Kaysersberg

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Kaysersberg
Coat of arms of Kaysersberg
Kaysersberg (France)
Kaysersberg
local community Kaysersberg Vignoble
region Grand Est
Department Haut-Rhin
Arrondissement Colmar-Ribeauvillé
Coordinates 48 ° 8 '  N , 7 ° 16'  E Coordinates: 48 ° 8 '  N , 7 ° 16'  E
Post Code 68240
Former INSEE code 68162
Incorporation January 1, 2016
status Commune déléguée
Website www.ville-kaysersberg.fr

View of Kaysersberg

Kaysersberg (in the Alemannic local dialect Kaisersbari , welsch Kèysprè ) is a former French commune with 2,489 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Haut-Rhin department in the Grand Est region . The former imperial city last belonged to the arrondissement of Colmar-Ribeauvillé and the canton of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines . Kaysersberg is the birthplace of Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer .

With effect from January 1, 2016, the former municipalities of Kaysersberg , Kientzheim and Sigolsheim were merged into a Commune nouvelle with the name Kaysersberg Vignoble .

geography

Kaysersberg is located in the valley of the Weiss river , northwest of Colmar on the Alsace Wine Route . The area is part of the Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park .

history

Aerial view of Kaysersberg, 1916

There was probably a settlement on the site of the later town as early as Roman times. The valley of the Weiss was used in the Middle Ages as an important connecting route between the Rhine plain and Lorraine. The settlement was first mentioned in a document as Castrum Keisersberg in 1227 . To protect this important route, the Staufer Emperor Friedrich II had the conveniently located place, where a castle had presumably already stood, purchased and (again?) Fortified by the imperial mayor Wölflin. In 1293, Kaysersberg was granted city rights, enjoyed rapid growth and in 1353 joined the League of Ten as a Free Imperial City . It is said of the imperial bailiff Lazarus von Schwendi (1522–1584), who lived here, that he was supposed to have brought the Tokaj vine from there, serving as a military leader against the advancing Turks in Hungary . In the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the city fell to France and remained French, except between 1871 and 1918. Deprived of its privileges and strategic importance, Kaysersberg quickly fell into largely irrelevance. After the French Revolution , the place was temporarily called Mont-Libre . Today the small town with its well-preserved old town center is a popular destination.

Population development

year 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2007 2013
Residents 2821 2979 2949 2707 2755 2676 2720 2701
Source: Cassini and INSEE

Attractions

On many houses, tall masts and churches you can see stork nests, sitting, arriving and departing storks . This is particularly spectacular in the spring during the mating season and the rearing of young birds.

Buildings

  • Kaysersberg Castle , which was built in the Middle Ages, has been preserved as a mighty castle ruin , to which two footpaths lead from the town. In the dungeon , a new concrete staircase was installed; the spire is freely accessible via this.
  • In the church of Sainte-Croix (Holy Cross) there is an oversized figure of Christ and a carved altar by Hans Bongart from 1518.
  • The former town hall ( Hôtel de ville ) is a remarkable Renaissance building (1604) with an inner courtyard.
  • There are still many ornate half-timbered houses in the old town.
  • Parts of the old city fortifications including 2 towers.

Museums

  • The local historical museum (French: Musée local historique ) is housed in a stone house from 1521 and testifies to the history of the region.
  • The Albert Schweitzer Museum (French: Musée Albert Schweitzer ) offers exhibits from the life of the missionary doctor Albert Schweitzer, who was born in Kaysersberg in 1875 .

  • The Kaysersberg Castle

  • Church Sainte-Croix

  • Former town hall

  • Picturesque angle

  • Albert Schweitzer's birthplace

  • The Doctor Albert Schweitzer Museum

Community partnerships

Kaysersberg had a partnership with Lambaréné in Gabon (Africa), where Albert Schweitzer, who was born in Kaysersberg, had worked in the jungle hospital he founded. Since 2008 there has also been a partnership with the Belgian municipality of Perwez in Wallonia .

Personalities

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes du Haut-Rhin. Flohic Editions, Volume 1, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-84234-036-1 , pp. 675-681.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Photo of two place-name signs with the two spellings of the city name. ( Memento of the original from August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.unsri-heimet.eu
  2. ↑ Interior of the parish church of Our Lady  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.mitte-sued-ka.de   , mitte-sued-ka.de, accessed on January 5, 2015

Web links

Commons : Kaysersberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Kaysersberg in the Topographia Alsatiae (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts