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(Redirected from Strasbourg, France)
'Strasbourg' (, pronounced ; Alsatian: ''Strossburi'', ;DO NOT SPELL IT "STRASSBURG", FOR IT IS NOT PRONOUNCED THE SAME WAY : aß = long a, ass = short a. AND STOP BOLDENING. archaic: ''Strassburg'') is the capital and principal city of the Alsace ''region'' in northeastern France, with 702,412 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2007. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the ''préfecture'' (capital) of the Bas-Rhin ''département''.
Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions such as the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory, the Eurocorps as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. Strasbourg is an important center of manufacturing and engineering, as well as of road, rail, and river communications. The port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany[1]. The city is the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine.
Strasbourg's historic center, the ''Grande Île'' ("Grand Island"), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honor was placed on an entire city center. Strasbourg is beautifully fused into the Franco-German culture (Alemannic), and is regarded as the bridge of unity between modern France and Germany.
Strasbourg is also a bridge for Germanic and Latin culture.
The city's Frenchified name is of Germanic origin and means "town (at the crossing) of roads". The modern ''Stras-'' is cognate to the original German ''Straße''/''Strasse'' ("street"), while ''-bourg'' is cognate to the German ''-burg'' ("fortress, town, citadel") and the English ''borough''.
Strasbourg is situated on the Ill River, where it flows into the Rhine on the border with Germany, across from the German town Kehl. The city is situated in the Rhine valley, approximately 20 kilometers east of the Vosges Mountains and 25 kilometers west of the Black Forest. Winds coming from either direction being often deflected by these natural barriers, the average annual pluviometry is low[2] and the perceived summer temperatures can be inordinately high. The defective natural ventilation also makes Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France[3], [4], although 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 are showing encouraging results.[5].
At the site of Strasbourg, the Romans established a military outpost and named it ''Argentoratum''. It belonged to the ''Germania Superior'' Roman province. The name was first mentioned in the year 12 BC; the city celebrated its 2,000th birthday in 1988. From the 4th century, Strasbourg was the seat of the Archbishopric of Strasbourg.
The Alemanni fought a battle against Rome in Strasbourg in 357. They were defeated by Julian, later Emperor of Rome, and their king Chonodomarius was taken prisoner. On January 2, 366 the Alemanni crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers, to invade the Roman Empire. Early in the 5th century the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine, conquered, and then settled what is today Alsace and a large part of Switzerland.
The town was occupied successively in the 5th century by Alemanni, Huns, and Franks, who called it ''Stratisburgum'', ''Strateburgus'', then ''Strossburi'' (Alsatian) or ''Straßburg'' (German), and then ''Strasbourg'' (French). In 842, Strasbourg was the site of the Oath of Strasbourg, the trilingual text of which is considered to contain, besides Latin and German, also the oldest written document in the French language. A major commercial center, the town came under control of the Holy Roman Empire in 923, through the homage paid by the Duke of Lorraine to German King Henry I. The early history of Strasbourg consists of a long conflict between its bishop and its citizens. The citizens emerged victorious after the Battle of Oberhausbergen in 1262, when King Philip of Swabia granted the city the status of an Imperial Free City.
Around 1200, Gottfried von Straßburg wrote the Middle High German courtly romance Tristan, which is regarded, alongside Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and the Nibelungenlied, as one of great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages.
A revolution in 1332 resulted in a broad-based city government with participation of the guilds, and Strasbourg declared itself a free republic. The murderous bubonic plague of 1348 was followed on February 14, 1349 by one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history: several hundred of Jews were publicly burnt to death and the rest of them expelled of the city.[6] Until the end of the 18th century, Jews were forbidden to remain in town after 10 pm. The time to leave the city was signaled by a municipal herald blowing the ''Grüselhorn'' (see below, "Museums", ''Musée historique'')[7]; a high-pitched Cathedral bell still rings today. A special tax, the ''Pflastergeld'' ("pavement money") was furthermore to be paid for any horse that a Jew would ride or bring into the city while allowed to[8].
Strasbourg Cathedral which began undergoing construction in the 12th century, was completed in 1439 (though only the north tower was built) and became the World's Tallest Building, surpassing the Great Pyramid of Giza. In the 1520s during the Protestant Reformation, the city embraced the religious teachings of Martin Luther, whose adherents established a university (the Gymnasium, headed by Johannes Sturm) in the following century. The city first followed the Tetrapolitan Confession, and then the Augsburg Confession. Protestant iconoclasm caused much destruction to churches and cloisters. Strasbourg was a center of humanist scholarship and early book-printing in the Holy Roman Empire and its intellectual and political influence contributed much to the establishment of Protestantism as an accepted denomination in the southwest of Germany. Together with four other free cities, Strasbourg presented the ''confessio tetrapolitana'' as its Protestant book of faith at the Imperial Diet of Augsburg in 1530, where the slightly different Augsburg Confession was also handed over to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
After the reform of the Imperial constitution in the early 16th century and the establishment of "Imperial Circles", Strasbourg was part of the "Upper Rhenish Circle", a corporation of Imperial estates in the southwest of Holy Roman Empire, mainly responsible for maintaining troops, supervising coining, and ensuring public security.
After the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1540, who had moved from Mainz to Strasbourg, the first modern newspaper was published in Strasbourg in 1605, when Johann Carolus received the permission by the City of Strasbourg to print and distribute a weekly journal written in German by reporters from several central European cities.
The Free City of Strasbourg remained neutral during the Thirty Years' War. In September 1681 it was seized by King Louis XIV of France, whose unprovoked annexation was recognized by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The official policy of religious intolerance which drove many Protestants from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1598) by the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) was not applied in Strasbourg and in Alsace. Strasbourg Cathedral, however, was handed over from the Lutherans to the Catholics. The German Lutheran university persisted until the French Revolution. Famous students were Goethe and Herder.
