Petite France, Strasbourg

The Ponts Couverts (German: Gedeckte Brücken) are a set of three bridges and four towers that make up a defensive work erected in the 13th century on the River Ill in the city of Strasbourg in France. The three bridges cross the four river channels of the River Ill that flow through Strasbourg's historic Petite France quarter. The Ponts Couverts have been classified as a Monument historique since 1928.Construction of the Ponts Couverts commenced in 1230, and they were opened in 1250. As a defensive mechanism, they were superseded by the Barrage Vauban, just upstream, in 1690, but remained in use as bridges. As built, each of the bridges was covered by a wooden roof that served to protect the defenders who would have been stationed on them in time of war. These roofs were removed in 1784, but name Ponts Couverts (covered bridges) has remained in common use ever since.

The Church of Old Saint Peters (French: Église Saint-Pierre le Vieux) is a by simultaneum Catholic and Lutheran church building in Strasbourg, Alsace is first mentioned in 1130.In the Middle Ages it was one of Diocese of Strasbourg's nine parish churches. On 22 May 1398 the Chapter of the Abbey of Honau, which had been in Rhinau since 1290, moved to Old St Peter's because of flooding in Rhinau. The Chapter stayed there until 1529, conducting its services in the choir, while the parish occupied the nave. When the Catholic rite was restored in 1683, the Chapter returned to the Church and stayed there until 1790, when it was wound up. On 20 February 1529, when Strasbourg openly joined the Reformation and suspended the practice of the mass, the Church became Lutheran. Martin Bucer and the other Strasbourg reformers had campaigned for several years to have Protestant services in all of Strasbourg's churches, but in 1525 the city council had voted to retain the mass in several churches, including Old St Peter's. In 1535, in the context of the Reform, a Latin school, or 'Middle school' was opened at Old Saint Peters.In 1683, two years after the annexation of Strasbourg by France, Louis XIV ordered that part of the Church be returned to the Catholics and that a wall be constructed inside the church by the rood screen, to restrict the Protestant services to the Nave. It was not until 2012 that a door was opened in this dividing wall.In the 19th century, the Catholic part of the Church was extended. The extension was designed by the architect Conrath and opened in 1867. The 1762 pipe organ of the Catholic part was moved to the Church of Saint Maurice in Soultz-les-Bains in 1865. The Catholic Church contains relics of Brigit of Kildare as well as a number of important works of art classified as Monuments historiques such as the "Passion of Christ", a series of ten Gothic paintings by Heinrich (or Henri) Lutzelmann (1485), the "Scenes from the Life of St Peter" an (incomplete) series of four wooden early Renaissance or late Gothic reliefs made around 1500 and a series of four 1504 paintings depicting "Scenes of the Life of Christ after the Resurrection".The Lutheran part of the church, presently owned and used by a congregation within the Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine, also features some notable works of art, among which the wooden Renaissance relief "Holy Family" (1520s) by Hans Wydyz, classified as a Monument historique.

The Canal du Faux-Rempart, also known as the Fossé du Faux-Rempart, is a canal in the centre of the city of Strasbourg in eastern France. The canal connects at both ends to the River Ill, thus surrounding the Grande Île that lies at the historic centre of the city.The canal was originally an arm of the River Ill. Initially the bank on the inner, or city, side of the arm was fortified. In the thirteenth century a further wall was built along the middle of the channel. This fortified wall became known as the Faux Rempart or false rampart. Between 1831 and 1832, the mayor Frédéric de Turckheim removed the Faux Rempart in order to "allow a spacious navigation channel and freight transport within the city." In 1840, the canal was opened to navigation.In its 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) length, the canal is crossed by 13 bridges, and passes through a single lock. Navigation is officially restricted to passenger trip boats only, which operate frequent circular cruises round the Grande Île and through the historic Petite France district of the city.

The Barrage Vauban, or Vauban Dam, is a bridge, weir and defensive work erected in the 17th century on the River Ill in the city of Strasbourg in France. At that time, it was known as the Great Lock (grande écluse), although it does not function as a navigation lock in the modern sense of the word. Today it serves to display sculptures and has a viewing terrace on its roof, with views of the earlier Ponts Couverts bridges and Petite France quarter. It has been classified as a Monument historique since 1971.The barrage was constructed from 1686 to 1690 in pink Vosges sandstone by the French Engineer Jacques Tarade according to plans by Vauban. The principal defensive function of the barrage was to enable, in the event of an attack, the raising the level of the River Ill and thus the flooding of all the lands south of the city, making them impassable to the enemy. This defensive measure was deployed in 1870, when Strasbourg was besieged by Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War, and resulted in the complete flooding of the northern part of the suburb of Neudorf.The barrage has 13 arches and is 120 metres (390 ft) in length. Within the structure an enclosed corridor links the two banks and a lapidarium serves to display ancient plaster casts and copies of statues and gargoyles from Strasbourg Cathedral and Palais Rohan. Three of the arches are raised to permit navigation, and the corridor is carried across these by drawbridges. The roof was rebuilt in 1965-66 in order to construct the panoramic terrace. Admission to the barrage and terrace is free, and they are open daily from 09:00 to 19:30.The Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Commanderie Saint-Jean, now home to the prestigious École Nationale d'Administration, are both adjacent to the northern end of the barrage. The headquarters (Hôtel du Département) of the Bas-Rhin department is by the southern end.

