The Staufen - The Cross of Lorraine

During World War II, the Cross of Lorraine became the emblem of the Resistance and Liberation, championed by Charles de Gaulle.

At the end of the conflict, the idea of dedicating a monument to it in Alsace emerged, with a strategic location facing the Rhine and visible from the Alsace plain.

The first stone was laid on August 1, 1948, by General de Gaulle himself.

Made of reinforced concrete in just four weeks, the monument, twelve meters high, was inaugurated on July 10, 1949.

A symbol of the Alsatian Resistance, it was the target of two bomb attacks in 1981.

After a period of replacement by a wooden cross, a new version, the Staufen Cross, was inaugurated on June 18, 1986.

Today, it overlooks the town of Thann, recalling the legacy of the Appeal of June 18, 1940, and offering a vast panorama of the Alsace plain, Mulhouse, and the foothills of the Swiss Jura.