The Bas-Rhin is the department that encompasses Strasbourg and the Alsace Wine Route, a region between the Rhine and the Vosges mountains whose half-timbered architecture, flower-filled villages and ruined castles on the ridges form the most familiar image of Alsace. Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, is a city that symbolises Franco-German reconciliation and European integration.
The Alsace Wine Route, stretching from Marlenheim to Thann, winds its way for 170 kilometres through wine-growing villages at the foot of the Vosges, dotted with ruined medieval castles on the ridges overlooking the vineyards. Haut-Koenigsbourg, a fortified castle rebuilt by Wilhelm II between 1900 and 1908 in a Germanic neo-medieval style, overlooks the Alsace plain from its promontory at an altitude of 755 metres and welcomes several hundred thousand visitors each year.
Obernai, Barr, Andlau, Dambach-la-Ville, Sélestat, whose humanist library houses incunabula of inestimable value… The towns and villages of the Bas-Rhin boast characteristic Alsatian architecture — half-timbered houses, geraniums in the windows, ornamental wells — which delights visitors in all seasons.