Baldenheim () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in the Alsace region of north-eastern France.
The inhabitants of the commune are known as Baldenheimois or Baldenheimoises.
The commune has been awarded two flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.
Geography
Baldenheim is located in the canton of Sélestat and the arrondissement of Sélestat-Erstein in the centre of the Alsace region on the alluvial plain of the Rhine, 45 km south of Strasbourg, 26 km north by north-east of Colmar and 8 km east of Sélestat. Access to the commune is by the D605 from Hessenheim in the south which passes through the village and continues north to Muttersholtz. The D209 comes from Schwobsheim in the east and passes through the village continuing west to join the D21 near the commune border. The D208 goes south-west from the village to Mussig.
Natural environment
The commune is at the centre of a flat alluvial plain and is part of the Ried Natural Region. The water table is only 1.50 metres below the surface on average. Water pierces the clay layer and gives rise to waterways. The Ill river flows relatively calmly across the plain. Like all the rivers in Vosges it is subject to an oceanic regime which is characterized by high winter waters and low summer waters, contrary to the Rhine. The last catastrophic flood occurred in May 1983. The climate is of semi-continental type with about 600 mm of rain per year. Temperature differences are particularly marked: summers can be very hot and the winters harsh.
Landscape
The commune outside the urban area has five distinct types of landscape: Suburban Village: orchards and gardens, Rural Open Spaces: fields and woods, Wetland: the Black Ried, Banks of the Ill: the Grey Ried, Forested areas.
About 80% of the utilized agricultural area is cultivated.
The Ill, the Blind and numerous streams flow north through the commune all eventually merging with the Ill which joins the Rhine at Plobsheim.
Neighbouring communes and villages
Toponymy
Bandenheim, 1182
History
There is a Merovingian and Carolingian Cemetery with a hundred graves which attest to the ancient occupation of the commune. Most of the tombs are shallow (between 0.50 and 0.60 metres below the topsoil) and contained no ornaments with disturbed skeletons indicating plundering long ago. Another group of burials are deeper (between 1.20 and 1.50 metres) and contained relatively rich ornaments (brooches in bronze and silver partitioned with garnet, glass beads, glass paste necklaces, amber necklaces, and other objects from the second half of the 6th century and the second third of the 7th century. The ornaments collected from Baldenheim are from a time period between 550 and 650.
Baldenheim appeared in a document from the second half of the 7th century in the form of Baldenheim Villa. The name of this village, according to legend, is that the Devil one day lost his hat. He refused to retrieve it saying B'haltene (keep it). The village did not have a name at that time and adopted this onomatopoeia. But the name Baldenheim does appear in the 9th century.
The Protestant Reformation was introduced in 1576. A castle was built in 1740 and destroyed in 1821. The Simultaneau in 1843 provoked a violent conflict between the two religious communities (Protestant and Catholic). In the 19th century there was significant growth in weaving and there were 150 weavers in the commune. In the last third of the 19th century, the cooperative movement developed in the commune. A savings bank was founded in 1890 and a dairy cooperative operated until 1981.
In 1324 the village belonged to the Duchy of Württemberg. It had then given in fief to the Rathsamhausen zum Stein family. Upon the extinction of this noble family, Louis XIV gave it to the engineer of Chamlay, leaving it for him to pay tribute to the Duke of Württemberg who, at the death of the commander of Chamlay passed the fief to the family of Sandersleben-Coligny. Before the French Revolution it was owned by the Waldner Freundstein family whose castle was demolished in 1820. From the 19th century home weaving occupied a very important place in the local economy.
Baldenheim is known for its festival of "Pfingstpflitteri" which was held for the tenth time in 1999.