During a dinner in Strasbourg organized by Mayor Frédéric de Dietrich on April 25, 1792, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise". However, Strasbourg's status as a free city was revoked by the French Revolution. Fanatical Jacobins (most notoriously Eulogius Schneider) ruled the city with an iron hand before being overthrown after the downfall of Maximilien Robespierre. During their reign, many churches and cloisters were either destroyed or severely damaged. The cathedral lost hundreds of its statues (later replaced by copies in the 19th century) and in 1794, there was talk of tearing its spire down, on the grounds that it hurt the principle of equality. The tower was saved, however, when citizens of Strasbourg proposed to crown it with a giant phrygian cap.[9]
With the growth of industry and commerce, the city's population tripled in the 19th century to 150,000. During the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Strasbourg, the city was heavily bombarded by the Prussian army. On August 24, 1870, the Museum of Fine Arts was destroyed by fire, as was the Municipal Library housed in the Gothic former Dominican Church, with its unique collection of medieval manuscripts (most famously the Hortus deliciarum), rare Renaissance books and Roman artifacts. In 1871 after the war's end, the city was annexed to the newly-established German Empire as part of the Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen (via the Treaty of Frankfurt) without a plebiscite. As part of Imperial Germany, Strasbourg was rebuilt and developed on a grand and representative scale (the ''Neue Stadt'', or "new city") and included a new museum and a new library. The ''University of Strasbourg'', founded in 1567 and suppressed during the French Revolution as a stronghold of German sentiment, was reopened in 1872. A belt of massive fortifications was established around the city, most of which still stand today : ''Fort Roon'' (now ''Desaix'') and ''Podbielski'' (now ''Ducrot'') in Mundolsheim, ''Fort von Moltke'' (now ''Rapp'') in Reichstett, ''Fort Bismarck'' (now ''Kléber'') in Wolfisheim, ''Fort Kronprinz'' (now ''Foch'') in Niederhausbergen, and ''Fort Grossherzog von Baden'' (now ''Frère'') in Oberhausbergen.[10] Those forts subsequently served the French army, and were used as POW-camps in 1918 and 1945.
Following the defeat of Germany in World War I, the city was restored to France; city residents were again not offered a plebiscite.
Having been influenced by Germanic culture since the Frankish Realm, Strasbourg remained largely Alsatian-speaking well into the 20th century, and Germany continued to covet it under Nazi rule. Following the Fall of France in 1940 during World War II, the city was annexed by Nazi Germany. As one of the first official acts, the new rulers burnt and razed the main synagogue that had been a major architectural landmark and one of the largest in Europe since its completion in 1897.[11] After the war, Strasbourg was returned to France, and while the First World War did not notably damage the city, Anglo-American bombers caused extensive destruction in 1944 in raids of which at least one was allegedly carried out by mistake.[12] On November 22, 1944, the city was officially liberated by General Leclerc, although he entered the city the next day; a major street now commemorates the day of liberation.[13] An unrelated tragedy that added, however, to the wartime losses, was the 1947 fire that destroyed a valuable part of the collection of the new ''Museum of Fine Arts''.
In 1920, Strasbourg became the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, previously located in Mannheim, one of the very first European institutions. In 1949, the city was chosen to be the seat of the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights and European Pharmacopoeia. Since 1979, Strasbourg has been the official seat of the European Parliament, although only plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg each month, while all other business is being conducted in Brussels and Luxembourg. Those sessions take place in the ''Immeuble Louise Weiss'', inaugurated in 1999, which houses the largest parliamentary assembly room in Europe and of any democratic institution in the world. Before that, the EP sessions had to take place in the main Council of Europe building, the Palace of Europe, whose unusual inner architecture had become a familiar sight to European TV audiences. In 1992, Strasbourg became the seat of the Franco-German TV channel and movie-production society Arte.
In 2000, an Islamist plot to blow up the cathedral was prevented by German authorities. On July 6, 2001, during an open-air concert in the ''Parc de Pourtalès'', a single falling tree caused one of the worst disasters of its kind in history, killing thirteen people and injuring close to one hundred.[14]
In 2006, after a long and careful restoration, the inner decoration of the ''Aubette'', made in the 1920s by Hans Arp, Theo van Doesburg, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and destroyed in the 1930s, was made accessible to the public again. The work of the three artists had been called "the Sistine Chapel of abstract art".[15]
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 alongside the Ill and in the streets and squares surrounding the cathedral, where the renowned ''Maison Kammerzell'' stands out.
★ Notable distinctly medieval streets: ''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'', ''Quai Saint-Thomas''..
★ Notable distinctly medieval squares: ''Place de la Cathédrale'', ''Place du Marché Gayot'', ''Place Saint-Etienne'', ''Place du Marché aux Cochons de Lait'', ''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-Etienne'', partly destroyed in 1944 by Anglo-American 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 [16], the Gothic ''Eglise Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune Protestant'' with its crypt dating back to the 5th century and its cloister partly from the 11th century, the Gothic ''Église Saint-Guillaume'' with its fine early-Renaissance stained glass and furniture, the Gothic ''Église Saint-Jean'' etc.
The Neo-Gothic church ''Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Catholique'' (there 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.
Among the numerous secular medieval buildings, the monumental ''Ancienne Douane'' (old custom-house) stands out.
The German Renaissance has bequeathed 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'' (now housing three museums) is the most spectacular. Other buildings of its kind are the ''Hôtel du Préfet'', the ''Hôtel des Deux-Ponts'' and the city-hall ''Hôtel de Ville'' 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, being the main memory of Wilhelmian architecture since most of the major cities in Germany proper suffered intensive damages 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'', 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 ''Jungmädchenschule'', young girls school) with its towers, turrets and multiple round and square angles and the ''École des Arts décoratifs'' with its lavishly ornate facade of painted bricks, woodwork and majolica.
