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116-706: Geronimus Hatt, who obtained his Master Brewer's certificate in 1649, started up the Canon Brewery in the Place du Corbeau in Strasbourg . His son Claude (born November 1665), succeeded his father in the trade in 1683. However, the frequent flooding of the River Ill compelled in 1850 a move to the higher terrain of Cronenbourg, an area of Strasbourg. In 1922, the Hatt Brewery changed its name to Tigre Bock,

232-508: A continental climate at high altitude. There is fairly low precipitation because the Vosges protect it from the west. The city of Colmar has a sunny microclimate ; it is the second driest city in France, with an annual precipitation of around 700 mm (28 in), making it ideal for vin d'Alsace ( Alsatian wine ). Since 2021, Alsace has been a territorial collectivity called

348-620: A Celtic tribe allied to Rome, appealed to the Roman Senate and Julius Caesar for aid. In 58 BCE, after negotiations with Ariovistus failed, Julius Caesar routed the Suebi at the foot of the Vosges near what became Cernay in southern Alsace. There followed a "long period of security ... for the Gauls along the middle and upper Rhine." From the time of Augustus to the early fifth century AD,

464-939: A French brewer with 350 years of history. Kanterbräu is a 4.2% pale lager. Kronenbourg 1664 is a 5.5% pale lager first brewed in 1952. A small amount of the Strisselspalt hop, a French aroma hop from Alsace, is used. The main Kronenbourg 1664 brewery (where Kronenbourg also produces almost 300 other beer brands) is in Obernai (France) , but the brand is also brewed in the UK by Heineken at its Manchester brewery, in Australia by Coopers, as well as in Ukraine by Carlsberg. Other brands include: 1664 Brune; Single Malt (French name Malt d'Exception), 6.1% abv; Kronenbourg Blanc,

580-472: A fruity wheat beer with citrus notes; Kronenbourg Premier Cru 6.0% abv; Kronenbourg Cold Premier 5.0%, a super chilled variant on 1664, draught only, UK; and Kronenbourg Red 4.2% abv . Strasbourg Strasbourg ( UK : / ˈ s t r æ z b ɜːr ɡ / , US : / ˈ s t r ɑː s b ʊər ɡ , ˈ s t r ɑː z -, - b ɜːr ɡ / ; French: [stʁasbuʁ] ; German : Straßburg [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊʁk] ; )

696-700: A lack of work for young people. Thus, it is not surprising that people left Alsace, not only for Paris – where the Alsatian community grew in numbers, with famous members such as Georges-Eugène Haussmann – but also for more distant places like Russia and the Austrian Empire , to take advantage of the new opportunities offered there: Austria had conquered lands in Eastern Europe from the Ottoman Empire and offered generous terms to colonists as

812-639: A neo-classical castle and a small zoo ; the Parc de la Citadelle , built around impressive remains of the 17th-century fortress erected close to the Rhine by Vauban ; the Parc de Pourtalès , laid out in English style around a baroque castle (heavily restored in the 19th century) that now houses a small three-star hotel, and featuring an open-air museum of international contemporary sculpture. The Jardin botanique de l'Université de Strasbourg (botanical garden)

928-468: A number of permanent public displays of its collections of scientific artefacts and products of all kinds of exploration and research. The commune of Strasbourg proper had a population of 291,313 on 1 January 2021, the result of a constant moderate annual growth which is also reflected in the constant growth of the number of students at its university (e. g. from 42,000 students in 2010 to 52,000 students in 2019). The metropolitan area of Strasbourg had

1044-545: A population of 853,110 inhabitants in 2019 (French side of the border only), while the transnational Eurodistrict had a population of 1,000,000 in 2022. In the Middle Ages , Strasbourg (a free imperial city since 1262), was an important town. According to a 1444 census , the population was circa 20,000; only one third less than Cologne , then a major European city. Strasbourg is the seat of internationally renowned institutions of music and drama: Other theatres are

1160-554: 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 (alongside Brussels , Luxembourg and Frankfurt ), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as

1276-527: A port on the Rhine route linking southern Germany and Switzerland to the Netherlands, England and Scandinavia , it became the political and economic center of the region. Cities such as Colmar and Hagenau also began to grow in economic importance and gained a kind of autonomy within the " Décapole " (or "Zehnstädtebund"), a federation of ten free towns. Though little is known about the early history of

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1392-497: A province (a procuratio , not a provincia ) to be ruled by ministeriales , a non-noble class of civil servants. The idea was that such men would be more tractable and less likely to alienate the fief from the crown out of their own greed. The province had a single provincial court ( Landgericht ) and a central administration with its seat at Hagenau . Frederick II designated the Bishop of Strasbourg to administer Alsace, but

