STRASBOURG owes
both its name - "the
city of the roads" - and
its wealth to its
position on the west
bank of the Rhine, long
one of the great natural
transport arteries of
Europe. The city's
medieval commercial pre-eminence
was damaged by too close
an involvement in the
religious struggles of
the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries,
but recovered with the
city's absorption into
France in 1681. Along
with the rest of Alsace,
Strasbourg suffered
annexation by Germany
from 1871 to the end of
World War I and again
from 1940 to 1944.
Today old animosities
have been submerged in
the togetherness of the
European Union, of which,
as the seat of the
Council of Europe, the
European Court of Human
Rights and the European
Parliament, Strasbourg
is one of the capitals.
Prosperous, beautiful
and modern, with an
orderliness that is
Germanic rather than
Latin, the city is big
enough - with a
population of over a
quarter of a million
people - to have a
metropolitan air without
being overwhelming. It
has one of the loveliest
cathedrals in France and
one of the oldest and
most active universities:
this is the one city in
eastern France that is
definitely worth a
special detour
The City
It isn't difficult to
find your way around
Strasbourg on foot, as
the city centre is
concentrated on a small
island encircled by the
River Ill . The
tourist office can
provide a map (3F/¬0.46
for the one with all the
museums and sights
marked on it; free
otherwise), but be
warned - several of the
street names are not
marked. However, it's a
nice town to lose
yourself in.
Visible throughout
the city is the
magnificent filigree
spire of the pink
cathedral that
dominates not just the
city but most of Alsace;
it is to the south of
this building that
you'll find the cream of
the museums. To the
north of here, place
Kléber is the heart
of the commercial
district, and, to the
west, place Gutenberg
is nominally the main
square. About a fifteen-minute
walk west on the tip of
the island is Petite
France , where
timber-framed houses and
gently flowing canals
hark back to the city's
medieval trades of
tanning and dyeing.