★ Notable streets of 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 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 (the huge ''Palais des Fêtes'', some houses and villas on ''Avenue de la Robertsau'' and ''Rue Sleidan''), good examples of post-World War II functional architecture (the ''Cité Rotterdam'', for which Le Corbusier did not succeed in 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 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 is also home to beautiful bridges, among which the medieval ''Ponts Couverts'' with its four towers is the most spectacular.
Next to it is a part of the 17th-century Vauban fortifications, the ''Barrage Vauban''. Other nice bridges are 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.
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, 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 the Schiller International University, and featuring an open-air museum of international contemporary sculpture [17].
The ''Jardin Botanique'' (botanical garden) 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 the Rhine, is the most recent (2004) and most extended (60 hectare) park of the agglomeration.
For a city of comparatively small size, Strasbourg displays a large quantity and variety of museums:
#The ''Musée des Beaux-Arts'' owns paintings by Hans Memling, Francisco de Goya, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Giotto di Bondone, Sandro Botticelli, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, El Greco, Correggio, Cima da Conegliano and Piero di Cosimo, among others. [18]
#The ''Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame'' (located in a part-Gothic, part-Renaissance building next to the Cathedral) houses a large and renowned collection of medieval and Renaissance upper-Rhenish art, among which original sculptures, plans and stained glass from the Cathedral and paintings by Hans Baldung and Sebastian Stoskopff. [19]
#The ''Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain'' is among the largest museums of its kind in France.
#The ''Musée des Arts décoratifs'', located in the sumptuous former residence of the cardinals of Rohan, the palais Rohan, displays a reputable collection of 18th century furniture and china. [20]
#The ''Musée archéologique'' presents a vast display of regional findings from the first ages of man to the 6th century, focussing especially on the Roman and Celtic period.
#The very large ''Musée Alsacien'' is dedicated to every aspects of traditional Alsatian daily life.
# The ''Musée zoologique'' is one of the oldest in France and is especially famous for its gigantic collection of birds.
#''Le Vaisseau'' (the vessel) is a science and technology centre, especially designed for children.
#The ''Musée historique'' (historical museum) is dedicated to the tumultuous history of the city and displays among other things the ''Grüselhorn'', the medieval horn that was blown every evening at 10 to order the Jews out of the city.
#The ''Cabinet des estampes et des dessins'' displays six centuries of drawings and engravings.
#The ''Collection Tomi Ungerer'' (now spread over two locations but soon to be installed in a spacious single building next to the National Theater.) is dedicated to the artist's original drawings and sketches and to his large collection of ancient toys.
#The ''Musée de la Navigation sur le Rhin'', also going by the name of ''Naviscope'', located in an old ship, is dedicated to the history of commercial navigation on the Rhine.
#The ''Musée de Sismologie et Magnétisme terrestre'',
#the ''Musée Pasteur'' and
#the ''Musée d'Égyptologie'' are all three part of the University and only open to public some hours a week.
The metropolitan area of Strasbourg includes 702.412 inhabitants (2007), while the Eurodistrict had 868,000 inhabitants in 2005.[21]
Strasbourg is the seat of some internationally reputed institutions in the musical and dramatic domain :
★ The philharmonic orchestra Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, founded in 1855, one of the oldest symphonic orchestras in western Europe.
★ The Opéra national du Rhin
★ The Théâtre national de Strasbourg
★ The Percussions de Strasbourg
★ The Théâtre du Maillon
★ The "Laiterie"
★ Musica, international festival of contemporary classical music (autumn)
★ Festival international de Strasbourg (founded in 1932), festival of classical music and jazz (summer)
★ Festival des Artefacts, festival of contemporary non-classical music
★ Les Nuits de l'Ososphère
Other theatres are the ''Théâtre jeune public'', the ''TAPS Scala'', the ''Kafteur''...
Strasbourg, which was a humanism centre, has a long history of higher-education excellence, merging 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 the university attracted numerous students from the Holy Roman Empire, including Goethe, Metternich and Montgelas, who studied law in Strasbourg, among the most prominent. Nowadays, Strasbourg is known to offer among the best university courses in France, after Paris.
There are three universities in Strasbourg:
★ Strasbourg I - Louis Pasteur University
★ Strasbourg II - Marc Bloch University
★ Strasbourg III - Robert Schuman University
The prestigious Institut d'études politiques de Strasbourg is part of Robert Schuman University.
The campus of the École nationale d'administration (ENA) is located in Strasbourg (the former one being in Paris). The location of the "new" ENA - which trains most of the nation's high-ranking civil servants - was meant to give a European vocation to the school.
The École supérieure des Arts décoratifs (ESAD) is an art school of Europe-wide reputation.
The permanent campus of the International Space University (ISU) is located in the south of Strasbourg (Illkirch-Graffenstaden)
Other important schools include the INSA (Institut national des sciences appliquées), the INET (Institut national des études territoriales), the ENGEES (École nationale du génie de l'eau et de l'environnement de Strasbourg), and the CUEJ (Centre universitaire d'enseignement du journalisme).
The Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg (BNUS) is, with its collection of more than 3,000,000 titles [22], 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 student's and a national library.
The municipal library ''Bibliothèque municipale de Strasbourg'' (BMS) administrates a network of ten medium-sized librairies around the different part of the town. A six story high ''Grande bibliothèque'' is currently being built in former port areas close to the center and is scheduled to open mid-2008. Among the cities of the Communauté urbaine, most have their own library, Illkirch-Graffenstaden's being the largest and most modern as of 2007.
Main articles: Strasbourg Airport
Strasbourg has its own airport, serving a limited number of destinations.
Train services operate eastward to Offenburg and Karlsruhe in Germany, westward to Metz and Paris, and southward to Basel.
Since June 10, 2007, Strasbourg is linked to the European high-speed train network by the TGV ''Est'' (Paris-Strasbourg). The TGV ''Rhin-Rhône'' (Strasbourg-Lyon) is currently under construction and due to open in 2012.
Main articles: Tramways in Strasbourg
A modern-looking tram system has operated in Strasbourg since 1994 by the regional transit company Compagnie des transports strasbourgeois. A former tram system, partly following a different route, had been operating since 1878 but was ultimately dismantled in 1960.