1508-656: A special legal oath for Jews was discontinued. Antisemitic local riots occasionally occurred, especially during the Revolution of 1848. The merger of Alsace into Germany in 1871–1918 lessened antisemitic violence. The constitution of the Reichsland of 1911 reserved one seat in the first chamber of the Landtag for a representative of the Jewish Consistory of Alsace–Lorraine (besides two seats respectively for

1624-581: A third of the mortgages in Alsace. Official tolerance grew during the French Revolution, with full emancipation in 1791. However, local antisemitism also increased and Napoleon turned hostile in 1806, imposing a one-year moratorium on all debts owed to Jews. In the 1830–1870 era, most Jews moved to the cities, where they integrated and acculturated, as antisemitism sharply declined. By 1831, the state began paying salaries to official rabbis, and in 1846

1740-929: A way of consolidating its hold on the new territories. Many Alsatians also began to sail to the United States, settling in many areas from 1820 to 1850. In 1843 and 1844, sailing ships bringing immigrant families from Alsace arrived at the port of New York. Some settled in Texas and Illinois, many to farm or to seek success in commercial ventures: for example, the sailing ships Sully (in May 1843) and Iowa (in June 1844) brought families who set up homes in northern Illinois and northern Indiana. Some Alsatian immigrants were noted for their roles in 19th-century American economic development. Others ventured to Canada to settle in southwestern Ontario , notably Waterloo County . In contrast to

1856-522: Is Strasbourg , which sits on the present German international border. The city is the seat of several international organizations and bodies . The name Alsace can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz , meaning "foreign domain". An alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass , meaning "seated on the Ill ", a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace

1972-477: Is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France , on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,919,745. Alsatian culture is characterized by a blend of German and French influences. Until 1871, Alsace included the area now known as the Territoire de Belfort , which formed its southernmost part. From 1982 to 2016, Alsace

2088-703: Is a tertiary establishment for research and education in Ethics . This center is located at the premises of the old faculty of medicine in Strasbourg. The Center’s name in French is CEERE ( Centre européen d’enseignement et de recherche en éthique ). International schools include: Multiple levels: For elementary education: For middle school/junior high school education: For senior high school/sixth form college: The Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire (BNU) is, with its collection of more than 3,000,000 titles,

2204-468: Is also an adjacent church Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Protestant ) 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 (old custom-house ) stands out. The German Renaissance has bequeathed

2320-623: Is also taught as a foreign language in local kindergartens and schools. There is a growing network of schools proposing full immersion in Alsatian dialect and in Standard German, called ABCM-Zweisprachigkeit (ABCM -> French acronym for "Association for Bilingualism in the Classroom from Kindergarten onwards", Zweisprachigkeit -> German for "Bilingualism"). However, the Constitution of France still requires that French be

2436-582: Is among the few cities in the world that is not a state 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 congress and symposia, after Paris . Strasbourg's historic city centre,

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2552-1053: 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 ("tanners' district") 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

2668-704: Is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France , at the border with Germany 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

2784-594: The Grande Île (Grand Island), 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

2900-971: 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 (up to seven stories) 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 ,

3016-646: The "hundred day" restoration of Napoleon I of France in 1815, Alsace along with other frontier provinces of France was occupied by foreign forces from 1815 to 1818, including over 280,000 soldiers and 90,000 horses in Bas-Rhin alone. This had grave effects on trade and the economy of the region since former overland trade routes were switched to newly opened Mediterranean and Atlantic seaports. The population grew rapidly, from 800,000 in 1814 to 914,000 in 1830 and 1,067,000 in 1846. The combination of economic and demographic factors led to hunger, housing shortages and

3132-836: The EPCAAL (a Lutheran church) is France's second largest Protestant church, also forming an administrative union ( UEPAL ) with the much smaller Calvinist EPRAL . Unlike the rest of France, the Local law in Alsace–Moselle still provides for the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 and the organic articles , which provides public subsidies to the Roman Catholic, Lutheran , and Calvinist churches, as well as to Jewish synagogues; religion classes in one of these faiths are compulsory in public schools. The divergence in policy from

3248-571: The Edict of Fontainebleau of 1685 that abolished their privileges in the rest of France. After the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War , Alsace was annexed by Germany and became a part of the 1871 unified German Empire as a formal "Emperor's Land". After World War I the victorious Allies detached it from Germany and the province became part of the Third French Republic . Having been occupied and annexed by Germany during World War II , it

3364-560: The European Collectivity of Alsace ( collectivité européenne d'Alsace ). The European Collectivity of Alsace is divided into 2 departmental constituencies ( circonscriptions départementales ), 9 departmental arrondissements , 40 cantons , and 880 communes . Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Alsace's population increased to 1,919,745 in 2021. It has regularly increased over time, except in wartime and shortly after

3480-907: The European Parliament , the Eurocorps and the European Ombudsman of the European Union . An organization separate from the European Union, the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights , its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines most commonly known in French as "Pharmacopée Européenne", and its European Audiovisual Observatory ) is also located in the city. Together with Basel ( Bank for International Settlements ), Geneva ( United Nations ), The Hague ( International Court of Justice ) and New York City (United Nations world headquarters), Strasbourg

3596-602: 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

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3712-604: The Jews of Alsace , there is a lot of information from the 12th century onwards. They were successful as moneylenders and had the favor of the Emperor. As in much of Europe, the prosperity of Alsace was brought to an end in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death . These hardships were blamed on Jews, leading to the pogroms of 1336 and 1339. In 1349, Jews of Alsace were accused of poisoning

3828-699: The Théâtre jeune public , the TAPS Scala , the Kafteur ...  Strasbourg, well known as a centre of humanism , has a long history of excellence in higher education, at the crossroads of French and German intellectual traditions. Although Strasbourg had been annexed by the Kingdom of France in 1683, it still remained connected to the German-speaking intellectual world throughout the 18th century, and

3944-548: The Treaty of St. Omer  [ fr ] , Upper Alsace was sold by Archduke Sigismund of Austria to Charles the Bold , Duke of Burgundy. Although Charles was the nominal landlord, taxes were paid to Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor . The latter was able to use this tax and a dynastic marriage to his advantage to gain back full control of Upper Alsace (apart from the free towns, but including Belfort) in 1477 when it became part of

4060-555: The Treaty of Versailles . Policies forbidding the use of German and requiring French were promptly introduced. In order not to antagonize the Alsatians, the region was not subjected to some legal changes that had occurred in the rest of France between 1871 and 1919, such as the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State . Alsace–Lorraine was occupied by Germany in 1940 during the Second World War. Although it

4176-423: The Vosges mountains where it had been, leaving Alsace more economically oriented to neighbouring German-speaking lands. The German language remained in use in local administration, in schools, and at the (Lutheran) University of Strasbourg , which continued to draw students from other German-speaking lands. The 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau , by which the French king ordered the suppression of French Protestantism ,

4292-645: The Waffen SS ., although they were outnumbered by conscripts of the 1926–1927 classes. Thirty of said Waffen SS were involved in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre (29 conscripts, one volunteer). A third of the malgré-nous perished on the Eastern front. In July 1944, 1500 malgré-nous were released from Soviet captivity and sent to Algiers , where they joined the Free French Forces . Today,

4408-399: The région was self-ruling by legal status, as its constitution had stated it was bound to the sole authority of the Kaiser and not to the German state, France would allow no plebiscite, as granted by the League of Nations to some eastern German territories at this time, because the French regarded the Alsatians as Frenchmen liberated from German rule. Germany ceded the region to France under

4524-418: The " Hôtel de Hanau " (1736, now the city hall); the Hôtel de Klinglin (1736, now residence of the préfet ); the Hôtel des Deux-Ponts (1755, now residence of the military governor ); the Hôtel d'Andlau-Klinglin (1725, now seat of the administration of the Port autonome de Strasbourg ) etc. The largest baroque building of Strasbourg though is the 150-metre-long (490 ft) 1720s main building of

4640-406: The " Republic of Alsace–Lorraine ". French troops entered Alsace less than two weeks later to quash the worker strikes and remove the newly established Soviets and revolutionaries from power. With the arrival of the French soldiers, many Alsatians and local Prussian/German administrators and bureaucrats cheered the re-establishment of order. Although U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had insisted that

4756-467: The 1697 Treaty of Ryswick that ended the War of the Grand Alliance . But Alsace still contained islands of territory nominally under the sovereignty of German princes and an independent city-state at Mulhouse. These enclaves were established by law, prescription and international consensus. The year 1789 brought the French Revolution and with it the first division of Alsace into the départements of Haut- and Bas-Rhin . Alsatians played an active role in

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4872-498: The 1880s can be found along the newly reopened Rue du Rempart , displaying large-scale fortifications among which the aptly named Kriegstor (war gate). As for modern and contemporary architecture , Strasbourg possesses some fine Art Nouveau buildings (such as the huge Palais des Fêtes and houses and villas like Villa Schutzenberger and Hôtel Brion ), good examples of post-World War II functional architecture (the Cité Rotterdam , for which Le Corbusier did not succeed in

