Strasbourg Strossburi (North Alsatian) Straßburg (German)
Prefecture and commune
From top left: Strasbourg-Ville station; Strasbourg Cathedral and the Old Town; Ponts Couverts; Palais Rohan; Petite France; Palais du Rhin; Hôtel Brion; Hemicycle of the European Parliament; and Strasbourg skyline in 2014
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Strasbourg
Strasbourg Show map of France Strasbourg Show map of Grand Est
Coordinates: 48°35′00″N 07°44′45″E / 48.58333°N 7.74583°E / 48.58333; 7.74583
Country	France
Region	Grand Est
Department	Bas-Rhin
Arrondissement	Strasbourg
Canton	6 cantons
Intercommunality	Eurométropole de Strasbourg
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Jeanne Barseghian[1] (The Ecologists)
Area 1	78.26 km2 (30.22 sq mi)
• Urban  (2018[note 1])	240.2 km2 (92.7 sq mi)
• Metro  (2019[note 1])	2,227.1 km2 (859.9 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]	291,313
• Rank	8th in France
• Density	3,700/km2 (9,600/sq mi)
• Urban  (2020[3][note 1])	484,217
• Urban density	2,000/km2 (5,200/sq mi)
• Metro  (2020[4][note 1])	860,744
• Metro density	390/km2 (1,000/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Strasbourgeois (masculine) Strasbourgeoise (feminine)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	67482 /
Dialling codes	0388, 0390, 0368
Elevation	132–151 m (433–495 ft)
Website	www.strasbourg.eu
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Part of a series on
Alsace
Rot un Wiss, traditional flag of Alsace
History Germania Superior (Pagus Alsatiae) (83–475) Alemanni (circa 213–496) Alamannia (3rd-century–911) Duchy of Alsace (circa 630–699) Treaty of Verdun (843) Prince-Bishopric of Strasbourg (982–1803) County of Ferrette (11th-century–14th-century) Salm (1165−1793) Landgraviate of Alsace (1186–1646) Lower Alsace Upper Alsace Further Austria (13th-century–1648) Décapole (1354–1679) County of Hanau-Lichtenberg (1456–1736) Upper Rhenish Circle (1500–1679) Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine (1871–1918) Gau Baden-Elsaß (1940–1945) Alsace (1945–2016) Grand Est (2016–) European Collectivity of Alsace (2021-)
Culture Coat of arms Flag Anthem People Language Demographics Musée alsacien (Hagenau | Strasbourg)
Religion according to Concordat in Alsace-Moselle (1801): (including Lorraine) Catholic Church Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Strasbourg (Immediately subject to the Holy See) (Prince-Bishopric of Strasbourg) (Lorraine: Roman Catholic Diocese of Metz) Protestantism: Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine: Lutheranism: Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine Calvinism: Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine Jewish consistories: Strasbourg Colmar (Lorraine: Metz)
Law Local law in Alsace-Moselle Concordat in Alsace-Moselle
Administrative divisions Capital: Strasbourg Bas-Rhin (Unterelsaß) Arrondissement of Haguenau-Wissembourg Arrondissement of Molsheim Arrondissement of Saverne Arrondissement of Sélestat-Erstein Arrondissement of Strasbourg Haut-Rhin (Oberelsaß) Arrondissement of Altkirch Arrondissement of Colmar-Ribeauvillé Arrondissement of Mulhouse Arrondissement of Thann-Guebwiller
Politics Regional Council of Alsace (1982–2015) Alsace independence movement Assembly of Alsace (2021-)
Alsace in the European Union European Parliament elections Constituency
Related topics Politics of France Politics of Germany Politics of the European Union
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Strasbourg (UK: /ˈstræzbɜːrɡ/,^[5] US: /ˈstrɑːsbʊərɡ, ˈstrɑːz-, -bɜːrɡ/,^[6] French: [stʁasbuʁ] ^ⓘ; German: Straßburg [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊʁk] ^ⓘ;^[7][8]) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department. It is the official seat of the European Parliament.

In 2021, the city proper had 291,313 inhabitants and both the Eurométropole de Strasbourg (Greater Strasbourg) and the Arrondissement of Strasbourg had 514,651 inhabitants.^[9] Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 860,744 in 2020,^[4] making it the eighth-largest metro area in France and home to 14% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of roughly 1,000,000 in 2022. Strasbourg is one of the de facto four main capitals of the European Union (alongside Brussels, Luxembourg and Frankfurt), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the European Parliament, the Eurocorps and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. An organization separate from the European Union, the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines most commonly known in French as "Pharmacopée Européenne", and its European Audiovisual Observatory) is also located in the city.

Together with Basel (Bank for International Settlements), Geneva (United Nations), The Hague (International Court of Justice) and New York City (United Nations world headquarters), Strasbourg is among the few cities in the world that is not a state capital that hosts international organisations of the first order.^[10] The city is the seat of many non-European international institutions such as the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights.^[11] It is the second city in France in terms of international congress and symposia, after Paris. Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988, with the newer "Neustadt" being added to the site in 2017.^[12] Strasbourg is immersed in Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a cultural bridge between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second-largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture. It is also home to the largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque.^[13]

Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, and river transportation. The port of Strasbourg is the second-largest on the Rhine after Duisburg in Germany, and the second-largest river port in France after Paris.^[14][15]