Strasbourg is one of three capitals of the European Union. It is the legislative and democratic capital, while Luxembourg is the judiciary and financial capital, and Bruxelles the executive and administrative capital.
Strasbourg is:
★ since 1920 the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine.
★ since 1949 the seat of the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights, Commissioner for Human Rights, European Pharmacopoeia, European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Congress of the Council of Europe.
★ since 1979 the seat of the European Parliament of the European Union and the only place where the whole parliament regularly meets.
★ the seat of the European Ombudsman of the European Union.
Strasbourg also houses the Eurocorps headquarters as well as (since 1992) the Franco-German television channel Arte.
France and Germany are creating a Eurodistrict straddling the Rhine, combining the Greater Strasbourg and the Ortenau district of Baden-Württemberg, with some common administration. The combined population of this district is 868,000 as of 2006. [21]
Internationally-renowned teams from Strasbourg are the "Racing Club" (football), the "SIG" (basketball) and the "Étoile noire" (hockey)[24]. The women's tennis tournament "Internationaux de Strasbourg" is one of the most important French tournaments of its kind outside Roland-Garros.
In chronological order, famous people born in Strasbourg include: Johannes Tauler, Sebastian Brant, Jean Baptiste Kléber, Ludwig I of Bavaria, Gustave Doré, Émile Waldteufel, Jean Arp, Charles Münch, Hans Bethe, Marcel Marceau, Tomi Ungerer and Arsène Wenger.
In chronological order, famous residents of Strasbourg include: Johannes Gutenberg, Hans Baldung, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Johann Carolus, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Georg Büchner, Louis Pasteur, Ferdinand Braun, Albrecht Kossel, Georg Simmel, Albert Schweitzer, Otto Klemperer, Marc Bloch, Alberto Fujimori, Paul Ricoeur and Jean-Marie Lehn.
Strasbourg is twinned with:
★ Boston, United States (since 1960)
★ Leicester, United Kingdom (since 1960)
★ Stuttgart, Germany (then West-Germany) (since 1962)
★ Dresden, Germany (ex-East-Germany) (since 1990)
★ Ramat Gan, Israel (since 1991)
★ Istanbul, Turkey
★ Jacmel, Haiti (since 1996) (''Coopération décentralisée'')
★ Novgorod, Russia (since 1997) (''Coopération décentralisée'')
★ Fes, Morocco (''Coopération décentralisée'')
★ One of the longest chapters of Lawrence Sterne's novel ''Tristram Shandy'' ("Slawkenbergius's tale") takes place in Strasbourg.[25]
★ An episode of Matthew Gregory Lewis's novel ''The Monk'' takes place in the forests then surrounding Strasbourg.
★ British art-punk band The Rakes had a minor hit in 2005 with, their song "Strasbourg". This song features witty lyrics with themes of espionage and vodka and includes a cleverly-placed count of 'eins, zwei, drei, vier!!', even though Strasbourg's most common spoken language is French.
★ On their 1974 album ''Hamburger Concerto'', Dutch progressive band Focus included a track called "La Cathédrale de Strasbourg", which included chimes from a cathedral-like bell.
★ Strasbourg Cathedral
★ University of Strasbourg
★ Observatory of Strasbourg
★ Buildings of the European Parliament
★ Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
★ Strasbourg Convention (Patent law)
★ List of mayors of Strasbourg
1. Figures on the port's website
2. Annual rain in Strasbourg
3. Daily measurements for Strasbourg and Alsace
4. Measurements made on October 18 and 19, 2005
5. OUTLINES OF THE URBAN TRANSPORTATION POLICY LEAD BY THE URBAN COMMUNITY OF STRASBOURG
6. The "Valentine's day massacre" of 1349
7. The Jews of Strasbourg and the Great Plague
8. The Jews of Strasbourg until the French Revolution
9. Strasbourg Cathedral and the French Revolution (1789-1802)
10. Partial plan
11. History and pictures of the Synagogue du Quai Kléber
12. "Civilians on the frontline"
13. Pictures of Strasbourg in ruins after the 1944 bombing raids
14. The city of Strasbourg tried for negligence over the accidental death of 13
15. Reopening of the restored rooms
16. History and description of the instrument
17. Overview
18. A selection of paintings
19. A selection of works
20. Views of the rooms and the collection
21. Figures on the Eurodistrict's website
22. Figures
23. Figures on the Eurodistrict's website
24. http://www.etoile-noire.org/
25. Full text
★ ''Connaître Strasbourg'' by Roland Recht, Georges Foessel and Jean-Pierre Klein, 1988, ISBN 2-7032-0185-0
★ ''Histoire de Strasbourg des origines à nos jours'', four volumes (ca. 2000 pages) by a collective of historians under the guidance of Georges Livet and Francis Rapp, 1982, ISBN 2-1765-0041-X
★ Strasbourg official website
★ Eurodistrict official site
★ Port of Strasbourg
★ Webcam of Strasbourg
★ The museums of Strasbourg + some English
★ The city archives of Strasbourg
★ The European institutions in Strasbourg
★ Education network for universities and high schools at Strasbourg
★ National Theater of Strasbourg (Théâtre National de Strasbourg)
★ The ''Opéra du Rhin''
★ The Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
★ The Strasbourg Art School
★ The National and University Library
★ The organs of Strasbourg
★ English Speaking Community of Strasbourg
★ Visiting Strasbourg
★ Photos through the city
★ Public transport in Strasbourg
★
'Strasbourg' (, pronounced ; Alsatian: ''Strossburi'', ;
Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions such as the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory, the Eurocorps as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. Strasbourg is an important center of manufacturing and engineering, as well as of road, rail, and river communications. The port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany[1]. The city is the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine.
Strasbourg's historic center, the ''Grande Île'' ("Grand Island"), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honor was placed on an entire city center. Strasbourg is beautifully fused into the Franco-German culture (Alemannic), and is regarded as the bridge of unity between modern France and Germany.