4988-463: The 2018 census, 69.9% of the inhabitants of Alsace were natives of Alsace, 16.0% were born in the rest of Metropolitan France , 0.5% were born in Overseas France , and 13.7% were born in foreign countries. Nearly 44% of the immigrants come from Europe, in particular from Germany (natives of Germany residing in Alsace where housing is cheaper), Italy, Portugal and Serbia. Since 2008, the number of Turkish immigrants living in Alsace has declined, whereas

5104-429: The French Revolution. On 21 July 1789, after receiving news of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris, a crowd of people stormed the Strasbourg city hall, forcing the city administrators to flee and putting symbolically an end to the feudal system in Alsace. In 1792, Rouget de Lisle composed in Strasbourg the Revolutionary marching song " La Marseillaise " (as Marching song for the Army of the Rhine ), which later became

5220-403: The Gaulish word for fortified enclosures, cognate to the Old Irish ráth (see ringfort ) and arganto(n)- (cognate to Latin argentum , which gave modern French argent ), the Gaulish word for silver, but also any precious metal, particularly gold, suggesting either a fortified enclosure located by a river gold mining site, or hoarding gold mined in the nearby rivers. After the fifth century

5336-419: The German annexation of 1871 (when many Alsatians who had opted to keep their French citizenship emigrated to France), by both natural growth and immigration . High population growth during the post-WW2 economic boom of the Trente Glorieuses ended after the 1973 oil crisis . Demographic growth picked up again in the 1990s and 2000s, but by the 2010s Alsace entered a new period of slow demographic growth. At

5452-414: The German artillery to lay their guns. A librarian from Munich later pointed out "...that the destruction of the precious collection was not the fault of a German artillery officer, who used the French map, but of the slovenly and inaccurate scholarship of a Frenchman." The municipal library Bibliothèque municipale de Strasbourg (BMS) administers a network of ten medium-sized libraries in different areas of

5568-475: The German district include: Avenue de la Forêt Noire , Avenue des Vosges , Avenue d'Alsace , Avenue de la Marseillaise , Avenue de la Liberté , Boulevard de la Victoire , Rue Sellénick , Rue du Général de Castelnau , Rue du Maréchal Foch , and Rue du Maréchal Joffre . Notable squares of the German district include Place de la République , Place de l'Université , Place Brant , and Place Arnold . Impressive examples of Prussian military architecture of

5684-428: 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 (there

5800-444: The Kaiser in November 1918, which left Alsace–Lorraine without a nominal head of state. The sailors returned home and tried to found an independent republic. While Jacques Peirotes , at this time deputy at the Landrat Elsass–Lothringen and just elected mayor of Strasbourg , proclaimed the forfeiture of the German Empire and the advent of the French Republic , a self-proclaimed government of Alsace–Lorraine declared its independence as

5916-457: The Nazi occupation (atrocities such as the Jewish skull collection ) and the British and American bombing raids . Some other notable dates were the years 357 ( Battle of Argentoratum ), 842 ( Oaths of Strasbourg ), 1538 (establishment of the university ), 1605 (world's first newspaper printed by Johann Carolus ), 1792 ( La Marseillaise ), and 1889 (pancreatic origin of diabetes discovered by Minkowski and Von Mering ). Strasbourg has been

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6032-435: The Rhine opened in 2004 and is the most extended (60-hectare) park of the agglomeration. The most recent park is Parc du Heyritz (8,7 ha), opened in 2014 along a canal facing the hôpital civil . As of 2020, the city of Strasbourg has eleven municipal museums (including Aubette 1928 ), eleven university museums, and at least two privately owned museums ( Musée vodou and Musée du barreau de Strasbourg ). Five communes in

6148-497: The Rhine was victorious, tens of thousands fled east before it. When they were later permitted to return (in some cases not until 1799), it was often to find that their lands and homes had been confiscated. These conditions led to emigration by hundreds of families to newly vacant lands in the Russian Empire in 1803–4 and again in 1808. A poignant retelling of this event based on what Goethe had personally witnessed can be found in his long poem Hermann and Dorothea . In response to

6264-403: The Roman Catholic Habsburgs who tried to eradicate heresy in Upper Alsace. As a result, Alsace was transformed into a mosaic of Catholic and Protestant territories. On the other hand, Mömpelgard (Montbéliard) to the southwest of Alsace, belonging to the Counts of Württemberg since 1397, remained a Protestant enclave in France until 1793. This situation prevailed until 1639, when most of Alsace

6380-431: 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. Strasbourg is divided into the following districts: The city

