Place de la République in Strasbourg

28 April 2023 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Zairon/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Zairon/cc-by-sa-4.0

Place de la République (“Republic Square”; former German: Kaiserplatz, “Imperial Square”) is one of the main squares of the city of Strasbourg, France. It is surrounded on three sides by five buildings only, of which none is residential: the Palais du Rhin, the National and University Library, the Théâtre national de Strasbourg, the Préfecture of Grand Est and Bas-Rhin, and the tax center Hôtel des impôts. All of these buildings are classified as monuments historiques. The fourth side of the square is devoid of buildings.   read more…

Strasbourg Cathedral

8 April 2023 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

The west front © Claude Truong-Ngoc/cc-by-sa-3.0

The west front © Claude Truong-Ngoc/cc-by-sa-3.0

Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, or Cathédrale de Strasbourg, German: Liebfrauenmünster zu Straßburg or Straßburger Münster), also known as Strasbourg Minster, is a Catholic cathedral in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. Although considerable parts of it are still in Romanesque architecture, it is widely considered to be among the finest examples of Rayonnant Gothic architecture. Architect Erwin von Steinbach is credited for major contributions from 1277 to his death in 1318, and beyond through his son Johannes von Steinbach, and his grandson Gerlach von Steinbach, who succeeded him as chief architects. The Steinbachs’s plans for the completion of the cathedral were not followed through by the chief architects who took over after them, and instead of the originally envisioned two spires, a single, octagonal tower with an elongated, octagonal crowning was built on the northern side of the west facade by master Ulrich von Ensingen and his successor, Johannes Hültz. The construction of the cathedral, which had started in the year 1015 and had been relaunched in 1190, was finished in 1439.   read more…

Neustadt in Strasbourg

5 April 2023 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Palais du Rhin © Chabe01/cc-by-sa-4.0

Palais du Rhin © Chabe01/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Neustadt (German for New Town) is a district of Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. In 2017, the heart of the district was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, as an extension of the site including the older city centre (Grande Île) and Strasbourg Cathedral. The district is a unique example of city planning, merging the Haussmannian model with elements of German architecture and urban planning.   read more…

European Quarter in Strasbourg

18 March 2023 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, EU blog post series, European Union Reading Time:  5 minutes

European Parliament © Jose Huwaidi/cc-by-sa-4.0

European Parliament © Jose Huwaidi/cc-by-sa-4.0

The European Quarter is spread over an area covering the districts of Wacken, Orangerie and Robertsau in the north-west of Strasbourg, France, and comprising the intersection of the River Ill and the Marne-Rhine Canal and has held the European Heritage Label since 2015. The first specific European building in the area was the Council of Europe‘s Palace of Europe in 1949, with the Rhine Commission being located towards the centre of the city. The European Audiovisual Observatory and the Institute for Human Rights are the only institutions in the quarter to have moved into pre-existing premises: a 1900 villa and an 18th-century former postal relay station and inn turned conventual building, respectively. The Arte headquarters, previously disseminated on several buildings across the town, were united in a single spacious building close to the Louise Weiss building in 2003.   read more…

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