Strasbourg is also a bridge for Germanic and Latin culture.
Etymology
The city's Frenchified name is of Germanic origin and means "town (at the crossing) of roads". The modern ''Stras-'' is cognate to the original German ''Straße''/''Strasse'' ("street"), while ''-bourg'' is cognate to the German ''-burg'' ("fortress, town, citadel") and the English ''borough''.
Geography and climate
Climate diagram of Strasbourg
Strasbourg is situated on the Ill River, where it flows into the Rhine on the border with Germany, across from the German town Kehl. The city is situated in the Rhine valley, approximately 20 kilometers east of the Vosges Mountains and 25 kilometers west of the Black Forest. Winds coming from either direction being often deflected by these natural barriers, the average annual pluviometry is low[2] and the perceived summer temperatures can be inordinately high. The defective natural ventilation also makes Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France[3], [4], although 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 are showing encouraging results.[5].
History
From Romans to Renaissance
At the site of Strasbourg, the Romans established a military outpost and named it ''Argentoratum''. It belonged to the ''Germania Superior'' Roman province. The name was first mentioned in the year 12 BC; the city celebrated its 2,000th birthday in 1988. From the 4th century, Strasbourg was the seat of the Archbishopric of Strasbourg.
The Alemanni fought a battle against Rome in Strasbourg in 357. They were defeated by Julian, later Emperor of Rome, and their king Chonodomarius was taken prisoner. On January 2, 366 the Alemanni crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers, to invade the Roman Empire. Early in the 5th century the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine, conquered, and then settled what is today Alsace and a large part of Switzerland.
The town was occupied successively in the 5th century by Alemanni, Huns, and Franks, who called it ''Stratisburgum'', ''Strateburgus'', then ''Strossburi'' (Alsatian) or ''Straßburg'' (German), and then ''Strasbourg'' (French). In 842, Strasbourg was the site of the Oath of Strasbourg, the trilingual text of which is considered to contain, besides Latin and German, also the oldest written document in the French language. A major commercial center, the town came under control of the Holy Roman Empire in 923, through the homage paid by the Duke of Lorraine to German King Henry I. The early history of Strasbourg consists of a long conflict between its bishop and its citizens. The citizens emerged victorious after the Battle of Oberhausbergen in 1262, when King Philip of Swabia granted the city the status of an Imperial Free City.
Around 1200, Gottfried von Straßburg wrote the Middle High German courtly romance Tristan, which is regarded, alongside Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and the Nibelungenlied, as one of great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages.
A revolution in 1332 resulted in a broad-based city government with participation of the guilds, and Strasbourg declared itself a free republic. The murderous bubonic plague of 1348 was followed on February 14, 1349 by one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history: several hundred of Jews were publicly burnt to death and the rest of them expelled of the city.[6] Until the end of the 18th century, Jews were forbidden to remain in town after 10 pm. The time to leave the city was signaled by a municipal herald blowing the ''Grüselhorn'' (see below, "Museums", ''Musée historique'')[7]; a high-pitched Cathedral bell still rings today. A special tax, the ''Pflastergeld'' ("pavement money") was furthermore to be paid for any horse that a Jew would ride or bring into the city while allowed to[8].
View of the city and the Strasbourg Cathedral from 1493.
Strasbourg Cathedral which began undergoing construction in the 12th century, was completed in 1439 (though only the north tower was built) and became the World's Tallest Building, surpassing the Great Pyramid of Giza. In the 1520s during the Protestant Reformation, the city embraced the religious teachings of Martin Luther, whose adherents established a university (the Gymnasium, headed by Johannes Sturm) in the following century. The city first followed the Tetrapolitan Confession, and then the Augsburg Confession. Protestant iconoclasm caused much destruction to churches and cloisters. Strasbourg was a center of humanist scholarship and early book-printing in the Holy Roman Empire and its intellectual and political influence contributed much to the establishment of Protestantism as an accepted denomination in the southwest of Germany. Together with four other free cities, Strasbourg presented the ''confessio tetrapolitana'' as its Protestant book of faith at the Imperial Diet of Augsburg in 1530, where the slightly different Augsburg Confession was also handed over to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
After the reform of the Imperial constitution in the early 16th century and the establishment of "Imperial Circles", Strasbourg was part of the "Upper Rhenish Circle", a corporation of Imperial estates in the southwest of Holy Roman Empire, mainly responsible for maintaining troops, supervising coining, and ensuring public security.
After the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1540, who had moved from Mainz to Strasbourg, the first modern newspaper was published in Strasbourg in 1605, when Johann Carolus received the permission by the City of Strasbourg to print and distribute a weekly journal written in German by reporters from several central European cities.
From Thirty Years' War to First World War
The Free City of Strasbourg remained neutral during the Thirty Years' War. In September 1681 it was seized by King Louis XIV of France, whose unprovoked annexation was recognized by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The official policy of religious intolerance which drove many Protestants from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1598) by the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) was not applied in Strasbourg and in Alsace. Strasbourg Cathedral, however, was handed over from the Lutherans to the Catholics. The German Lutheran university persisted until the French Revolution. Famous students were Goethe and Herder.
