Citadelle de Bitche

The citadel of Bitche overlooks the town and the hills of the Northern Vosges, in Moselle. A hunting lodge may have occupied the rock around 1170; a castle was then built by Count Eberhard of Zweibrücken, who died in 1321. Louis XIV took the town in 1680 and Vauban rebuilt the fortress between 1683 and 1697. The Treaty of Ryswick led to its dismantling as early as 1698.

It was rebuilt from 1738, under the direction of the engineer Cormontaigne, and work continued until the mid-1760s. During the war of 1870–1871, Commandant Teyssier defended it against the Prussians from August 1870 to March 1871, before handing it over on the government's orders. The Germans then modernised it and American artillery damaged it in 1944–1945.

Listed as a historic monument since 1979, the citadel today houses a museum. An audiovisual route runs through its underground casemates and lets you see a relief model of the town from 1794.

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