Brunstatt

Brunstatt (Alsatian: Brunscht) is a former commune in the Haut-Rhin department in north-eastern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune Brunstatt-Didenheim.

It is one of the southern suburbs of the city of Mulhouse, and forms part of the Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération, the inter-communal local government body for the Mulhouse conurbation.

The family von Besenval
The communes of Brunstatt, Didenheim and Riedisheim once belonged to the Swiss patrician family von Besenval or de Besenval as they were called in France. The rich and powerful family from Solothurn had considerable influence in the royal court of France. An impressive example of this is that the King of France erected the de Besenval's possession of Brunstatt into a French barony on 11 August 1726. Hence the family name de Besenval de Brunstatt.

One of the most prominent members of the family was Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, a Swiss military officer in French service and a favorite of Queen Marie Antoinette. The baron's former residence in Paris, the Hôtel de Besenval, has housed the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation since 1938.