During a dinner in Strasbourg organized by Mayor Frédéric de Dietrich on April 25, 1792, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise". However, Strasbourg's status as a free city was revoked by the French Revolution. Fanatical Jacobins (most notoriously Eulogius Schneider) ruled the city with an iron hand before being overthrown after the downfall of Maximilien Robespierre. During their reign, many churches and cloisters were either destroyed or severely damaged. The cathedral lost hundreds of its statues (later replaced by copies in the 19th century) and in 1794, there was talk of tearing its spire down, on the grounds that it hurt the principle of equality. The tower was saved, however, when citizens of Strasbourg proposed to crown it with a giant phrygian cap.[9]
With the growth of industry and commerce, the city's population tripled in the 19th century to 150,000. During the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Strasbourg, the city was heavily bombarded by the Prussian army. On August 24, 1870, the Museum of Fine Arts was destroyed by fire, as was the Municipal Library housed in the Gothic former Dominican Church, with its unique collection of medieval manuscripts (most famously the Hortus deliciarum), rare Renaissance books and Roman artifacts. In 1871 after the war's end, the city was annexed to the newly-established German Empire as part of the Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen (via the Treaty of Frankfurt) without a plebiscite. As part of Imperial Germany, Strasbourg was rebuilt and developed on a grand and representative scale (the ''Neue Stadt'', or "new city") and included a new museum and a new library. The ''University of Strasbourg'', founded in 1567 and suppressed during the French Revolution as a stronghold of German sentiment, was reopened in 1872. A belt of massive fortifications was established around the city, most of which still stand today : ''Fort Roon'' (now ''Desaix'') and ''Podbielski'' (now ''Ducrot'') in Mundolsheim, ''Fort von Moltke'' (now ''Rapp'') in Reichstett, ''Fort Bismarck'' (now ''Kléber'') in Wolfisheim, ''Fort Kronprinz'' (now ''Foch'') in Niederhausbergen, and ''Fort Grossherzog von Baden'' (now ''Frère'') in Oberhausbergen.[10] Those forts subsequently served the French army, and were used as POW-camps in 1918 and 1945.
Following the defeat of Germany in World War I, the city was restored to France; city residents were again not offered a plebiscite.
Twentieth century and now
Having been influenced by Germanic culture since the Frankish Realm, Strasbourg remained largely Alsatian-speaking well into the 20th century, and Germany continued to covet it under Nazi rule. Following the Fall of France in 1940 during World War II, the city was annexed by Nazi Germany. As one of the first official acts, the new rulers burnt and razed the main synagogue that had been a major architectural landmark and one of the largest in Europe since its completion in 1897.[11] After the war, Strasbourg was returned to France, and while the First World War did not notably damage the city, Anglo-American bombers caused extensive destruction in 1944 in raids of which at least one was allegedly carried out by mistake.[12] On November 22, 1944, the city was officially liberated by General Leclerc, although he entered the city the next day; a major street now commemorates the day of liberation.[13] An unrelated tragedy that added, however, to the wartime losses, was the 1947 fire that destroyed a valuable part of the collection of the new ''Museum of Fine Arts''.
In 1920, Strasbourg became the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, previously located in Mannheim, one of the very first European institutions. In 1949, the city was chosen to be the seat of the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights and European Pharmacopoeia. Since 1979, Strasbourg has been the official seat of the European Parliament, although only plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg each month, while all other business is being conducted in Brussels and Luxembourg. Those sessions take place in the ''Immeuble Louise Weiss'', inaugurated in 1999, which houses the largest parliamentary assembly room in Europe and of any democratic institution in the world. Before that, the EP sessions had to take place in the main Council of Europe building, the Palace of Europe, whose unusual inner architecture had become a familiar sight to European TV audiences. In 1992, Strasbourg became the seat of the Franco-German TV channel and movie-production society Arte.
In 2000, an Islamist plot to blow up the cathedral was prevented by German authorities. On July 6, 2001, during an open-air concert in the ''Parc de Pourtalès'', a single falling tree caused one of the worst disasters of its kind in history, killing thirteen people and injuring close to one hundred.[14]
In 2006, after a long and careful restoration, the inner decoration of the ''Aubette'', made in the 1920s by Hans Arp, Theo van Doesburg, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and destroyed in the 1930s, was made accessible to the public again. The work of the three artists had been called "the Sistine Chapel of abstract art".[15]
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 alongside the Ill and in the streets and squares surrounding the cathedral, where the renowned ''Maison Kammerzell'' stands out.
★ Notable distinctly medieval streets: ''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'', ''Quai Saint-Thomas''..
★ Notable distinctly medieval squares: ''Place de la Cathédrale'', ''Place du Marché Gayot'', ''Place Saint-Etienne'', ''Place du Marché aux Cochons de Lait'', ''Place Benjamin Zix''...
''Place du Marché aux Cochons de Lait''
''Rue du Bain aux Plantes''
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-Etienne'', partly destroyed in 1944 by Anglo-American 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 [16], the Gothic ''Eglise Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune Protestant'' with its crypt dating back to the 5th century and its cloister partly from the 11th century, the Gothic ''Église Saint-Guillaume'' with its fine early-Renaissance stained glass and furniture, the Gothic ''Église Saint-Jean'' etc.
The Neo-Gothic church ''Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Catholique'' (there 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.
Among the numerous secular medieval buildings, the monumental ''Ancienne Douane'' (old custom-house) stands out.
The German Renaissance has bequeathed 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'' (now housing three museums) is the most spectacular. Other buildings of its kind are the ''Hôtel du Préfet'', the ''Hôtel des Deux-Ponts'' and the city-hall ''Hôtel de Ville'' 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, being the main memory of Wilhelmian architecture since most of the major cities in Germany proper suffered intensive damages 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'', 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 ''Jungmädchenschule'', young girls school) with its towers, turrets and multiple round and square angles and the ''École des Arts décoratifs'' with its lavishly ornate facade of painted bricks, woodwork and majolica.
The baroque organ of Saint-Thomas church
★ Notable streets of 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 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 (the huge ''Palais des Fêtes'', some houses and villas on ''Avenue de la Robertsau'' and ''Rue Sleidan''), good examples of post-World War II functional architecture (the ''Cité Rotterdam'', for which Le Corbusier did not succeed in 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 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 is also home to beautiful bridges, among which the medieval ''Ponts Couverts'' with its four towers is the most spectacular.
Next to it is a part of the 17th-century Vauban fortifications, the ''Barrage Vauban''. Other nice bridges are 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.
