48°35N 7°42E, pop (2000e) 264 000. Industrial and commercial city, and capital of Bas-Rhin department, NE France; on the R Ill, W of its junction with the R Rhine; sixth largest city in France; important transportation centre and largest river-port in France; part of a bishopric since 1003; free imperial city in 13th-c; ceded to France, 1697; taken by Germany, 1871; returned to France, 1918; railway junction; university (founded 1537); trade in minerals, building materials, petroleum products, grain; iron and steel, metalworking, engineering, furniture, foodstuffs, paper, textiles, tanning; seat of the Council of Europe, European Parliament, European Commission of Human Rights, and European Science Foundation; printing developed here by Gutenberg; tourist centre of Alsace; congress and conference centre; Gothic cathedral (begun 1015, with noted 14th-c astronomical clock), Château des Rohan (172842), old town hall, Palais de l'Europe (19727), La Petite France (16th-c quarter of old Strasbourg); international music festival (Jun).
| Ville de Strasbourg | ||
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| City flag | City coat of arms | |
| Location | ||
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| Coordinates | 48°35′04″N, 07°44′55″E | |
| Time Zone | CET (GMT +1) | |
| Administration | ||
|---|---|---|
| Country | France | |
| Région | Alsace | |
| Département | Bas-Rhin (67) | |
| Intercommunality | Urban Community of Strasbourg | |
| Mayor |
Fabienne Keller (UMP) (since 2001) |
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| City Statistics | ||
| Land area¹ | 78.26 km² | |
| Population² | 7th in France | |
| - 2004 estimate | 272,800 | |
| - Density | 3,486/km² (2004) | |
| Urban Spread | ||
| Urban Area | 222 km² (1999) | |
| - Population | 264,115 (1999) | |
| Metro Area | 1,351.5 km² (1999) | |
| - Population | 612,104 (1999) | |
| ¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > | ||
Strasbourg (French: Strasbourg, pronounced /stʀazbuʀ/;
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, of the European Court of Human Rights and of the European Parliament, though the latter also holds sessions in Brussels.
Geography
Strasbourg is situated on the Ill River, where it flows into the Rhine on the frontier with Germany.
History
At the site of Strasbourg, the Romans established a military outpost and named it Argentoratum. From the 4th century, Strasbourg was the seat of the Archbishopric Strasbourg.
The Alamanni fought a battle against Rome in Strasbourg in 357. 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 revolution in 1332 resulted in a broad-based city government with participation of the guilds, and Strasbourg declared itself a free republic.
After the reform of the Imperial constitution in the early 16th century and the establishment of "Imperial Circles" (Reichskreise), Strasbourg was part of the "Upper Rhenish Circle", a corporation of Imperial estates in the southwest of the empire, mainly responsible for maintaining troops, supervising coining, and ensuring public security.
During the Thirty Years' War, the Free City of Strasbourg remained neutral.
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.
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 site of the Council of Europe, and since 1979, Strasbourg has been a seat of the European Parliament, although sessions are held in Strasbourg only four days each month, with all other business being conducted in Brussels.
In 1992, Strasbourg became the seat of the Franco-German TV channel and movie-production society Arte.
Strasbourg's historic centre, the Grande Île (great island), has been classified a World Heritage site by the UNESCO in 1988, for the first time for a whole city centre.
Strasbourg also offers high-class eclecticist buildings in its very extended German district (Place de la République, Place de l'Université, Place Brant, Place Arnold), 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 like 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 are homogenous, surprisingly high (up to seven stores) 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.
As for modern and contemporary architecture, Strasbourg possesses some fine Art Nouveau buildings (the extended 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.
Strasbourg also features a number of prominent parks, of which at least three are of historical interest: the Parc de l'Orangerie, created for Joséphine de Beauharnais and displaying noteworthy French gardens, a little neo-classical castle and a small zoo;
Museums
For its comparatively small size, Strasbourg displays a large quantity and variety of museums.
There are also the Collection Tomi Ungerer, the Musée de Sismologie et Magnétisme terrestre, the Musée Pasteur, the Musée d'égyptologie (all three being part of the University and only open to public on a more restricted scale), the Cabinet des estampes et des dessins (displaying six centuries of drawings and engravings) and the Musée de la Navigation sur le Rhin, also going by the name of Naviscope.
Demography
| 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 |
Today, the metropolitan area of Strasbourg reaches 650,000 inhabitants and the eurodistrict 868,000 inhabitants .
