Gravelotte is a small village of about 700 inhabitants, situated on the edge of the plateau overlooking the valley of the Moselle.
Known as soon Graveium of 1137, it is completely destroyed in the 14th century.
But if the name of this village is now known throughout the country, this is probably largely due to the expression "as it falls to Gravelotte" which compares the time of rain, these showers of bullets and shells that hit the French lines in August 1870 ... unless it alludes to the bodies of soldiers who fell by hundreds.
On 18 August 1870, the battle between the Prussian Corps under General von Steinmetz to French Corps of Frossard and Leboeuf, under the command of Bazaine. The Prussians occupied, after the movements of the August 16, village Gravelotte and the west side of the ravine of the Mance. The French occupied the east side of the ravine and the heights of Rozérieulles. The Prussians met with strong resistance, but never succeeded in destabilizing the opposing organization. The price of terrible losses, they managed to take the farm of Saint-Hubert. The night will end the carnage. It regrets about 5,300 dead and 14,500 wounded Prussians and 1200 deaths, 4,420 missing and 6,700 wounded French soldiers. Bazaine chooses, despite a tie between France and Germany, to abandon the field to take refuge in Metz. This battle was the turning point of the war of 1870, partly by the decline in French capitulation of Metz and two months later, on October 27, partly by the loss of one of the two French armies, the Rhine. The Battle of Gravelotte is the last battle where the western cavalry had a role to play.
The village was destroyed again during World War II. The church was rebuilt thanks to the energy of the parishioners and the priest Whitebeard. The windows are the work of Nicolas Untesteller (1900-1967) and have the originality to represent different episodes in the life of a resistant.
The war museum in 1870, created in 1875 by Mr Erpeldinger, is run by a German in 1908 and entrusted to the municipality of Gravelotte in 1918. Almost completely destroyed during WWII, it will be rebuilt and will remain open until 2000. It is then transferred to the General Council of Moselle, who decided to build the new "Museum of the 1870 war and annexation." Its opening in 2013, opposite the military cemetery where the memorial built in 1905 by Wilhelm II, in a neo-Romanesque style characteristic. On the former site of the museum will be built a Shrine which will include the names of all soldiers killed in action in Moselle three major conflicts in 1870, 1914-18 and 1939-45.
For its botanical richness and interest in this type of cold valley and cashed, the valley of the Mance has been classified Sensitive Natural Area by the General Council of Moselle. It is also part of the Natura 2000 area of limestone from the surrounding grasslands.
The "ravine of death", which had been so cruel losses in 1870, slowly becomes a place of peace where life in all its diversity is now protected and admired ...