The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, English: National School of Administration) was a French grande école, created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Debré, to democratise access to the senior civil service. It was abolished on 31 December 2021 and replaced by the Institut national du service public (INSP).The ENA selected and undertook initial training of senior French officials. It was considered to be one of the most academically exceptional French schools, both because of its low acceptance rates and because a large majority of its candidates have already graduated from other elite schools in the country. Thus, within French society, the ENA stood as one of the main pathways to high positions in the public and private sectors. Indeed, 4 Presidents of France under the beginning of the 5th Republic in 1958 (including Emmanuel Macron) and multiple prime-ministers and ministers, studied at ENA.Originally located in Paris, it had been relocated to Strasbourg to emphasise its European character. It was based in the former Commanderie Saint-Jean, though continued to maintain a Paris campus. ENA produced around 80 to 90 graduates every year, known as étudiants-fonctionnaires, "enaos" or "énarques" (IPA: [enaʁk]). In 2002 the Institut international d'administration publique (IIAP) which educated French diplomats under a common structure with the ENA was merged with it. The ENA shares several traditions with the College of Europe, which was established shortly after. In 2019, President Emmanuel Macron announced he would propose to abolish and replace the ENA. Macron is an ENA graduate himself, but the tight network of ENA graduates influencing the French civil service has been decried by populist protests such as the yellow vests movement as an elite governing class out of touch with the lower social classes. In April 2021, Macron confirmed the closure of the school, calling the closure "the most important reform of the senior public service" since the school's creation in 1945.

The Synagogue du Quai Kléber (German: Synagoge am Kleberstaden, also formerly known as Neue Synagoge, "New Synagogue") was the main synagogue of Strasbourg, France before World War II. It was built in the "Neustadt" when the city was part of the German Empire (until 1918) and destroyed by Nazi Germany after it annexed the city in 1940; in the years between, Strasbourg and its Jewish community were French.

The Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) is an art museum in Strasbourg, France, which was founded in 1973 and opened in its own building in November 1998. One of the largest of its kind in France, the museum houses extensive collections of paintings, sculpture, graphic arts, multimedia and design from the period between 1870 (Impressionism) and today, as well as a wide range of pieces in its photographic library. It owns a total of 18,000 works. Numerous exhibitions are organized annually, showing either the works of a particular artist or a retrospective of an artistic genre. The art library of the municipal museums (Bibliothèque d'art des musées municipaux), the art book shop of the municipal museums (Librairie d'art des musées municipaux) and a multi-purpose auditorium for conferences, films and concerts are also found in the same building. The spacious roof terrace accommodates a museum cafe.

St Thomas' Church (French: Église Saint-Thomas, German: Thomaskirche) is a historical building in Strasbourg, eastern France. It is the main Lutheran church of the city since its cathedral became Catholic again after the annexation of the town by France in 1681. It is nicknamed the "Protestant Cathedral" (la cathédrale du Protestantisme alsacien, Kathedrale der Protestanten) or the Old Lady (Die alte Dame), and the only example of a hall church in the Alsace region. The building is located on the Route Romane d'Alsace. It is classified as a Monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1862. Its congregation forms part of the Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine.

The Liberation of Strasbourg took place on 23 November 1944 during the Alsace campaign (November 1944 – March 1945) in the last months of World War 2. After the liberation of Mulhouse on 21 November 1944 by the 1st Armored Division, General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, and the 2nd Armored Division entered Strasbourg after having liberated Sarrebourg and La Petite-Pierre, which cleared the way to the city of Strasbourg.

The Strasbourg massacre occurred on February 14, 1349, when several hundred Jews were publicly burnt to death, and the rest of them expelled from the city as part of the Black Death persecutions.Starting in the spring of 1348, pogroms against Jews had occurred in European cities, starting in Toulon. By November of that year they spread via Savoy to German-speaking territories. In January 1349, burnings of Jews took place in Basel and Freiburg, and on 14 February the Jewish community in Strasbourg was destroyed. This event was heavily linked to a revolt by the guilds five days previously, the consequences of which were the displacement of the master tradesmen, a reduction of the power of the patrician bourgeoisie, who had until then been ruling almost exclusively, and an increase in the power of the groups that were involved in the revolt. The aristocratic families of Zorn and Müllenheim, which had been displaced from the council and their offices in 1332, recovered most of their power. The guilds, which until then had no means of political participation, could occupy the most important position in the city, that of the Ammanmeister. The revolt had occurred because a large part of the population on the one hand believed the power of the master tradesmen was too great, particularly that of the then-Ammanmeister Peter Swarber, and on the other hand, there was a desire to put an end to the policy of protecting Jews under Peter Swarber.

Strasbourg (UK: , US: , French: [stʁasbuʁ] (listen); German: Straßburg [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊʁk] (listen); Bas Rhin Alsatian: Strossburi [ˈʃd̥ʁɔːsb̥uʁi] (listen), Haut Rhin Alsatian: Strossburig [ˈʃd̥ʁɔːsb̥uʁiɡ̊] (listen)) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the European Parliament. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department. In 2020, the city proper had 290,576 inhabitants and both the Eurométropole de Strasbourg (Greater Strasbourg) and the Arrondissement of Strasbourg had 511,552 inhabitants. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 853,110 in 2019, 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. 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. 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. 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.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.

L’Aubette is an historical building on Place Kléber in Strasbourg, France. It was built by Jacques-François Blondel in 1765–1772. In 1926, three avant-garde artists Theo van Doesburg, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp (or Hans Arp) were commissioned by Paul and Adré Horn to redecorate and design the Café Aubette in Strasbourg. Three artists were equally responsible for different sections of the building. Theo van Doesburg was in charge of the two cafés and two dance halls, Sophie Taeuber for the entrance aisle, tearoom, and two bars, and Jean Arp for the basement, the passage, and billiard room. And all three artists worked together designing the stairwell. The work of the three artists had been called "the Sistine Chapel of abstract art". This historical building still opens as a historical landmark nowadays.