Sights in Strasbourg

The city is chiefly known for its sandstone gothic cathedral, and for its medieval cityscape of Rhineland black and white timber-framed buildings, particularly in the Petite-France district alongside the river Ill. Strasbourg’s historic center, the Grande ile (great island), has been classified a World Heritage site by the UNESCO in 1988, for the first time for a whole city center.

Besides the cathedral, Strasbourg houses several other medieval churches that have survived the many wars and destructions that have plagued the city : the part romanesque, part gothic, very large Eglise Saint-Thomas with its Silbermann organ on which W. A. Mozart and Albert Schweitzer played, the gothic Eglise Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune protestant with its crypta dating back to the 5th century, the gothic Eglise Saint-Guillaume with its fine early-Renaissance stained glass… The neo-gothic church Saint-Pierre le Vieux catholique serves as a shrine for several 15th century altars that had been saved from destruction and installed a century ago.

The German Renaissance has bequeathed the city with some fine buildings ( for especially the current Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie), as did the French Baroque and Classicism with several palaces, among which the Palais Rohan (now housing three museums) is the most spectacular. Others are the Hotel du Prefet, the Hotel des Deux-Ponts and the city-hall Hotel de Ville ( hotel particulier meaning palace ). As for French Neo-classicism, it is the opera house on Place Broglie that most prestigiously represents this style.

Strasbourg also offers high-class eclecticist buildings in its very extended German district (Place de la Republique, Place de l’Universite, Place Brant, Place Arnold), being the main memory of Wilhelmian architecture since most of the major cities in Germany proper suffered intensive damages during World War II. Streets, boulevards and avenues like Avenue de la Foret Noire, Avenue des Vosges, Avenue d’Alsace, Avenue de la Marseillaise, Avenue de la Liberte, Boulevard de la Victoire, Rue Sellenick, Rue du General de Castelnau, Rue du Marechal Foch et Rue du Marechal Joffre are homogenous, surprisingly high (up to seven stores) and broad examples of german urban lay-out and of this architectural style that summons and mixes up five centuries of european architecture as well as neo-egyptian, neo-greek and neo-babylonian styles.

As for modern and contemporay architecture, Strasbourg possesses some fine Art Nouveau buildings (the extended Palais des Fetes, some houses and villas on Avenue de la Robertsau and Rue Sleidan…), good examples of post-WWII functional architecture (the cite Rotterdam, for which Le Corbusier did not succeed in the architectural contest) and, in the very extended Quartier Europeen, some spectacular administrative buildings of sometimes utterly large size, among which the European Court of Human Rights by Richard Rogers is arguably the finest. Other noticeable contemporary buildings are the new Conservatory (Cite de la Musique et de la Danse), the Musee d’Art moderne et contemporain and the Hotel du Departement facing it, as well as, in the outskirts, the tramway-station Hoenheim-Nord designed by Zaha Hadid.

Strasbourg also features a number of prominent parks, of which three at least are of historical interest : the Parc de l’Orangerie, created for Josephine de Beauharnais and displaying beautiful french gardens, a little neo-classical castle and a small zoo ; the Parc de la Citadelle, built around impressive remains of the fortifications erected by Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban ; the Parc de Pourtalès, laid out in english style around a neo-baroque castle that now houses the Schiller International University.

The Jardin Botanique (botanical garden) was created under the german administration next to the Observatory of Strasbourg, built in 1881, and still owns some greenhouses of those times. The Parc des Contades, although the oldest park of the city, has been completely remodeled after WWII. The Jardin des deux Rives, spread over Strasbourg and Kehl on both sides of the Rhine, ist the most recent (2004) and most extended (60 hectare) park of the agglomeration.

Finally, the city also enjoys somme beautiful bridges, among which the medieval Ponts Couverts with its four towers is the most spectacular. Other nice bridges are the ornate 19th century Ponts de la Fonderie (stone) and d’Auvergne (iron).