Wissembourg

Wissembourg
Wissembourg 3.JPG
Wissembourg is located in France
Wissembourg
Administration
Country France
Region Alsace
Department Bas-Rhin
Arrondissement Wissembourg
Canton Wissembourg
Intercommunality Communauté de communes du pays de Wissembourg
Mayor Christian Gliech
(2008–14)
Statistics
Elevation 133–527 m (436–1,729 ft)
(avg. 160 m/520 ft)
Land area1 48.18 km2 (18.60 sq mi)
Population2 8,008  (2006)
 - Density 166 /km2 (430 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 67544/ 67160
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Wissembourg (French pronunciation: [visɑ̃buʁ]; South Franconian: Weisseburch, pronounced [ˈvaɪsəbʊʁç]; German: Weißenburg) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in northeastern France.

It is situated on the little River Lauter close to the border between France and Germany approximately 60 km (37 mi) north of Strasbourg and 35 km (22 mi) west of Karlsruhe. Wissembourg is a sub-prefecture of the department. The name Wissembourg is merely a Gallicized version of Weißenburg (Weissenburg) in German meaning, "white castle".

Contents

History

Town hall
Salt house (Maison du sel)

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 25 January 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 timber-frame houses, and parts of the walls and gateways of the town. The Maison de Stanislas was the retreat of Stanislas Leszczinski, ex-king of Poland, from 1719 to 1725, when the formal request arrived, 3 April 1725 asking for the hand of his daughter in marriage to Louis XV. The first Battle of Wissembourg took place near the town in 1793.

The “Lines of Wissembourg,” originally made by Villars in 1706, were famous. They were a line of works extending to Lauterburg 9 miles S. E. Like the fortifications of the town, those of the lines have now disappeared.[1]

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.

Another Battle of Wissembourg took place on 4 August 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.

Notable people

Sights

Church of Saints-Pierre et Paul.
Imperial Abbey of Wissembourg
Imperial Abbey, then Imperial Free City,
of the Holy Roman Empire
← Duchy of Swabia
 7th century–1790s →

Coat of arms
Capital Weißenburg (Wissembourg)
Government Theocracy
Historical era Middle Ages
 - Established 7th century
 - Raised to Imperial City 1306–1697
 - Joined Council of Princes 1793
 - Annexed by France mid- to late-1790s 1790s
 - Second Battle of Wissembourg 4 August 1870

The picturesque town, set in a landscape of rolling wheat fields, retains a former Augustinian convent (1279) with its large-scale Gothic church, now the parish of Saints-Pierre-et-Paul; other medieval churches are the Église Saint-Jean, and the Église Saint-Ulrich. Its Grenier aux Dîmes (tithe barn) belonging to the Abbey is 18th century but an ancient foundation. Noteworthy houses are the medieval "Salt house", the Renaissance "House of l'Ami Fritz" and the imposing classicist City Hall, a work by Joseph Massol. Also Visiting the Pastery Shop Rebere as it's one of the oldest, and the top 100 in French Pastery.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wikisource-logo.svg "Claude Louis Hector de Villars". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. 

External links