Etymology and names

Until the fifth century AD, the city was known as Argantorati (in the nominative, Argantorate in the locative), a Celtic Gaulish name Latinised first as Argentorate (with Gaulish locative ending, as appearing on the first Roman milestones in the first century) and then as Argentoratum (with regular Latin nominative ending, in later Latin texts). That Gaulish name is a compound of -rati, the Gaulish word for fortified enclosures, cognate to the Old Irish ráth (see ringfort) and arganto(n)- (cognate to Latin argentum, which gave modern French argent), the Gaulish word for silver, but also any precious metal, particularly gold, suggesting either a fortified enclosure located by a river gold mining site, or hoarding gold mined in the nearby rivers.^[16]

After the fifth century the city became known by a completely different name, later Gallicized as Strasbourg (Lower Alsatian: Strossburi; German: Straßburg). That name is of Germanic origin and means 'town (at the crossing) of roads'. The modern Stras- is cognate with the German Straße and English street, both derived from Latin strata ("paved road"), while -bourg is cognate with the German Burg and English borough, both derived from Proto-Germanic *burgz ("hill fort, fortress").

Gregory of Tours was the first to mention the name change: in the tenth book of his History of the Franks written shortly after 590 he said that Egidius, Bishop of Reims, accused of plotting against King Childebert II of Austrasia in favor of his uncle King Chilperic I of Neustria, was tried by a synod of Austrasian bishops in Metz in November 590, found guilty and removed from the priesthood, then taken "ad Argentoratensem urbem, quam nunc Strateburgum vocant" ("to the city of Argentoratum, which they now call Strateburgus"), where he was exiled.^[17]

History

The Roman camp of Argentoratum was first mentioned in 12 BC; the city of Strasbourg which grew from it celebrated its 2,000th anniversary in 1988. The fertile area in the Upper Rhine Plain between the rivers Ill and Rhine had already been populated since the Middle Paleolithic.^[18][19]

Between 362 and 1262, Strasbourg was governed by the bishops of Strasbourg; their rule was reinforced in 873 and then more in 982.^[20] In 1262, the citizens violently rebelled against the bishop's rule (Battle of Hausbergen) and Strasbourg became a free imperial city. It became a French city in 1681, after the conquest of Alsace by the armies of Louis XIV. In 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, the city became German again, until 1918 (end of World War I), when it reverted to France. Strasbourg was captured by the German army in June 1940 at the end of the Battle of France (World War II), and subsequently came under German control again through formal annexation into the Gau Baden-Elsaß under the Nazi Gauleiter Robert Wagner; since the liberation of the city by the 2nd French Armoured Division under General Leclerc in November 1944, it has again been a French city. In 2016, Strasbourg was promoted from capital of Alsace to capital of Grand Est.

Strasbourg played an important part in the Protestant Reformation, with personalities such as John Calvin, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, Matthew and Katharina Zell, but also in other aspects of Christianity such as German mysticism, with Johannes Tauler, Pietism, with Philipp Spener, and Reverence for Life, with Albert Schweitzer. Delegates from the city took part in the Protestation at Speyer. It was also one of the first centres of the printing industry with pioneers such as Johannes Gutenberg, Johannes Mentelin, and Heinrich Eggestein. Among the darkest periods in the city's long history were the years 1349 (Strasbourg massacre), 1518 (Dancing plague), 1793 (Reign of Terror), 1870 (Siege of Strasbourg) and the years 1940–1944 with the Nazi occupation (atrocities such as the Jewish skull collection) and the British and American bombing raids. Some other notable dates were the years 357 (Battle of Argentoratum), 842 (Oaths of Strasbourg), 1538 (establishment of the university), 1605 (world's first newspaper printed by Johann Carolus), 1792 (La Marseillaise), and 1889 (pancreatic origin of diabetes discovered by Minkowski and Von Mering).

Strasbourg has been the seat of European institutions since 1949: first of the International Commission on Civil Status and of the Council of Europe, later of the European Parliament, of the European Science Foundation, of Eurocorps, and others as well.

Geography

Location

Strasbourg is situated at the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the Rhine, which also forms the eastern border of the modern city, facing across the river to the German town Kehl. The historic core of Strasbourg, however, lies on the Grande Île in the river Ill, which here flows parallel to, and roughly 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from, the Rhine. The natural courses of the two rivers eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city.

The city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, at between 132 and 151 metres (433 and 495 ft) above sea level, with the upland areas of the Vosges Mountains some 20 km (12 mi) to the west and the Black Forest 25 km (16 mi) to the east. This section of the Rhine valley is a major axis of north–south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself, and major roads and railways paralleling it on both banks.

The city is some 397 kilometres (247 mi) east of Paris.^[21] The mouth of the Rhine lies approximately 450 kilometres (280 mi) to the north, or 650 kilometres (400 mi) as the river flows, whilst the head of navigation in Basel is some 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the south, or 150 kilometres (93 mi) by river.

Climate

In spite of its position far inland, Strasbourg has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb),^[22][23] though with less maritime influence than the milder climates of Western and Southern France.^[24] The city has warm, relatively sunny summers and cool, overcast winters.

The third highest temperature ever recorded was 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) in August 2003, during the 2003 European heat wave. This record was broken, on 30 June 2019, when it reached 38.8 °C (101.8 °F) ^[25] and then on 25 July 2019, when it reached 38.9 °C (102.0 °F). The lowest temperature ever recorded was −23.4 °C (−10.1 °F) in December 1938.^[26]

Strasbourg's location in the Rhine valley, sheltered from strong winds by the Vosges and Black Forest mountains, results in poor natural ventilation, making Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France.^[27][28] Nonetheless, the progressive disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city have reduced air pollution in recent years.^[29]