Sélestat (before 1920 Schlestadt ; Schlettstadt in German Alsacien and ) is a common French, located in the department of the the Low-Rhine and the area Alsace.

Its inhabitants is called the Sélestadiens .

Geography

Sélestat is in the center of Alsace, 22 km in the north of Colmar and 47 km in the south of Strasbourg. Located on left bank of the Ill, the city leans with the Vosgean massive , but its relief remains very uniform since altitudes spread out from 165 to 184 Mr.

It communicates with the Lorraine by the Tunnel Maurice-Lemaire also called the tunnel of Sainte Marie-with-Mines. the Saint-Dié-of-Vosges is to 43 km in the west. The city is near the Germany, with a score of kilometers in the east.

Sélestat is located at approximately 10 km of the castle of the Haut-Koenigsbourg.

History

• the legend tells that the city was rested by the Sletto giant, from where the German name of Schlettstadt . The first hard copy goes back to VIIIe century, but the site then forms part of the village of Kintzheim. The expansion of the city begins in XIe century, when Hildegarde de Buren, mother of the first of the Hohenstaufen, large mother of the emperor Frederic Barberousse, founds there a church which will be occupied starting from 1094 by monks of Conques, venerating Sainte Foy. This priory directs the city until Frederic II of Hohenstaufen grants the free statute of city to Sélestat in 1217.

• the capacity passes gradually to the middle-class men consequently. The tradesmen and Sélestadiens make build the parish church Saint-Georges with a few meters of the Romance church Sainte Foy. This church Gothic style blazing was built between 1220 and 1500. Prosperous Sélestat, becomes member of the Décapole in 1354 (until in 1679), increases its fortifications, receives monastic orders and fact of the trade.

• In 1521, in Sélestat, it is mentioned for the first time the Christmas tree, or Christmas tree or tree of Christ. The document is exposed to the Humanistic Bibliothèque. They are accounts books dating of December 21st, 1521 coming from the files from the cities.

• the Rebirth mark the glorious period of the city which becomes a capital of the Humanisme. Its school becomes famous in all the Europe. The Reform, the War of the Peasants and that of Thirty Years mark the decline of Sélestat. As the remainder of the Alsace, the city becomes French.

• the city is taken by the Swedish in 1632, occupied by the French in 1634, finally annexed by Louis XIV and strengthened by Vauban in 1674. Sélestat then becomes garrison city of the French Army.

• the city undergoes two seats by the German in 1814 and 1815 and is again besieged in 1870. Following the defeat of Napoleon III with Sedan, like all the Alsace-Lorraine, Sélestat was occupied a first recovery by the German starting from 1870. The city was only released in 1918, at the end of the First World War, in November 1918 when under the Alsatian Soviet republic, Séléstat is organized in Soviet. November 22nd the Françaises troop go on Alsace and Séléstat becomes again French.

• After the French rout of 1940, Sélestat is again occupied by the German .
  La release of the city begins in November 1944 following American bombardments on the German positions close to the station. February 1st at the evening, the first American divisions reach the peripheries of the city. In haste, German commandos blow up three principal bridges of the city. The December 2nd in the morning, the western district is released then the downtown area in the afternoon. However, the release of the city is not finished, the German strongly resisting and the cold making its appearance. The city was definitively released in February 1945, although the date of the December 2nd 1944 remains the date symbol for Sélestadiens.

• the post-war period was the time of the rebuilding for Sélestat under the impulse of the mayors Joseph Klein and Albert Ehm. Under the action of Dr. Maurice Kubler, mayor more than fifteen years, the city made his true great strides and affirming itself like the true capital of the central Alsace. It is also in 1966 that Dr. Kubler signed twinning with the town of Waldkirch, true symbol of the Franco-German reconciliation.

• the year 1989 marked a true revolution in the history of the city since a socialist mayor , Gilbert Estève, was elected. Having collaborated a long time in the Parisian cabinets in the highest levels of power, he undertook a vast program of cultural policy while launching the construction of an inter-commune media library, a regional Funds of contemporary art of Alsace (FRAC) and of a big room of spectacle, Tanzmatten. He died in 1996 of a lung cancer.

• It is also at the beginning of the Années 1990 that the team of handball, SC Sélestat, reached the elite and allowed the town of be nationally made know.

• In 2001, the RPR Marcel Bauer gained the elections. It launched a vast building site of modernization of the city with the quasi complete restoration of the roadway system and the downtown area. The sporting policy was also in the center of its concerns with the construction of a new gymnasium of more than 2000 places for the team of handball and the construction of a new swimming pool which will be delivered at the end of the decade.

Administration

Notes

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