Belfort Cathedral

The Diocese of Belfort–Montbéliard (Latin: Dioecesis Belfortiensis–Montis Beligardi; French: Diocèse de Belfort–Montbéliard) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is situated in northeastern France, and borders on Switzerland and Germany. Erected in November 1979, the territory for a new diocese was removed from the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Besançon, and was constituted a suffragan diocese in its ecclesiastical province of Besançon.

The arrondissement of Belfort is an arrondissement in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France. It is the only arrondissement of the Territoire de Belfort department. It has 101 communes. Its population is 139,654 (2021), and its area is 609.4 km2 (235.3 sq mi).

The siege of Belfort (3 November 1870 – 18 February 1871) was a 103-day military assault and blockade of the city of Belfort, France by Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War. The French garrison held out until the January 1871 armistice between France and the German Empire obligated French forces to abandon the stronghold in February 1871. Belfort is located in a gap between the mountainous southern Vosges and the Jura Massif, strategically positioned as the gateway between Alsace and central France. At the beginning of the war, the French Army of the Rhine was routed in northern Alsace. The fall of Strasbourg on 28 September 1870 allowed the German army under August von Werder to move south against Belfort. Upon hearing of the approaching German army, Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau, commander of Belfort, began constructing fortifications around the city, expanding those originally built by Vauban. Werder's forces reached Belfort and invested the city on 3 November. The intransigent resistance by the French forces stopped the Germans from completing an effective encirclement of the city. General Charles Denis Bourbaki assembled an army intending to relieve Belfort. On 15 January 1871 Bourbaki attacked Werder along the Lisaine River; however after a three-day battle he was repelled and his army retreated into Switzerland. German forces grew impatient with the length of the siege and on 27 January 1871, General von Tresckow launched an attack on the city which was repulsed and the siege operations resumed. On 15 February an armistice was signed between France and Germany. Louis Adolphe Thiers, president of the Government of National Defense sent an urgent message to Denfert-Rochereau ordering him to surrender the fortress. On 18 February the Belfort garrison marched out of the city with the honours of war, taking their weapons and baggage train with them. In recognition of the French defense of Belfort, under the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt, the city and its surrounding area were not handed over to Germany, unlike the remainder of Alsace. In 1880, the monumental Lion of Belfort sculpture was inaugurated in tribute to the defenders of the city.

The Lion of Belfort, in Belfort, France, is an 1880 monumental sculpture by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World).

The cantons of Belfort are administrative divisions of the Territoire de Belfort department, in northeastern France. Since the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, the town of Belfort is subdivided into 3 cantons. Their seat is in Belfort.

The Belfort Synagogue is a Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 6, rue de l'As-de-Carreau, in the city center of Belfort, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France. The congregation worships in the Ashkenazi rite. The Jewish community was established in the town in the 13th century. Today the congregation is active although the Jewish community is very small. The stone synagogue building was erected in 1857, designed by Léon Jossier and Aristide Poisat in the Byzantine Revival style during the Second French Empire. The building was added as a monuments historiques on 18 October 1983. In 2015, the synagogue was one of several synagogue was subject to antisemitic attacks. An old Jewish cemetery from 1811 is in current use. In the nearby town of Foussemagne, Jews from Belfort and Foussemagne renovated the Foussemagne former synagogue building as a Jewish museum.

Belfort station (French: Gare de Belfort) is the railway station serving the town Belfort, Territoire de Belfort department, eastern France. It is situated on the Paris–Mulhouse and Belfort–Delle lines.

Fort des Basses Perches, also known as Fort Valmy, was built between 1874 and 1877 in Danjoutin and Belfort in northeastern France. It is part of the first ring of fortifications around the city of Belfort. The Forts des Perches were unique among the first group in their re-use of older sites. They were rebuilt as part of the Séré de Rivières system and incorporated improvements to deal with the improvement in efficacy of artillery in the late 19th century. The fort's official name was derived from François-Christophe Kellermann, Duke of Valmy and Marshal of France. The first fortification at the Perches hill was an excavated rampart dating to 1815. A dry-masonry fort was built at the Basses Perches location in 1870 by Colonel Pierre Denfert-Rochereau during his defense of Belfort, at an elevation of 425 m. The present Fort des Basses Perches was built on this site, as it had proven to be a strategically important part of the southern defenses of Belfort during the Franco-Prussian War. The roughly rectangular fort is notable for its early use of counterscarps in place of caponiers, which had been more popular until then. The Fort des Basses Perches is small compared to others in the Belfort defensive array. It accommodated 126 soldiers, 4 non-commissioned officers, and 2 officers. Initial cost was 939,000 francs d'or. It was initially armed with 4 155mm long guns, 9 138mm guns, 4 121mm guns, 1 22mm howitzer and 2 22mm mortars. From 1893 the fort was linked to other forts around Belfort via the Chemins de fer du Territoire de Belfort strategic railroad. The Fort des Hautes Perches is about one km to the northeast. Apart from a concrete observation post built between 1914 and 1918, the fort was never modernised. It is now owned by the commune of Danjoutin and is open to the public by appointment.

Belfort (French pronunciation: [bɛlfɔʁ] ; archaic German: Beffert, Beffort) is a city in northeastern France, situated approximately 25 km (16 mi) from the Swiss border. It is the prefecture of the Territoire de Belfort. Belfort is 400 km (250 mi) from Paris and 55 km (34 mi) from Basel. The residents of the city are called "Belfortains". The city is located on the river Savoureuse, on a strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap (Trouée de Belfort) or Burgundian Gate (Porte de Bourgogne). It is located approximately 16 km (10 mi) south from the base of the Ballon d'Alsace mountain range, source of the Savoureuse. The city of Belfort has 46,443 inhabitants (2019). Belfort is the centre of a larger functional area (metropolitan area) with 133,597 inhabitants (2018), between the larger metropolitan areas of Mulhouse and Montbéliard.

Communauté d'agglomération Grand Belfort is an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Belfort. It is located in the Territoire de Belfort department, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, eastern France. It was created in January 2017. Its seat is in Belfort. Its area is 262.0 km2. Its population was 103,741 in 2017, of which 47,656 in Belfort proper.

Fort des Hautes Perches was built between 1874 and 1877 in Danjoutin and Belfort in northeastern France. It is part of the first ring of fortifications around the city of Belfort. The Forts des Perches were unique among the first group in their re-use of older sites. They were rebuilt as part of the Séré de Rivières system and incorporated improvements to deal with the improvement in efficacy of artillery in the late 19th century. The fort was built at an elevation of 443 meters. The Fort des Hautes Perches is small compared to others in the Belfort defensive array, although it is somewhat larger than the Fort des Basses Perches about one kilometer away to the southwest. It accommodated 216 soldiers, 8 non-commissioned officers, and 4 officers. Initial cost was 1,062,780 francs d'or. It was initially armed with 5 155mm long guns, 8 138mm guns, 2 121mm guns, and one 32mm mortar. The fort is in poor condition. It remains the property of the French Army and is not accessible to the public.

Danjoutin (French pronunciation: [dɑ̃ʒutɛ̃]) is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in northeastern France.