6496-520: The anthem of France. "La Marseillaise" was played for the first time in April of that year in front of the mayor of Strasbourg Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich . Some of the most famous generals of the French Revolution also came from Alsace, notably Kellermann , the victor of Valmy , Kléber , who led the armies of the French Republic in Vendée , and Westermann , who also fought in the Vendée. Mulhouse (a city in southern Alsace), which had been part of Switzerland since 1466, joined France in 1798. At

6612-402: The architectural contest) 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

6728-401: The area of Alsace was incorporated into the Roman province of Germania Superior . As a border province, the Romans built fortifications and military camps, many of which, including Argentoratum (Strasbourg), evolved into modern towns and cities. In 357 CE, Germanic tribes attempted to conquer Alsace but they were rebuffed by the Romans. With the decline of the Roman Empire , Alsace became

6844-412: The authority of the bishop was challenged by Count Rudolf of Habsburg , who received his rights from Frederick II's son Conrad IV . Strasbourg began to grow to become the most populous and commercially important town in the region. In 1262, after a long struggle with the ruling bishops, its citizens gained the status of free imperial city . A stop on the Paris - Vienna - Orient trade route, as well as

6960-399: 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;

7076-526: The city became known by a completely different name, later Gallicized as Strasbourg ( Lower Alsatian : Strossburi ; German : Straßburg ). That name is of Germanic origin and means 'town (at the crossing) of roads'. The modern Stras- is cognate with the German Straße and English street , both derived from Latin strata ("paved road"), while -bourg is cognate with the German Burg and English borough , both derived from Proto-Germanic *burgz ("hill fort, fortress"). Gregory of Tours

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7192-416: The city of Argentoratum, which they now call Strateburgus "), where he was exiled. The Roman camp of Argentoratum was first mentioned in 12 BCE; 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

7308-420: The city some noteworthy buildings (especially the current Chambre de commerce et d'industrie , former town hall , on Place Gutenberg ), as did the French Baroque and Classicism with several hôtels particuliers (i.e. palaces ), among which the Palais Rohan (completed 1742, used for university purposes from 1872 to 1895, now housing three museums) is the most spectacular. Other buildings of its kind are

7424-411: 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 ( Strasbourg massacre ), 1518 ( Dancing plague ), 1793 ( Reign of Terror ), 1870 ( Siege of Strasbourg ) and the years 1940–1944 with

7540-454: 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 . Until

7656-423: The demesne of the Habsburg family, who were also rulers of the empire. The town of Mulhouse joined the Swiss Confederation in 1515, where it was to remain until 1798. By the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Strasbourg was a prosperous community, and its inhabitants accepted Protestantism in 1523. Martin Bucer was a prominent Protestant reformer in the region. His efforts were countered by

7772-499: The diverse post-graduate schools: The three institutions merged in 2009, forming the Université de Strasbourg . Its component schools include: Two American colleges have a base in Strasbourg: Syracuse University , New York, and Centre College , Kentucky. There is also HEAR ( Haute école des arts du Rhin ) the celebrated art school , and the International Space University in the south of Strasbourg ( Illkirch-Graffenstaden ). The European Center for Studies and Research in Ethics

7888-405: The fifth century AD, the city was known as Argantorati (in the nominative , Argantorate in the locative ), a Celtic Gaulish name Latinised first as Argentorate (with Gaulish locative ending, as appearing on the first Roman milestones in the first century) and then as Argentoratum (with regular Latin nominative ending, in later Latin texts). That Gaulish name is a compound of -rati ,

8004-401: The forest" for their crops and animals." By 100 BCE Germanic peoples, including eventually the Suebi and other tribes under Ariovistus , had begun to intrude into areas along the upper Rhine and Danube long settled by Celtic Gauls. Alsace itself had come to be occupied by the Triboci , a Germanic tribe allied with Ariovistus. In response to the threat posted by Ariovistus , the Aedui ,

8120-406: The inhabitants were Christianized. Alsace remained under Frankish control until the Frankish realm , following the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, was formally dissolved in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun ; the grandsons of Charlemagne divided the realm into three parts. Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia , which was ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I . Lothar died early in 855 and his realm

8236-446: The latter acquiring Kronenbourg. Its main breweries are in Obernai and in Champigneulles , although the Champigneulles site is now up for sale. On 2 April 2015, Brasseries Kronenbourg launched a new corporate identity which it will use in corporate communications. It was designed by Carré Noir, which has been the brewery's design agency for several years. According to a press release, the new logo reaffirms Kronenbourg's identity as

8352-404: The metropolitan area also have museums (see below), three of them dedicated to military history. The collections in Strasbourg are distributed over a wide range of museums, according to a system that takes into account not only the types and geographical provenances of the items, but also the epochs. This concerns in particular the following domains: The Université de Strasbourg is in charge of

