Sélestat is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in north-eastern France with a population of 19.400. Sélestat is located in central Alsace, 22 km (14 mi) north of Colmar and 47 km (29 mi) south of Strasbourg, on the left bank of the Ill River. Sélestat is near the Alsace wine route.
The city is one of the richest and most varied in terms of architecture among the smaller cities of Alsace. Most remarkable are the RomanesqueSt. Faith’s Church and the GothicSt. George’s Church, the Baroque clock tower (1618) and the neo-medieval water tower. Buildings like the town hall (1788), the railway station (1880s) and the synagogue (1890s), as well as several Renaissance and Baroque civil houses are similarly noteworthy. The Humanist Library displays one of the oldest and most homogeneous collections of medieval manuscripts and Renaissance books in Europe. Its core is the still almost intact library of Beatus Rhenanus, that had been bequeathed to the city and kept by it ever since. Sélestat is the cultural center of central Alsace and is the seat of the Fonds régional d’art contemporain Alsace (FRAC Alsace) (contemporary art in and of Alsace) and of the Pôle d’archéologie interdépartemental rhénan (PAIR) (archaeology of and in Alsace).
Sélestat is a place of very early origin. It was a royal residence in Carolingian times and became a free town of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th century. In the 15th century it was the seat of a celebrated academy, founded by the humanist Rodolphus Agricola, which contributed not a little to the revival of learning in this part of Germany; Erasmus of Rotterdam was one of its students. In 1634 the town came into the possession of France, and it was afterwards fortified by Vauban. It offered little resistance, however, to the Germans in 1870, and the fortifications have since been razed.
Just to the west of Sélestat stands the great castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg, at an elevation of 2,475 feet (754 m). It was presented to the German Emperor William II by the town of Sélestat in 1899, and was completely restored in 1908. The site is first mentioned as bearing a castle in the 8th century. Today it is a major tourist site, attracting more than 500,000 visitors a year.
