Strasbourg (French: Strasbourg; Alsatian: Strossburi, "town [at the crossing] of roads"; German: Straßburg) is the capital and principal city of the Alsace région of northeastern France. It is the préfecture (capital) of the Bas-Rhin département.

Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as of road, rail and river communications.

Strasbourg is the seat of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights and it hosts the new seat of the European Parliament (with Brussels) after the asbestos scandal in the 1980s.

Geography

Strasbourg is situated on the Ill River, where it flows into the Rhine on the frontier with Germany. The German town across the river is Kehl.

Sights

Strasbourg townscape

The city is known for its sandstone gothic cathedral, and for its medieval cityscape of Rhineland black and white timber-framed buildings, particularly in the Petite-France district alongside the river Ill, which has been declared a World Heritage site by the UNESCO.

History

At the site of Strasbourg, the Romans established a military outpost and named it Argentoratum. It belonged to the Germania Superior Roman province. From the 4th century, Strasbourg was the seat of a bishopric.

The Alamanni 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 Alamanni crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers, to invade the Roman Empire. Early in the 5th century the Alamanni 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 Alamanni, Huns and Franks. In 842, Strasbourg was the site of the Oath of Strasbourg.

1888 German map of Strasbourg

A major commercial centre in the later Middle Ages, it became in 1262 an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire, with a broad-based city government from 1332. The minster of Strasbourg was completed in 1439, and became the World's Tallest Building, surpassing the Great Pyramid of Giza. During the 1520s the city embraced the religious teachings of Martin Luther, whose adherents established a university in the following century.

Annexing Strasbourg in September 1681, France was confirmed in possession of the city by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The official policy of religious intolerance which drove many Protestants from France after the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) was not applied in Strasbourg, as the Edict of Nantes (1598) had still been in effect in France at the time of the city's annexation. With the growth of industry and commerce, the city's population tripled in the 19th century to 150,000.

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise" on April 25, 1792 in Strasbourg during a dinner organised by Frédéric de Dietrich, Strasbourg's mayor.

Annexed to the newly-established German Empire, as part of Alsace-Lorraine, in 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War (Treaty of Frankfurt), the city was restored to France after World War I, in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles. It was again part of Germany during World War II, from 1940 to 1945.

Education

There are three universities in Strasbourg:

• Strasbourg I - Université Louis Pasteur
• Strasbourg II - Université Marc Bloch
• Strasbourg III - Université Robert Schuman

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 was meant to give a European vocation to the school.

The permanent campus of the International Space University (ISU) is located in the south of Strasbourg.

Transportation

A modern-looking tram system has operated in Strasbourg since 1994.

Two TGV lines are planned to link Strasbourg to the European high-speed train network:

1. TGV Est (Paris-Strasbourg) (under construction, to open 2007)
2. TGV Rhin-Rhône (Strasbourg-Lyon)

Famous residents

• Johann Gutenberg (1400-1468), inventor of printing with movable type
• Erasmus, (1467-1536), humanist
• Martin Bucer Reformation Leader
• John Calvin (1509-1564), Reformation Leader
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), writer
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), composer
• Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836), composer of the Marseillaise
• Louis Pasteur (1830-1895), scientist

European role

The city is usually regarded as

• the capital of Europe as a whole, as the seat of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights (informally known world-wide as the "Strasbourg Court"),
• and the democratic capital of the European Union, as the very first seat of the European Parliament. Brussels in Belgium, being the Administrative capital is also considered often to be the unofficial capital of the Union.

France and Germany are negotiating the creation of a Eurodistrict straddling the Rhine river combining the Greater Strasbourg and the Ortenau district of Baden-Württemberg, with some common administration. The overall population of this "European Washington DC" would be 860,000.

See also

• Observatory of Strasbourg
• Musée d'art moderne et contemporain of Strasbourg - Modern and contemporary art museum
• Strasbourg Convention (Patent law)