Michiel1972, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Belfort
Belfort occupies a strategic position in the gap between the Vosges and the Jura, which since Antiquity made it a contested military stronghold, fortified by Vauban and strengthened after 1870 by the Séré de Rivières system. At the foot of the citadel, the old town has kept a dense layout around the Place d'Armes and the Cathedral of Saint-Christophe, an imposing 18th-century pink sandstone building.
The town is inseparable from the siege of 1870-1871, when it held out for three months against the Prussian troops, a feat commemorated by Bartholdi's huge Lion carved in red sandstone below the citadel. The main town of the smallest département in mainland France, Belfort has a strong industrial identity, notably in railway and electrical engineering, while keeping a remarkable military and urban heritage.
