Wissembourg

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Administration
Commune of Wissembourg Salthouse in Wissembourg
Location
Longitude	07° 56' 49" E
Latitude	49° 02' 18" N
Country	France
Region	Alsace
Department	Bas-Rhin (sous-préfecture)
Arrondissement	Wissembourg
Canton	Wissembourg
Mayor	Pierre Bertrand (2001–2008)
Statistics
Altitude	133 m–527 m (avg. 160 m)
Land area¹	48.18 km²
Population² (1999)	8,170
- Density (1999)	169/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	67544/ 67160
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

Wissembourg (pronounced /visɑ̃buʀ/ in French; German: Weißenburg) is a small town and commune situated on the little River Lauter close to the border between France and Germany, in easternmost Alsace région, approximately 60 km north of Strasbourg. Wissembourg is a sous-préfecture of the Bas-Rhin département. The name Wissembourg is merely a Francosized version of Weißenburg(Weissenburg) in German meaning, "white hill/white town", or "white place".

[edit] History

The Benedictine abbey around which the town has grown was founded in the 7th century, perhaps under the patronage of Dagobert I. The abbey was supported by vast territories. Of the 11th century buildings constructed under the direction of Abbot Samuel, only the Schartenturm and some moats remain. The town was fortified in the 13th century. The abbey church of Saint-Pierre et Paul, erected in the same century under the direction of Abbot Edelin was secularized in the French Revolution and despoiled of its treasures; in 1803 it became the parish church, resulting in the largest parish church of Alsace, only exceeded in size by the cathedral of Strasbourg. At the Abbey in the late 9th century, the monk Otfried composed a gospel harmony, the first substantial work of verse in German.

In 1354 Charles IV made it one of the grouping of ten towns called the Decapolis that survived annexation by France under Louis XIV in 1678 and was extinguished with the French Revolution. On January 25, 1677 a great fire destroyed many houses and the Hôtel de Ville; its replacement dates from 1741–52. Many early structures were spared: the Maison du Sel (1448), under its Alsatian pitched roof was the first hospital of the town. There are many 15th and 16th-century half-timbered houses, and parts of the walls and gateways of the town. The Maison de Stanislas was the retreat of Stanislas Leczinski, ex-king of Poland, from 1719 to 1725, when the formal request arrived, April 3, 1725 asking for the hand of his daughter in marriage to Louis XV.

Wissembourg formed the setting for the Romantic novel L’ami Fritz (1869) co-written by the team of Erckmann and Chatrian, which provided the material for Mascagni's opera L'Amico Fritz.

The Battle of Wissembourg took place on August 4, 1870. It was the first battle of the Franco-Prussian War. The Prussians were nominally commanded by the Crown Prince Frederick, but ably directed by his Chief of Staff, General Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal. The French defeat allowed the Prussian army to move into France. The Geisburg monument commemorates the event.

[edit] Sights

The picturesque town is set in a landscape of rolling wheat fields retains its Augustinian convent (1279); the Church of Saint Jean, Church of Saint Ulrich Its Grenier aux Dîmes (tithe barn) belonging to the Abbey is 18th century but an ancient foundation.