Strasbourg


Strasbourg is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department and the official seat of the European Parliament.
The city has about three hundred thousand inhabitants, and together Greater Strasbourg and the arrondissement of Strasbourg have over five hundred thousand. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 860,744 in 2020, making it the eighth-largest metro area in France and home to 14% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of roughly 1,000,000 in 2022. Strasbourg is one of the de facto four main capitals of the European Union, as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the European Parliament, the Eurocorps and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. An organization separate from the European Union, the Council of Europe is also located in the city.
Together with Basel, Geneva, The Hague and New York City, Strasbourg is among the few cities in the world that is not a national capital that hosts international organisations of the first order. The city is the seat of many non-European international institutions such as the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights. It is the second city in France in terms of international congresses and symposia, after Paris. Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île, was classified a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988, with the newer "Neustadt" being added to the site in 2017. Strasbourg is immersed in Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a cultural bridge between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second-largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture. It is also home to the largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque.
Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, and river transportation. The port of Strasbourg is the second-largest on the Rhine after Duisburg in Germany, and the second-largest river port in France after Paris.

Etymology and names

Until the fifth century AD, the city was known as Argantorati, a Celtic Gaulish name Latinised first as Argentorate and then as Argentoratum. The Gaulish name is a compound of arganto-, the Gaulish word for silver; and -rati, the Gaulish word for fortified enclosures, cognate to the Old Irish ráth. Arganto also referred to any precious metal, particularly gold, which suggests that the settlement began either as a fortified enclosure located by a river gold mining site, or as a hoard of gold mined from the nearby rivers.
After the fifth century the city became known by a completely different name, later Gallicized as Strasbourg. That name is of Germanic origin and means 'town of roads'. The modern Stras- is cognate with the German Straße and English street, both derived from Latin strata, while -bourg is cognate with the German Burg and English borough, both derived from Proto-Germanic *burgz.
Gregory of Tours was the first to mention the name change: in the tenth book of his History of the Franks written shortly after 590 he said that Egidius, Bishop of Reims, accused of plotting against King Childebert II of Austrasia in favor of his uncle King Chilperic I of Neustria, was tried by a synod of Austrasian bishops in Metz in November 590, found guilty and removed from the priesthood, then taken "ad Argentoratensem urbem, quam nunc Strateburgum vocant", where he was exiled.

History

The Roman camp of Argentoratum was first mentioned in 12 BC; the city of Strasbourg which grew from it celebrated its 2,000th anniversary in 1988. The fertile area in the Upper Rhine Plain between the rivers Ill and Rhine had already been populated since the Middle Paleolithic.
Between 362 and 1262, Strasbourg was governed by the bishops of Strasbourg; their rule was reinforced in 873 and then more in 982. In 1262, the citizens violently rebelled against the bishop's rule and Strasbourg became a free imperial city. It became a French city in 1681, after the conquest of Alsace by the armies of Louis XIV. In 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, the city, as part of the Imperial Territory of Alsace–Lorraine, became German again, until 1918, when it reverted to France. Strasbourg was captured by the German army in June 1940 at the end of the Battle of France, and subsequently came under German control again through formal annexation into the Gau Baden-Elsaß under the Nazi Gauleiter Robert Wagner; since the liberation of the city by the 2nd French Armoured Division under General Leclerc in November 1944, it has again been a French city. In 2016, Strasbourg was promoted from capital of Alsace to capital of Grand Est.
Strasbourg played an important part in the Protestant Reformation, with personalities such as John Calvin, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, Matthew and Katharina Zell, but also in other aspects of Christianity such as German mysticism, with Johannes Tauler, Pietism, with Philipp Spener, and Reverence for Life, with Albert Schweitzer. Delegates from the city took part in the Protestation at Speyer. It was also one of the first centres of the printing industry with pioneers such as Johannes Gutenberg, Johannes Mentelin, and Heinrich Eggestein. Among the darkest periods in the city's long history were the years 1349, 1518, 1793, 1870 and the years 1940–1944 with the Nazi occupation and the British and American bombing raids. Some other notable dates were the years 357, 842, 1538, 1605, 1792, and 1889.
Strasbourg has been the seat of European institutions since 1949: first of the International Commission on Civil Status and of the Council of Europe, later of the European Parliament, of the European Science Foundation, of Eurocorps, and others as well.

Geography

Location

Strasbourg is situated at the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the Rhine, which also forms the eastern border of the modern city, facing across the river to the German town Kehl. The historic core of Strasbourg, however, lies on the Grande Île in the river Ill, which here flows parallel to, and roughly from, the Rhine. The natural courses of the two rivers eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city.
The city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, at between above sea level, with the upland areas of the Vosges Mountains some to the west and the Black Forest to the east. This section of the Rhine valley is a major axis of north–south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself, and major roads and railways paralleling it on both banks.
The city is some east of Paris. The mouth of the Rhine lies approximately to the north, or as the river flows, whilst the head of navigation in Basel is some to the south, or by river.