Parks
The ''Pavillon Joséphine'' (rear side) in the ''Parc de l'Orangerie''
The ''Château de Pourtalès'' (front side) in the park of the same name
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, 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 the Schiller International University, and featuring an open-air museum of international contemporary sculpture [17].
The ''Jardin Botanique'' (botanical garden) 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 the Rhine, is the most recent (2004) and most extended (60 hectare) park of the agglomeration.
Museums
For a city of comparatively small size, Strasbourg displays a large quantity and variety of museums:
#The ''Musée des Beaux-Arts'' owns paintings by Hans Memling, Francisco de Goya, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Giotto di Bondone, Sandro Botticelli, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, El Greco, Correggio, Cima da Conegliano and Piero di Cosimo, among others. [18]
#The ''Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame'' (located in a part-Gothic, part-Renaissance building next to the Cathedral) houses a large and renowned collection of medieval and Renaissance upper-Rhenish art, among which original sculptures, plans and stained glass from the Cathedral and paintings by Hans Baldung and Sebastian Stoskopff. [19]
#The ''Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain'' is among the largest museums of its kind in France.
#The ''Musée des Arts décoratifs'', located in the sumptuous former residence of the cardinals of Rohan, the palais Rohan, displays a reputable collection of 18th century furniture and china. [20]
#The ''Musée archéologique'' presents a vast display of regional findings from the first ages of man to the 6th century, focussing especially on the Roman and Celtic period.
#The very large ''Musée Alsacien'' is dedicated to every aspects of traditional Alsatian daily life.
# The ''Musée zoologique'' is one of the oldest in France and is especially famous for its gigantic collection of birds.
#''Le Vaisseau'' (the vessel) is a science and technology centre, especially designed for children.
#The ''Musée historique'' (historical museum) is dedicated to the tumultuous history of the city and displays among other things the ''Grüselhorn'', the medieval horn that was blown every evening at 10 to order the Jews out of the city.
#The ''Cabinet des estampes et des dessins'' displays six centuries of drawings and engravings.
#The ''Collection Tomi Ungerer'' (now spread over two locations but soon to be installed in a spacious single building next to the National Theater.) is dedicated to the artist's original drawings and sketches and to his large collection of ancient toys.
#The ''Musée de la Navigation sur le Rhin'', also going by the name of ''Naviscope'', located in an old ship, is dedicated to the history of commercial navigation on the Rhine.
#The ''Musée de Sismologie et Magnétisme terrestre'',
#the ''Musée Pasteur'' and
#the ''Musée d'Égyptologie'' are all three part of the University and only open to public some hours a week.
Demography
Evolution of the city's population
| 1684 | 1789 | 1851 | 1871 | 1910 | 1921 | 1936 | 1946 | 1954 | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 000 | 49 943 | 75 565 | 85 654 | 178 891 | 166 767 | 193 119 | 175 515 | 200 921 | 228 971 | 249 396 | 253 384 | 248 712 | 252 338 | 264 115 | 273 100 |
River Ill, seen from the terrace of the Palais Rohan
The metropolitan area of Strasbourg includes 702.412 inhabitants (2007), while the Eurodistrict had 868,000 inhabitants in 2005.[21]
Culture
Strasbourg is the seat of some internationally reputed institutions in the musical and dramatic domain :
★ The philharmonic orchestra Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, founded in 1855, one of the oldest symphonic orchestras in western Europe.
★ The Opéra national du Rhin
★ The Théâtre national de Strasbourg
★ The Percussions de Strasbourg
★ The Théâtre du Maillon
★ The "Laiterie"
★ Musica, international festival of contemporary classical music (autumn)
★ Festival international de Strasbourg (founded in 1932), festival of classical music and jazz (summer)
★ Festival des Artefacts, festival of contemporary non-classical music
★ Les Nuits de l'Ososphère
Other theatres are the ''Théâtre jeune public'', the ''TAPS Scala'', the ''Kafteur''...
Education
Universities and schools
Strasbourg, which was a humanism centre, has a long history of higher-education excellence, merging 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 the university attracted numerous students from the Holy Roman Empire, including Goethe, Metternich and Montgelas, who studied law in Strasbourg, among the most prominent. Nowadays, Strasbourg is known to offer among the best university courses in France, after Paris.
There are three universities in Strasbourg:
★ Strasbourg I - Louis Pasteur University
★ Strasbourg II - Marc Bloch University
★ Strasbourg III - Robert Schuman University
The prestigious Institut d'études politiques de Strasbourg is part of Robert Schuman University.
The campus of the École nationale d'administration (ENA) is located in Strasbourg (the former one being in Paris). The location of the "new" ENA - which trains most of the nation's high-ranking civil servants - was meant to give a European vocation to the school.
The École supérieure des Arts décoratifs (ESAD) is an art school of Europe-wide reputation.
The permanent campus of the International Space University (ISU) is located in the south of Strasbourg (Illkirch-Graffenstaden)
Other important schools include the INSA (Institut national des sciences appliquées), the INET (Institut national des études territoriales), the ENGEES (École nationale du génie de l'eau et de l'environnement de Strasbourg), and the CUEJ (Centre universitaire d'enseignement du journalisme).
Libraries
Lateral view of the National Library
The Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg (BNUS) is, with its collection of more than 3,000,000 titles [22], 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 student's and a national library.
The municipal library ''Bibliothèque municipale de Strasbourg'' (BMS) administrates a network of ten medium-sized librairies around the different part of the town. A six story high ''Grande bibliothèque'' is currently being built in former port areas close to the center and is scheduled to open mid-2008. Among the cities of the Communauté urbaine, most have their own library, Illkirch-Graffenstaden's being the largest and most modern as of 2007.
Transport
Air
Main articles: Strasbourg Airport
Strasbourg has its own airport, serving a limited number of destinations.
Rail
Train services operate eastward to Offenburg and Karlsruhe in Germany, westward to Metz and Paris, and southward to Basel.