8468-548: 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 (the former Höhere Mädchenschule , with its towers, turrets and multiple round and square angles and the Haute école des arts du Rhin with its lavishly ornate façade of painted bricks, woodwork and majolica . Notable streets of

8584-669: The most well-known brand of the Tiger Brewery it had acquired to become the leading brewer in Alsace . Following the Second World War , Kronenbourg became the name of the company, and began international expansion. In 1970, it was acquired by industrial group BSN (now Groupe Danone ), along with the Société Européenne de Brasseries (Kanterbräu). In 1986, Kronenbourg merged with Kanterbräu. In 1953, Kronenbourg

8700-621: The new Imperial territory of Alsace–Lorraine was under the sole authority of the Kaiser , administered directly by the imperial government in Berlin. Between 100,000 and 130,000 Alsatians (of a total population of about a million and a half) chose to remain French citizens and leave Reichsland Elsaß–Lothringen , many of them resettling in French Algeria as Pieds-Noirs . Only in 1911 was Alsace–Lorraine granted some measure of autonomy, which

8816-517: The north and the east, Switzerland and Franche-Comté on the south and Lorraine on the west. Several valleys are also found in the région . Its highest point is the Grand Ballon in Haut-Rhin , which reaches a height of 1,424 m (4,672 ft). It contains many forests, primarily in the Vosges and in Bas-Rhin (Haguenau Forest). The ried lies along the Rhine . Alsace is

8932-557: The north, or 650 kilometres (400 mi) as the river flows, whilst the head of navigation in Basel is some 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the south, or 150 kilometres (93 mi) by river. In spite of its position far inland, Strasbourg has an oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb ), 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

9048-427: The number of Maghreban immigrants has risen less than the number of European immigrants. The fastest growing groups of immigrants are those from Asia and from sub-Saharan Africa. Alsace is generally seen as the most religious of all the French regions. Most of the Alsatian population is Roman Catholic , but, largely because of the region's German heritage, a significant Protestant community also exists: today,

9164-484: The only official language of the Republic. Alsace has an area of 8,283 km , making it the smallest région of metropolitan France . It is almost four times longer than it is wide, corresponding to a plain between the Rhine in the east and the Vosges mountains in the west. It includes the départements of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin (known previously as Sundgau and Nordgau ). It borders Germany on

9280-553: The ornate 19th-century Pont de la Fonderie (1893, stone) and Pont d'Auvergne (1892, iron), 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

9396-653: The part of the plain of the Rhine located at the west of the Rhine , on its left bank. It is a rift or graben , from the Oligocene epoch , associated with its horsts : the Vosges and the Black Forest . The Jura Mountains , formed by slip (induced by the alpine uplift) of the Mesozoic cover on the Triassic formations, goes through the area of Belfort . Alsace has an oceanic climate at low altitude and

9512-604: The region Grand Est. Alsatian is an Alemannic dialect closely related to Swabian , although since World War II most Alsatians primarily speak French. Internal and international migration since 1945 has also changed the ethnolinguistic composition of Alsace. For more than 300 years, from the Thirty Years' War to World War II , the political status of Alsace was heavily contested between France and various German states in wars and diplomatic conferences. The economic and cultural capital of Alsace, as well as its largest city,

9628-715: The rest of France, the Jews in Alsace had not been expelled during the Middle Ages. By 1790, the Jewish population of Alsace was approximately 22,500, about 3% of the provincial population. They were highly segregated and subject to long-standing antisemitic regulations. They maintained their own customs, Yiddish language, and historic traditions within the tightly knit ghettos; they adhered to Jewish law. Jews were barred from most cities and instead lived in villages. They concentrated in trade, services, and banking. They financed about

9744-665: 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 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) 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 132 and 151 metres (433 and 495 ft) above sea level, with

9860-466: The rivers Rhône and Meuse , and when those borders were reached, aiming for the Rhine. In 1299 the French proposed a marriage alliance between Blanche (sister of Philip IV of France ) and Rudolf (son of Albert I of Germany ), with Alsace to be the dowry; however, the deal never came off. In 1307, the town of Belfort was first chartered by the Counts of Montbéliard . During the next century, France

9976-722: The same time, some Alsatians were in opposition to the Jacobins and sympathetic to the restoration of the monarchy pursued by the invading forces of Austria and Prussia who sought to crush the nascent revolutionary republic . Many of the residents of the Sundgau made "pilgrimages" to places like Mariastein Abbey , near Basel , in Switzerland, for baptisms and weddings. When the French Revolutionary Army of

10092-580: 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. 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

