Phalsbourg

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Phalsbourg (known in German as Pfalzburg), is a town in Moselle, (Lorraine), France. Its population is about 4500.

In 1911, it was a town of Germany, in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, lying high on the west slopes of the Vosges, 25 miles north-west of Strasbourg by rail. Population in 2006 is 5000. In 1911, it contained an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a synagogue and a teachers seminary. Its industries include the manufacture of gloves, straw hats and liqueurs, and also quarrying.

The principality of Phalsbourg, of which this town was the capital, originally a part of Luxembourg, afterwards belonged in turn to the bishop of Metz, the bishop of Strasbourg and the duke of Lorraine, and passed into the possession of France in 1661. The town was of importance as commanding the passes of the Vosges, and was strongly fortified by Vauban in 1680. The works resisted the Allies in 1814 and 1815, and the Germans for four months in 1870, but they were taken on 12 December of that year. They have since been razed.

The United States Air Forces in Europe built in 1953 an air base near the city. The base was returned in 1967 to the French government, which redesignated it as Camp de la Horie. The base is nowadays used by the French military's 1er Régiment d'Hélicoptères de Combat.

The town is home to the annual Erckmann-Chatrian summer festival.