Education
Strasbourg, which was a humanism centre, has a long history of higher-education excellence, melting French and German intellectual traditions. Although Strasbourg had been annexed by Royal 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 with Goethe, Metternich and Montgelas, who studied law in Strasbourg, among the most prominent.
There are three universities in Strasbourg:
Strasbourg I - Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg II - Université Marc Bloch Strasbourg III - Université Robert SchumanThe campus of the École nationale d'administration (ENA) is located in Strasbourg (the former one being in Paris).
The permanent campus of the International Space University (ISU) is located in the south of Strasbourg (Illkirch-Graffenstaden).
Transport Systems
A modern-looking tram system has operated in Strasbourg since 1994 by the regional transit company Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois.
Two TGV lines are planned to link Strasbourg to the European high-speed train network:
TGV Est (Paris-Strasbourg) (under construction, to open 2007) TGV Rhin-Rhône (Strasbourg-Lyon) (to open 2011)European role
Strasbourg is:
the seat of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights (informally known as the "Strasbourg Court");Strasbourg also houses the Eurocorps headquarters as well as the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines () and 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.
Miscellaneous
Births
Strasbourg was the birthplace of:
Sebastian Brant (1457-1521), satirical poet and humanist Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck (1489-1553) protestant statesman and reformist Sebastian Stoskopff (1597-1657), painter of still lives Johann Fischart (1546-1590), satirical author Albrecht Kauw (1621-1681), painter François Christophe Kellermann (1735-1820), French marshall Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740-1812), painter Heinrich Leopold Wagner (1747 - 1779), writer Jean Baptiste Kléber (1753-1800), general Ludwig I of Bavaria (1786-1868) Gustave Doré (1832-1883), painter Charles Friedel (1832-1899), chemist and mineralogist Emile Waldteufel (Charles Émile Lévy) (1837-1915), composer Paul Émile Appell (1855-1930), mathematician Hans (Jean) Arp (1886-1966), artist Charles Münch (1891-1968), conductor Hans Bethe (1906-2005), physicist, Nobel Prize winner Max Bense (1910-1990), philosopher Camille Claus (1920-2005), painter Marcel Marceau (born 1923), mime Tomi Ungerer (born 1931), illustrator and caricaturist Conrad Winter (born 1931), poet, Goethe Prize Winner Herbert Léonard (born 1945), singer Arsène Wenger OBE, (born 1949), football manager Yann Wehrling, artist and leader of the french Green Party Fréro (born 1971), Emcee, writer & beatmaker Valérien Ismaël (born 1975), football player Armando Teixeira (born 1976), football player Salomé Haller, soprano Mehdi Baala, (born 1978), athlete Paul-Henri Mathieu (born 1982), tennis-playerFamous residents
Maximilian von Montgelas, Bavarian statesman Johann Gutenberg (1400-1468), inventor of printing with movable type Erasmus (1467-1536), humanist Hans Baldung (1484-1545), painter Martin Bucer (1491–1551), Reformation leader Johannes Sturm (1507-1589), teacher and pedagogue John Calvin (1509-1564), Reformation leader François-Marie de Broglie (1671-1745), marshall and governor of Strasbourg Franz Xaver Richter (1709-1789), composer, eminent member of the "Mannheim school". Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831) served as Kapellmeister at the Cathedral in 1789 Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836), composer of the Marseillaise Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (1773-1859), studied in Strasbourg from 1788 to 1790 Georg Büchner (1813-1837), writer Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1830-1889), historian Louis Pasteur (1830-1895), scientist Lujo Brentano (1844–1931), economist Ferdinand Braun (1850-1918), physicist, Nobel Prize Georg Simmel (1858–1918), sociologist Hans Pfitzner, (1869-1949) composer Jean Jacques Waltz aka. Ernest Bour (1913-2001), conductor Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005), philosopher Guy Debord (1931-1994), philosopher Sarkis (born 1938), painter Jean-Marie Lehn (born 1939), Nobel Prize for chemistry 1987 Georges Aperghis (born 1945), composer Bernard-Marie Koltès (1948-1989), playwright Barbara Honigmann (born 1949), German writer and painter Ségolène Royal (born 1953), leading member of the Parti Socialiste, went to school in Strasbourg. Rodolphe Burger (born 1957), musician John Howe (born 1957), artist Mireille Delunsch (born 1962), sopranoSee also
Andere PersönlichkeitenTwin 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)Others
British art-punk band The Rakes had a minor hit in 2005 with, their song 'Strasbourg'.
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