Берентал: Тарихы мен табиғаты

Baerenthal (bɛʁəntal; Bärental; Lorraine Franconian: Bäredal) is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north eastern France. The village belongs to the Pays de Bitche and to the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park.

The village is located in heavily wooded country, 15 kilometres from Bitche and 12 kilometres from Niederbronn, at the south eastern border of the canton of Bitche. It has a population of 750 and is located at an altitude of 240 meters, in the lush green valley of the northern Zinsel river.

The Barenthal company designs and produces solid steel tableware and silver coated metal. In 2005, it was the second greatest producer of French tableware.

In the Middle Ages, Baerenthal was part of the parish of Obersteinbach, of the archbishopric of Haut Haguenau in the diocese of Strasbourg. In 1570, count Philippe IV of Hanau Lichtenberg brought the Reformation to the village and the Catholic religion was consequently suppressed. This explains the absence of crosses by the roads in and around Baerenthal, a characteristic of Catholic regions. For the few Catholics who joined this community, the territory became a part of the bishopric of Metz in 1802 and was annexed to the parish of Mouterhouse. The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception was constructed in 1885 in the northern part of the village.

After the village embraced the Reformation, the church changed to Protestantism. The Protestant church was restored in 1630. The village has been a Protestant district since 1739.

Château de Grand Arnsberg, constructed at the beginning of the 12th century to protect the imperial city of Haguenau. Château de Ramstein, constructed in the 13th century by the Falkenstein nobility. the church of Saint Catherine, transformed into a Protestant church in 1571 and reconstructed in the 17th century. the marker/milestone near Schmalenthal, dated from 1605. Delimits the old borders of the county of Bitche. The calvary (in French, a small figurine of Christ on the cross) near Frohnacker, dated from 1790. The tomb of Philippe Hirtz, an ironworker from Mouterhouse, dated from 1868.
the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, built at the end of the 19th century, which is a place of pilgrimage every May. The bird observation post, the best place to discover the fauna of the Northern Vosges. Situated on the main road, a farm is composed of two buildings: the home, gabled on the road, dated 1770 on the door of the cellar, and the farm itself, dated 1753, developed in breadth behind the courtyard. Exceptional in the Pays de Bitche, the farm resembles the Alsatian building style. One can see this by the separation between buildings and the farm and by the porch roof superimposed on the main/front face of the building. The difference to the Alsatian style is that the pan de bois is relegated in the second part (that is, the foundations), while the house is constructed with stone and a mix of roughcast lime (pebbles were added in the mix and used to increase the surface area of the house, to increase the rate of evaporation).

The arms of this village are: "a black bear, passant silver, chapé ployé of gold to the star of dexter gules". These are the arms of the Ramstein family, the nobles of the village in the Middle Ages, who took their name from the old château of Ramstein. The bear on the arms is taken from the name of the community, namely, the valley of bears: Bären tal, in German.