10208-489: The second-largest library in France after the Bibliothèque nationale de France . It was founded by the German administration after the complete destruction of the previous municipal library in 1871 and holds the unique status of being simultaneously a students' and a national library. The Strasbourg municipal library had been marked erroneously as "City Hall" in a French commercial map, which had been captured and used by

10324-577: 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 (Orderly Room), built by Jacques François Blondel , architect of the king, in 1765–1772. Strasbourg features a number of prominent parks, of which several are of cultural and historical interest: the Parc de l'Orangerie , laid out as a French garden by André le Nôtre and remodeled as an English garden on behalf of Joséphine de Beauharnais , now displaying noteworthy French gardens,

10440-427: The sum of 1.2 million Thalers . When hostilities were concluded in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia , most of Alsace was recognized as part of France, although some towns remained independent. The treaty stipulations regarding Alsace were complex. Although the French king gained sovereignty, existing rights and customs of the inhabitants were largely preserved. France continued to maintain its customs border along

10556-405: The territory is in certain areas subject to some laws that are significantly different from the rest of France, which is known as the local law . In more recent years, the Alsatian language is again being promoted by local, national and European authorities as an element of the region's identity. Alsatian is taught in schools (but is not mandatory) as one of the regional languages of France. German

10672-771: The territory of the Germanic Alemanni . The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine ( Alsatian , Alemannian, Swabian, Swiss). Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac , and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia . Under Clovis' Merovingian successors

10788-834: The total destruction of this institution in 1870, however, a new collection had to be reassembled from scratch. Today, Strasbourg's different public and institutional libraries again display a sizable total number of incunabula, distributed as follows: Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire , ca. 2,120, Médiathèque de la ville et de la communauté urbaine de Strasbourg , 349, Bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire , 238, Médiathèque protestante , 66, and Bibliothèque alsatique du Crédit Mutuel , 5. Alsace Alsace ( / æ l ˈ s æ s / , US also / æ l ˈ s eɪ s , ˈ æ l s æ s / ; French: [alzas] ; Low Alemannic German / Alsatian : Elsàss [ˈɛlsɑs] ; German : Elsass ( German spelling before 1996 : Elsaß ) [ˈɛlzas] ; Latin : Alsatia )

10904-624: The town. A six stories high "Grande bibliothèque", the Médiathèque André Malraux , was inaugurated on 19 September 2008 and is considered the largest in Eastern France. As one of the earliest centres of book-printing in Europe (see above: History), Strasbourg for a long time held a large number of incunabula — books printed before 1500 — in its library as one of its most precious heritages: no less than 7,000. After

11020-509: The two main Christian denominations). We Germans who know Germany and France know better what is good for the Alsatians than the unfortunates themselves. In the perversion of their French life they have no exact idea of what concerns Germany. The Franco-Prussian War , which started in July 1870, saw France defeated in May 1871 by the Kingdom of Prussia and other German states. The end of

11136-497: The university attracted numerous students from the Holy Roman Empire , with Goethe , Metternich and Montgelas , who studied law in Strasbourg, among the most prominent. With 19 Nobel prizes in total, Strasbourg is the most eminent French university outside of Paris. Until 2009, there were three universities in Strasbourg , with an approximate total of 48,500 students in 2007, and another 4,500 students attended one of

11252-520: The upland areas of the Vosges Mountains some 20 km (12 mi) to the west and the Black Forest 25 km (16 mi) 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 397 kilometres (247 mi) east of Paris . The mouth of the Rhine lies approximately 450 kilometres (280 mi) to

11368-408: The war led to the unification of Germany . Otto von Bismarck annexed Alsace and northern Lorraine to the new German Empire in 1871. France ceded more than 90% of Alsace and one-fourth of Lorraine, as stipulated in the treaty of Frankfurt ; Belfort , the largest Alsatian town south of Mulhouse, remained French. Unlike other member states of the German federation, which had governments of their own,

11484-816: The wells with plague , leading to the massacre of thousands of Jews during the Strasbourg pogrom . Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town. An additional natural disaster was the Rhine rift earthquake of 1356, one of Europe's worst which made ruins of Basel . Prosperity returned to Alsace under Habsburg administration during the Renaissance . Holy Roman Empire central power had begun to decline following years of imperial adventures in Italian lands, often ceding hegemony in Western Europe to France, which had long since centralized power. France began an aggressive policy of expanding eastward, first to

11600-521: Was 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) in August 2003, during the 2003 European heat wave . This record was broken, on 30 June 2019, when it reached 38.8 °C (101.8 °F) and then on 25 July 2019, when it reached 38.9 °C (102.0 °F). The lowest temperature ever recorded was −23.4 °C (−10.1 °F) in December 1938. Strasbourg's location in the Rhine valley, sheltered from strong winds by

