Territoire de Belfort: Bartholdi's Lion and France's Smallest Department
Territoire de Belfort is the smallest department in metropolitan France outside Paris and the only one that is not named after a geographical feature but after a city. It was created in 1922 from the portion of Alsace that remained French after 1871. Belfort's Lion, a massive sandstone sculpture by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (who also designed the Statue of Liberty), commemorates the city's resistance during the Franco-Prussian War.
The population is about 140,000. Belfort hosts the Eurockéennes festival, one of France's largest rock music festivals, held annually at the Malsaucy lake. Alstom (now part of General Electric for turbines, Alstom for rail) has been a major employer. The TGV Rhin-Rhone line serves the Belfort-Montbeliard station. Despite its small size, the department has a distinct identity, neither fully Alsatian nor fully Franc-Comtois.
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Territoire de Belfort is the smallest department in metropolitan France outside Paris and the only one that is not named after a geographical feature but after a city. It was created in 1922 from the portion of Alsace that remained French after 1871. Belfort's Lion, a massive sandstone sculpture by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (who also designed the Statue of Liberty), commemorates the city's resistance during the Franco-Prussian War.
The population is about 140,000. Belfort hosts the Eurockéennes festival, one of France's largest rock music festivals, held annually at the Malsaucy lake. Alstom (now part of General Electric for turbines, Alstom for rail) has been a major employer. The TGV Rhin-Rhone line serves the Belfort-Montbeliard station. Despite its small size, the department has a distinct identity, neither fully Alsatian nor fully Franc-Comtois.
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