Hello Listers, after the recent disussion about Cassini's maps and "Alsatia Superior", here a short sketch about the region named "the Sundgau", which refers to the hilly and agricultural area in the south of Alsace, between Mulhouse and the Swiss border. The name appeared around the year 750, when the Duchy of Alsace was parted into two Counties: Nordgau in the north (more or less the today Bas-Rhin) and the Sundgau in the south (more or less Haut-Rhin), or Alsatia Superior. In German, Gau means "region". Rapidly the name Nordgau disappeared, whereas the Sundgau was limited to the area described above, which was owned mainly by the "Comtes de FERRETTE" (=von PFIRT). When the last of this family (Ulrich III de Ferrette) died in 1324 without male posterity, his daughter Jeanne herited the county and, by her marriage to Albert II de HABSBOURG, from Austria, the territory was then owned by this wealthy family. It was included in the so- called "anterior Austria", with Ensisheim as the capital. The Sundgau suffered many times from wars and the passage of armies, especially the Swedish during the Thirty Years war (1618-1648). When the major part of Alsace became French in 1648, the Habsburgs had to abandon all their possessions and titles in Alsace. In 1659 the king of France gave the "Comté de Ferrette" to his minister Mazarin, from whom it arrived to the today princes of Monaco (Grimaldi) - as Mardon wrote it in a post last November. Source: Dictionnaire du Haut-Rhin. There is very active historical association of the Sundgau: <http://www.sundgau-histoire.asso.fr/> (in French) Best wishes, Etienne > Le 27 nov. 08 à 00:21, Mardon a écrit : > > > Other things on the map that I’d like to know more about are the > area > > labeled “Die Hartt” and the label “SVN T GOW” for the area that was > > later known as the Suntgaw, a.k.a. the "Suntgau" and the "Sundgau" > > Mardon