Since June 10, 2007, Strasbourg is linked to the European high-speed train network by the TGV ''Est'' (Paris-Strasbourg). The TGV ''Rhin-Rhône'' (Strasbourg-Lyon) is currently under construction and due to open in 2012.
Tram
Main articles: Tramways in Strasbourg
A modern-looking tram system has operated in Strasbourg since 1994 by the regional transit company Compagnie des transports strasbourgeois. A former tram system, partly following a different route, had been operating since 1878 but was ultimately dismantled in 1960.
European role
Strasbourg is one of three capitals of the European Union. It is the legislative and democratic capital, while Luxembourg is the judiciary and financial capital, and Bruxelles the executive and administrative capital.
Strasbourg is:
★ since 1920 the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine.
★ since 1949 the seat of the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights, Commissioner for Human Rights, European Pharmacopoeia, European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Congress of the Council of Europe.
★ since 1979 the seat of the European Parliament of the European Union and the only place where the whole parliament regularly meets.
★ the seat of the European Ombudsman of the European Union.
Strasbourg also houses the Eurocorps headquarters as well as (since 1992) the Franco-German television channel Arte.
France and Germany are creating a Eurodistrict straddling the Rhine, combining the Greater Strasbourg and the Ortenau district of Baden-Württemberg, with some common administration. The combined population of this district is 868,000 as of 2006. [21]
Sports
Internationally-renowned teams from Strasbourg are the "Racing Club" (football), the "SIG" (basketball) and the "Étoile noire" (hockey)[24]. The women's tennis tournament "Internationaux de Strasbourg" is one of the most important French tournaments of its kind outside Roland-Garros.
Famous people
In chronological order, famous people born in Strasbourg include: Johannes Tauler, Sebastian Brant, Jean Baptiste Kléber, Ludwig I of Bavaria, Gustave Doré, Émile Waldteufel, Jean Arp, Charles Münch, Hans Bethe, Marcel Marceau, Tomi Ungerer and Arsène Wenger.
In chronological order, famous residents of Strasbourg include: Johannes Gutenberg, Hans Baldung, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Johann Carolus, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Georg Büchner, Louis Pasteur, Ferdinand Braun, Albrecht Kossel, Georg Simmel, Albert Schweitzer, Otto Klemperer, Marc Bloch, Alberto Fujimori, Paul Ricoeur and Jean-Marie Lehn.
Twin towns
Strasbourg is twinned with:
★ Boston, United States (since 1960)
★ Leicester, United Kingdom (since 1960)
★ Stuttgart, Germany (then West-Germany) (since 1962)
★ Dresden, Germany (ex-East-Germany) (since 1990)
★ Ramat Gan, Israel (since 1991)
★ Istanbul, Turkey
★ Jacmel, Haiti (since 1996) (''Coopération décentralisée'')
★ Novgorod, Russia (since 1997) (''Coopération décentralisée'')
★ Fes, Morocco (''Coopération décentralisée'')
Strasbourg in popular culture
★ One of the longest chapters of Lawrence Sterne's novel ''Tristram Shandy'' ("Slawkenbergius's tale") takes place in Strasbourg.[25]
★ An episode of Matthew Gregory Lewis's novel ''The Monk'' takes place in the forests then surrounding Strasbourg.
★ British art-punk band The Rakes had a minor hit in 2005 with, their song "Strasbourg". This song features witty lyrics with themes of espionage and vodka and includes a cleverly-placed count of 'eins, zwei, drei, vier!!', even though Strasbourg's most common spoken language is French.
★ On their 1974 album ''Hamburger Concerto'', Dutch progressive band Focus included a track called "La Cathédrale de Strasbourg", which included chimes from a cathedral-like bell.
See also
★ Strasbourg Cathedral
★ University of Strasbourg
★ Observatory of Strasbourg
★ Buildings of the European Parliament
★ Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
★ Strasbourg Convention (Patent law)
★ List of mayors of Strasbourg
Notes
1. Figures on the port's website
2. Annual rain in Strasbourg
3. Daily measurements for Strasbourg and Alsace
4. Measurements made on October 18 and 19, 2005
5. OUTLINES OF THE URBAN TRANSPORTATION POLICY LEAD BY THE URBAN COMMUNITY OF STRASBOURG
6. The "Valentine's day massacre" of 1349
7. The Jews of Strasbourg and the Great Plague
8. The Jews of Strasbourg until the French Revolution
9. Strasbourg Cathedral and the French Revolution (1789-1802)
10. Partial plan
11. History and pictures of the Synagogue du Quai Kléber
12. "Civilians on the frontline"
13. Pictures of Strasbourg in ruins after the 1944 bombing raids
14. The city of Strasbourg tried for negligence over the accidental death of 13
15. Reopening of the restored rooms
16. History and description of the instrument
17. Overview
18. A selection of paintings
19. A selection of works
20. Views of the rooms and the collection
21. Figures on the Eurodistrict's website
22. Figures
23. Figures on the Eurodistrict's website
24. http://www.etoile-noire.org/
25. Full text
References
★ ''Connaître Strasbourg'' by Roland Recht, Georges Foessel and Jean-Pierre Klein, 1988, ISBN 2-7032-0185-0
★ ''Histoire de Strasbourg des origines à nos jours'', four volumes (ca. 2000 pages) by a collective of historians under the guidance of Georges Livet and Francis Rapp, 1982, ISBN 2-1765-0041-X
External links
★ Strasbourg official website
★ Eurodistrict official site
★ Port of Strasbourg
★ Webcam of Strasbourg
★ The museums of Strasbourg + some English
★ The city archives of Strasbourg
★ The European institutions in Strasbourg
★ Education network for universities and high schools at Strasbourg
★ National Theater of Strasbourg (Théâtre National de Strasbourg)
★ The ''Opéra du Rhin''
★ The Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
★ The Strasbourg Art School
★ The National and University Library
★ The organs of Strasbourg
★ English Speaking Community of Strasbourg
★ Visiting Strasbourg
★ Photos through the city
★ Public transport in Strasbourg
★
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