Bruche Canal

The Bruche Canal, also known as the Vauban Canal, is a historic 20-kilometer waterway connecting Wolxheim to Strasbourg.

Commissioned on August 13, 1682, it features eleven locks measuring 48.5 meters by 4.5 meters.

Designed to transport sandstone from the royal quarries of Soultz-les-Bains and Wolxheim to Strasbourg, it was a strategic element in building the Citadel, ordered by Louis XIV after the surrender of the free imperial city in 1681.

At the time, barges were pulled by men, donkeys, or horses along the towpath on the right bank.

The canal's 29-meter slope required engineering works, including a trench dug by the Champagne Regiment to connect the Bruche to the Mossig at Avolsheim.

This strategic point houses a system of sluices, the “grand reversoir,” regulating the canal’s flow, and a fish pass is now visible nearby.

After the Citadel's construction, the canal served for two centuries to supply Strasbourg with firewood, floated down the Bruche from the Vosges and then transported by barges at Avolsheim.

Other villages like Achenheim and Hangenbieten also supplied bricks and tiles to the city.

The canal played an agricultural role with irrigation diversions and powered mills through its hydraulic energy.

Its decline began in the 20th century due to competition from modern transport.

Today, the former towpath has been converted into a bike path developed between 1986 and 1988, offering a route where visitors can observe fishermen, diverse wildlife (mallards, coots, grey herons, storks, horses, cows, etc.), and restored washhouses. The eleven lock keeper’s houses, numbered 1 to 11 from upstream to downstream, also mark this trail.