page_title: Battle of Dürenstein
section_title: Battlefield commemorations
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Dürenstein / Battlefield commemorations
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Gedenktafel in Dürnstein zu Ehren der französischen Soldaten der Schlacht von Dürnstein am 11. November 1805. English: Plague in Durnstein village, Austria, commemorating the 1805 Battle of Durnstein between the French and a Austrian/Russian army
context_page_description: The Battle of Dürenstein, on 11 November 1805, was an engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the War of the Third Coalition. Dürenstein is located in the Wachau valley, on the river Danube, 73 kilometers upstream from Vienna, Austria. The river makes a crescent-shaped curve between Dürnstein and nearby Krems an der Donau, and the battle was fought in the flood plain between the river and the mountains.
  At Dürenstein a combined force of Russian and Austrian troops trapped a French division commanded by Théodore Maxime Gazan. The French division was part of the newly created VIII Corps, the so-called Corps Mortier, under command of Édouard Mortier. In pursuing the Austrian retreat from Bavaria, Mortier had over-extended his three divisions along the north bank of the Danube. Mikhail Kutuzov, commander of the Coalition force, enticed Mortier to send Gazan's division into a trap and French troops were caught in a valley between two Russian columns. They were rescued by the timely arrival of a second division, under command of Pierre Dupont de l'Étang. The battle extended well into the night, after which both sides claimed victory.
context_section_description: Until 1805, Dürenstein was probably best known as the village in which crusader Richard the Lionheart was held by Leopold V, Duke of Austria. In 1741, during the War of the Austrian Succession, several hundred local villagers had held off the French and Bavarian armies, intent on capturing Vienna, by painting drain pipes to look like cannons, and beating on drums, thus suggesting the presence of a large force.
  After 1805, the exploits of 40,000 French, Russian, and Austrian soldiers excited the European imagination. General Schmitt's grave has never been found, but in 1811 a monument for him was erected at the Stein Tor, the gate leading from the old village of Krems to the hamlet of Stein. The house in which Captain von Stiebar lived was marked with a bronze plate commemorating his contribution to the battle. In 1840, a Spanish lithographer created an image of the battle, which was later expanded by English lithographer John Outhwaite. The image depicts the evacuation of French troops via the Danube flotilla (see Infobox image) on a moonlit night. In fact, the moon was in its last quarter phase 48 hours later, and on 11 November probably did not provide as much light as depicted in the image.
  In 1836, Jean-Antoine-Siméon Fort, a historical painter, created a watercolor of the battle, Combat de Dürnstein le 11 novembre 1805 ((in English) Battle of Dürenstein of 11 November 1805), which is in the Trianon collection at Versailles.
  In the Russian novel War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy devoted several pages to the battle, its prelude, and its aftermath, and the delivery of its news to Francis II (Holy Roman Emperor) by Prince Andrew. Between Dürenstein and Rossatz, at the edge of the Loiben plain, stands the "Little Frenchman" memorial (see image) erected in 1905 to commemorate the battle; it bears the names of Mortier, Gazan, Kutuzov, Schmitt, and others on a copper-engraved plate.
caption: Plaque in Durnstein village commemorating the battle
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