Climate

In spite of its position far inland, Strasbourg has an oceanic climate, though with less maritime influence than the milder climates of Western and Southern France. The city has warm, relatively sunny summers and cool, overcast winters.
The third highest temperature ever recorded was in August 2003, during the 2003 European heat wave. This record was broken, on 30 June 2019, when it reached and then on 25 July 2019, when it reached. The lowest temperature ever recorded was in December 1938.
Strasbourg's location in the Rhine valley, sheltered from strong winds by the Vosges and Black Forest mountains, results in poor natural ventilation, making Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France. Nonetheless, the progressive disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city have reduced air pollution in recent years.

Districts

Strasbourg is divided into the following districts:
  1. Bourse, Esplanade, Krutenau
  2. Centre Ville
  3. Gare, Tribunal
  4. Conseil des XV, Orangerie
  5. Cronenbourg
  6. Hautepierre, Poteries
  7. Koenigshoffen,
  8. Montagne-Verte
  9. Elsau
  10. Meinau
  11. Neudorf-Musau
  12. Neuhof 1
  13. Neuhof 2
  14. Robertsau
  15. Port du Rhin

    Main sights

Architecture

The city is chiefly known for its sandstone Gothic Cathedral with its famous astronomical clock, and for its medieval cityscape of Rhineland black and white timber-framed buildings, particularly in the Petite France district or Gerberviertel alongside the Ill and in the streets and squares surrounding the cathedral, where the renowned Maison Kammerzell stands out.
Notable medieval streets include Rue Mercière, Rue des Dentelles, Rue du Bain aux Plantes, Rue des Juifs, Rue des Frères, Rue des Tonneliers, Rue du Maroquin, Rue des Charpentiers, Rue des Serruriers, Grand' Rue, Quai des Bateliers, Quai Saint-Nicolas and Quai Saint-Thomas. Notable medieval squares include Place de la Cathédrale, Place du Marché Gayot, Place Saint-Étienne, Place du Marché aux Cochons de Lait and Place Benjamin Zix.In addition to the cathedral, Strasbourg houses several other medieval churches that have survived the many wars and destructions that have plagued the city: the Romanesque Église Saint-Étienne, partly destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombing raids; the part-Romanesque, part-Gothic, very large Église Saint-Thomas with its Silbermann organ on which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Albert Schweitzer played; the Gothic Église protestante Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune with its crypt dating back to the seventh century and its cloister partly from the eleventh century; the Gothic Église Saint-Guillaume with its fine early-Renaissance stained glass and furniture; the Gothic Église Saint-Jean; the part-Gothic, part-Art Nouveau Église Sainte-Madeleine etc. The Neo-Gothic church Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Catholique serves as a shrine for several 15th-century wood-worked and painted altars coming from other, now destroyed churches and installed there for public display; especially the Passion of Christ. Among the numerous secular medieval buildings, the monumental Ancienne Douane stands out.
The German Renaissance has bequeathed the city some noteworthy buildings, as did the French Baroque and Classicism with several hôtels particuliers, among which the Palais Rohan is the most spectacular. Other buildings of its kind are the "Hôtel de Hanau" ; the Hôtel de Klinglin ; the Hôtel des Deux-Ponts ; the Hôtel d'Andlau-Klinglin etc. The largest baroque building of Strasbourg though is the 1720s main building of the Hôpital civil. As for French Neo-classicism, it is the Opera House on Place Broglie that most prestigiously represents this style.
Strasbourg also offers high-class eclecticist buildings in its very extended German district, the Neustadt, being the main memory of Wilhelmian architecture since most of the major cities in Germany proper suffered intensive damage during World War II. Streets, boulevards and avenues are homogeneous, surprisingly high and broad examples of German urban lay-out and of this architectural style that summons and mixes up five centuries of European architecture as well as Neo-Egyptian, Neo-Greek and Neo-Babylonian styles. The former imperial palace Palais du Rhin, the most political and thus heavily criticized of all German Strasbourg buildings epitomizes the grand scale and stylistic sturdiness of this period. But the two most handsome and ornate buildings of these times are the École internationale des Pontonniers.
As for modern and contemporary architecture, Strasbourg possesses some fine Art Nouveau buildings, good examples of post-World War II functional architecture and, in the very extended Quartier Européen, some spectacular administrative buildings of sometimes utterly large size, among which the European Court of Human Rights building by Richard Rogers is arguably the finest. Other noticeable contemporary buildings are the new Music school Cité de la Musique et de la Danse, the Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain and the Hôtel du Département facing it, as well as, in the outskirts, the tramway-station Hoenheim-Nord designed by Zaha Hadid.
The city has many bridges, including the medieval and four-towered Ponts Couverts that, despite their name, are no longer covered. Next to the Ponts Couverts is the Barrage Vauban, a part of Vauban's 17th-century fortifications, that does include a covered bridge. Other bridges are the ornate 19th-century Pont de la Fonderie and Pont d'Auvergne, as well as architect Marc Mimram's futuristic Passerelle over the Rhine, opened in 2004.
The largest square at the centre of the city of Strasbourg is the Place Kléber. Located in the heart of the city's commercial area, it was named after general Jean-Baptiste Kléber, born in Strasbourg in 1753 and assassinated in 1800 in Cairo. In the square is a statue of Kléber, under which is a vault containing his remains. On the north side of the square is the Aubette, built by Jacques François Blondel, architect of the king, in 1765–1772.