Last modified: 2006-12-23 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Brunstatt]](../images/f/fr-68-br.gif)
Flag of Brunstatt - Image by Pascal Vagnat, 7 July 2006
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The municipality of Brunstatt is located in Upper Alsace, in the
southern outskirts of Mulhouse.
The origins of Brunstatt are unknown. A document listing the village
among the possessions of the monastery of Hohenbourg, located on the
Mont-Saint-Odile, dated from the beginning of the IXth century, was
indeed written near 1200. However, a village might have existed very
early near the Burnenbach brook and the fortress built near the brook.
In 1310, the German Emperor granted Brunstatt to the Count of Ferrette.
A few years later, Jeannette, last Countess of Ferrette, married Albert
II of Hapsburg, and Brunstatt was transferred to Austria until the
Treaty of Westfalia (1648), which retroceded the Austrian possessions
in Alsace to the King of France.
The old village developed inside two successive city walls surrounding
the fortress built in 1295 by Cuno de Berckheim, vassal of Count
Thiébaut de Ferrette. The fortress, built at the entrance of the valley
of Ill, was an outpost protecting the County of Ferrette. In 1321,
Werner de Berckheim was granted the domain, fortress and village of
Brunstatt by Ulrich III, last Count of Ferrette. In 1459, Emperor
Friedrich III granted to Brunstatt two yearly fairs on St. Georges' day
and 15 days ater St. Michel's day, respectively, as well as a weekly
market hold on Monday. During the so-called "War of the Six Deniers"
opposing Mulhouse and the Confederated cities to the nobles supported
by the Hapsburg, the village of Brunstatt was seized on 13 June 1468 by
Mulhouse. At the end of June of the same year, the Confederated
attacked again the village and sacked the fortress. In 1523, the
fortress was purchased by the Count of Ortenburg-Salamanca, of Spanish
origin and owners of the village of Ortenburg in Carinthia. The family
went into bankrupt and sold its goods, including the castle of
Brunstatt, to Martin Besenval in 1644-1657.
The merchant Martin
Besenval (1600-1660), aka Boessen or Besenwald, was appointed member of
the Grand Council in Solothurn (Switzerland) in 1636; he was
Salzwalter (salt manager) in Solothurn and Baillif of Lugano (1648), and was made Baron by King of France Louis XIV. The tradition says he
was buried in the parish church of Brunstatt. The Besenval lineage
split later into three branches; several Besenval served the King of
France as officiers of the Swiss guards, including Pierre Joseph
Victor, last lord of Besenval (1721-1791). Solothurn was indeed known
as the "Ambassador's Town", mainly because of the ambassadors of the
king of France. The former Busenval palace is still standing in
Solothurn near the river Aar. After the French Revolution, the lords of
Busenval retired in Solothurn, where they welcomed priests who had fled
Alsace.
In 1807, Besenval rented the castle of Brunstatt to the wrights from
Mulhouse Wagner and Litschy, who set up there a factory in 1808. The
Besenval were made Counts in 1820. The castle was later purchased by
the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer (Railway Company) and demolished in
1857 during the building of the Mulhouse-Belfort railway. The last
member of the Besenval lineage died in 1927. When the train struggled
on the curve on the former site of the castle, old people of Brunstatt
used to say: "Hear how the train struggles, the Grand Duke don't allow
it to go".
(After Paul Stintzi, Brunstatt, Faits d'Histoire d'une commune de Haute-Alsace)
In September 1913, a Roman well was found in the place called Croix du
Burn, located in Brunstatt near the Burn source. The well yielded
several Roman coins dated from emperors Trajan (98-117), Marcus
Aurelius (161-180), Constantine (323-337) and Gratian (161-180).
According to L.G. Werner, the coins were threwn into the well in order
to calm down the source deity. In the Christian times, the source
became a baptistry. A village called Burnen was built near the source,
which was a popular place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. Burnen was
listed as an important parish in the diocese of Basel in the Liber
Marcarum (Parish Index) in the beginning of the XVth century. The
Liber Marcarum still mentioned Burnen in 1468 but no longer in 1500.
Surprisingly, there are no remains of the village and the cause of its
suppression has not been recorded.
The St. Blaise chapel in Burnen, already known in the XVth century and
suppressed after the French Revolution, was the seat of a pilgrimage
and horses' blessing on 3 February, St. Blaise's day. A century after
its destruction, Priest Fritsch decided to rebuild the chapel; funds
were provided by two ladies from Mulhouse but nothing happened because
of lax management of the project by Fritsch. Twenty years later, on 8
October 1882, the rebuilt chapel was eventually inaugurated in the
presence of 4,000-5,000 people and renamed the Cross' Chapel.
(After Antoine Steck, the parish priest, 1982)
The municipal fountain known as St. George's Well was erected in 1872 after plans drafted by architect from Mulhouse Rissler-Tournier. Water coming from the Burn source is released into the fountain by four dolphin's heads. Since it inauguration 132 years ago, water supply in the fountain never stopped.
Source:Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 7 July 2006
The municipal flag of Brunstatt is vertically divided red-white with
the municipal coat of arms allover. The flag is hoisted near the St.
George's Well, as shown on the municipal website.
The muncipal coat of arms is (GASO):
D'argent au fer à cheval de gueules, les sept trous de clous ajourés
du champ, quatre à senestre, trois
dans le point du flanc dextre (Argent a horseshoe gules, the seven nail holes open on the field, four senester and three in the base of the dexter flank).
Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 7 July 2006