11716-660: Was captured by the German army in June 1940 at the end of the Battle of France ( World War II ), 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

11832-777: Was conquered by France to keep it out of the hands of the Spanish Habsburgs , who by secret treaty in 1617 had gained a clear road to their valuable and rebellious possessions in the Spanish Netherlands , the Spanish Road . Beset by enemies and seeking to gain a free hand in Hungary , the Habsburgs sold their Sundgau territory (mostly in Upper Alsace) to France in 1646, which had occupied it, for

11948-492: Was created under the German administration next to the Observatory of Strasbourg , built in 1881, and still owns some greenhouses of those times. The Parc des Contades , although the oldest park of the city, was completely remodeled after World War II. The futuristic Parc des Poteries is an example of European park-conception in the late 1990s. The Jardin des deux Rives , spread over Strasbourg and Kehl on both sides of

12064-663: Was divided into three parts. The part known as Lotharingia , or Lorraine, was given to Lothar's son. The rest was shared between Lothar's brothers Charles the Bald (ruler of the West Frankish realm) and Louis the German (ruler of the East Frankish realm). The Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace

12180-671: 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 ( Battle of Hausbergen ) 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 (end of World War I ), when it reverted to France. Strasbourg

12296-570: Was inhabited by nomadic hunters. Part of the province of Germania Superior in the Roman Empire, the area went on to become a diffuse border region between the French and the German cultures and languages. Long a center of the German-speaking world, after the end of the Thirty Years' War , southern Alsace was annexed by France in 1648, with most of the remainder conquered later in the century. In contrast to other parts of France, Protestants were permitted to practise their faith in Alsace even after

12412-655: Was manifested also in a flag and an anthem ( Elsässisches Fahnenlied ). In 1913, however, the Saverne Affair ( French : Incident de Saverne) showed the limits of this new tolerance of the Alsatian identity. During the First World War, to avoid ground fights between brothers, many Alsatians served as sailors in the Kaiserliche Marine and took part in the Naval mutinies that led to the abdication of

12528-538: Was never formally annexed, Alsace–Lorraine was incorporated into the Greater German Reich , which had been restructured into Reichsgaue . Alsace was merged with Baden , and Lorraine with the Saarland , to become part of a planned Westmark . During the war, 130,000 young men from Alsace and Lorraine were conscripted into the German armies against their will ( malgré-nous ). There were some volunteers for

12644-571: Was not applied in Alsace. France did endeavour to promote Catholicism. Strasbourg Cathedral , for example, which had been Lutheran from 1524 to 1681, was returned to the Catholic Church. However, compared to the rest of France, Alsace enjoyed a climate of religious tolerance . France consolidated its hold with the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen , which brought most remaining towns under its control. France seized Strasbourg in 1681 in an unprovoked action. These territorial changes were recognised in

12760-565: 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

12876-608: Was returned to France by the Allies at the end of World War II . The presence of hominids in Alsace can be traced back 600,000 years. By 4000 BCE farming, in the form of Linear Pottery culture , arrived in the region from the Danube and the Hungarian plain. The culture was characterized by "timber longhouse settlements and incised pottery ... favoring floodplain edge situations for their permanent villages ... [and] small clearings in

12992-528: Was sold in the UK for the first time in honour of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II . In 1970, the brewer was acquired by Boussois-Souchon-Neuvesel (BSN), a glass-making conglomerate, which added Evian to its list of mergers in the same year. In 1973 BSN itself would merge and form BSN-Gervais Danone. In 2000, Kronenbourg was acquired from Danone by British company Scottish & Newcastle for £1.7 billion. In April 2008, Scottish & Newcastle's operations were sold to Heineken and Carlsberg ,

13108-578: 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 " ("to

13224-514: Was the smallest administrative région in metropolitan France , consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments . Territorial reform passed by the French Parliament in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est . On 1 January 2021, the departments of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin merged into the new European Collectivity of Alsace but remained part of

13340-535: Was to be militarily shattered by the Hundred Years' War , which prevented for a time any further tendencies in this direction. After the conclusion of the war, France was again free to pursue its desire to reach the Rhine and in 1444 a French army appeared in Lorraine and Alsace. It took up winter quarters, demanded the submission of Metz and Strasbourg and launched an attack on Basel . In 1469, following

13456-431: Was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the stem duchy of Swabia . At about this time, the surrounding areas experienced recurring fragmentation and reincorporations among a number of feudal secular and ecclesiastical lordships, a common process in the Holy Roman Empire . Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors . Frederick I set up Alsace as

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