period (1950 to today). ^[13]

Toponymy

Bistorff (1450), Bresdorff (17th century), Breystroff (1606), Breistorff (1616), Breisdorff (1681), Brestroff (1735), Brensdorff and Brenstorff (1740), Breistroff la Grande (1793), Braistroff (Cassini map).

In Lorraine Franconian: Grouss-Breeschtrëf and Grouss-Breeschdrëf. In German: Breisdorf (1871-1918).

Evange: Effingen (1450), Elfingen (1572), Ewinges and Euwingen (1681), Eving (1756), Ewingen-sous-Breisdorf. ^[14] Ewingen in German. ^[15] Iewéngen and Iewéng in Lorraine Franconian.

Boler: Boler (1606), Boulers/Boullers (1681), Bollers (18th century). Bouler in Lorraine Franconian.

Linguistic ^{[16] [ circular reference ]}

The Francic dialect of Rodemack differs very little from that spoken in Esing, Faulbach, Semming, Fixem, Évange, Boler, Basse-Parthe, Haute-Parthe, and Boust. These ten localities have nearly the same vowel system and the same number of diphthongs (Rodemack's dialect has 10), forming a small linguistic area where only a few words differ within this area. ^[17]

Furthermore, the diphthong [ëu] present in Évange corresponds to the long vowel [ö] present in Breistroff-la-Grande. In other words, the diphthong [ëu] exists in the dialect of Évange but does not exist in the dialect of Breistroff-la-Grande. ^[18]

History

1. Prehistoric Stone Tools: Discoveries of prehistoric stone tools dating from the Middle Paleolithic to the Neolithic periods.

2. Protohistoric Silo: Unearthing of a protohistoric silo, fragments of ceramics, and a grain millstone from the Iron Age.

3. Roman Road: Identification of a Roman road connecting Metz to the imperial city of Trier.

4. Gallo-Roman Sites: Several sites with evidence of Gallo-Roman habitation, including ceramics and Gallo-Roman tiles.

5. Gallo-Roman Villa Remains: Remnants of a Gallo-Roman villa cellar, along with a nearby well that was filled in during the early Middle Ages (carinated vase).

6. Historical Dependence: The village was part of the former county and later duchy of Luxembourg, and it had dependencies on the seigniories of Cattenom and Rodemack. ^[19]

Through the western part of the territory runs in a straight line a 3,460-meter-long Roman road to the Luxembourg border. ^[20]

The village once belonged to the Diocese of Metz. ^[21]

In 1769, it was annexed by France. In 1810, the two villages of Boler and Évange (Ewingen) were incorporated.

By the Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871 the village was returned to Germany, where it was assigned to the district of Lorraine in the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine. After World War I, the region had to be ceded to France in 1919 under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. During World War II, the region was occupied by the German Wehrmacht.

Politics and administration

List of successive mayors for the specified period:

• March 1989 to March 1995: Jean-Paul Jacquot
• March 1995 to March 2001: Gérard Theis
• March 2001 to 2002: Jean-Pierre Marx
• March 2003 to 2022: Gérard Theis
• 2022 to Present: Gérard Michel Schmitt

Demography

In 2020, the commune had a population of 792 inhabitants, ^[22] representing a 25% increase compared to 2014 (Moselle: +0.38%, France excluding Mayotte: +1.9%).

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	277	—
1975	281	+0.21%
1982	320	+1.87%
1990	338	+0.69%
1999	416	+2.33%
2009	578	+3.34%
2014	636	+1.93%
2020	792	+3.72%
Source: INSEE [22]

Local culture and heritage

Civil Buildings

1. Moulin de Boler: Reconstructed in 1787, with the date inscribed on the lintel of the pedestrian door. It is already mentioned on a map from the first half of the 18th century.

2. Moulin de Mausmühl (Mausmühl Mill).

Religious Buildings

1. Église Sainte-Catherine (Saint Catherine's Church): Built in 1514 on a rocky promontory, on the foundations of an old chapel. The original chapel was constructed by the Templars between 1100 and 1300 ^{[ citation needed ]}.

2. Chapelle Sainte-Barbe (Saint Barbara's Chapel) in Boler: Founded in the 15th century, it has housed sculptures by the sculptor Nicolas Greff since 1707.

3. Calvaire (Calvary) in the hamlet of Évange: Dating back to 1540, it features fleur-de-lis motifs at its ends, a feature missing in most similar calvaries.

4. Cross on the path to Boler: Connected to the legend of crows pecking out the eyes of a wolf.

5. Monument aux morts (War Memorial).

See also

Communes of the Moselle department

References

1. "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 6 June 2023.
2. "Populations légales 2021" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
3. webstudios. "Notre histoire". www.breistroff-la-grande.fr/ (in French). Retrieved 22 September 2023.
4. "Géoportail". www.geoportail.gouv.fr. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
5. Sandre. "Ruisseau de boler [A88-0200] - Cours d'eau selon la version Carthage 2017". www.sandre.eaufrance.fr (in French). Retrieved 21 September 2023.
6. "Qualité Rivière". qualite-riviere.lesagencesdeleau.fr. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
7. According to the zoning of rural and urban municipalities published in November 2020, following the new definition of rurality approved on November 14, 2020, in the interministerial committee on rural areas.
8. "Definition - Rural municipality | Insee". www.insee.fr. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
9. "Comprendre la grille de densité | L'Observatoire des Territoires". www.observatoire-des-territoires.gouv.fr. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
10. The concept of cities' catchment area replaced the former notion of urban area in October 2020 to enable consistent comparisons with other countries in the European Union.
11. "Aire d'attraction des villes 2020 de Luxembourg (partie française) (LUX) − COG | Insee". www.insee.fr. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
12. Marie-Pierre de Bellefon, Pascal Eusebio, Jocelyn Forest, Olivier Pégaz-Blanc, and Raymond Warnod (Insee), "In France, nine out of ten people live in the catchment area of a city" [archive], on insee.fr, October 21, 2020 (accessed on March 31, 2021).
13. "Remonter le temps". remonterletemps.ign.fr. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
14. Enumeration of households or dwellings in the Duchy of Luxembourg and the County of Chiny in 1921
15. Bouteiller - Topographical dictionary of the former department of Moselle, compiled in 1868.
16. Source en français
17. - Title: "Hemechtsland a Sprooch : Ruedemaacher, Feschtong vum Mëttelalter (no 15)" - Author/Editor: Albert-Louis Piernet (dir.) - Year of Publication: 1987 - ISSN: 0762-7440
18. - Title: "Hemechtsland a Sprooch : Ruedemaacher, Feschtong vum Mëttelalter (no 15)" - Author/Editor: Albert-Louis Piernet (dir.) - Year of Publication: 1987 - ISSN: 0762-7440
19. Publications of the Society for Research and Conservation of Historical Monuments in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Volume 18, 1863.
20. Eugen H. Th. Huhn: Deutsch-Lothringen. Landes-, Volks- und Ortskunde, Stuttgart 1875, S. 327.
21. Eugen H. Th. Huhn: Deutsch-Lothringen. Landes-, Volks- und Ortskunde, Stuttgart 1875, S. 327 (online).
22. Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE

External links

• Media related to Breistroff-la-Grande at Wikimedia Commons