Eguisheim (; german: Egisheim; Alsatian: ''Egsa'') is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (, ; Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; german: Oberelsass, ) is a department in the Grand Est region of France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means '' Upper Rhine''. Haut-Rhin is t ...

department in

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administr ...

in north-eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It lies in the historical region of

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

(german: Elsass). The village lies on the edge of the

Ballons des Vosges Nature Park The Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park ( French: ''Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges'') is a protected area of woodland, pasture, wetland, farmland and historical sites in the regions of Grand Est and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté ...

, where the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a singl ...

meet the

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...

. Eguisheim is about from

Colmar Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it i ...

. The vineyards around Eguisheim produce

Alsace wine Alsace wine or Alsatian wine (french: Vin d'Alsace; german: Elsässer Wein; gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, d'r Wii vum Elsàss; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, de Win vum Elsàss) is produced in the Alsace region in France and is primarily w ...

of high quality. The village is ranked in the top 20 of

Les Plus Beaux Villages de France ''Les Plus Beaux Villages de France'' (meaning “the most beautiful villages of France”) is an independent association created in 1982 for the promotion of the tourist appeal of small rural villages with a rich cultural heritage. As of Septem ...

. In May 2013 it was voted the 'Village préféré des Français' (Favorite French Village), an annual distinction that passes from town to town throughout France.

History

Human presence in the area as early as the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

age is testified by archaeological excavations. Two parts from a human skull (from the frontal and parietal bones) were found in 1865 and given to Charles-Frédéric Faudel, a physician in nearby

, who carefully described the find and noted they were found undisturbed between animal bones, which allowed for a relative dating at a time when the very existence of prehistoric humans was still doubted. The find became known in France in 1867 through

Paul Broca Pierre Paul Broca (, also , , ; 28 June 1824 – 9 July 1880) was a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that is named after him. Broca's area is involve ...

, and subsequently became a topic of discussion in the debate over what would become

paleoanthropology Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinsh ...

Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (10 February 1810 – 12 January 1892) was a French biologist. Life He was born at Berthézène, in the commune of Valleraugue (Gard), the son of a Protestant farmer. He studied science and then medic ...

and Ernest Hamy, in their 1873 ''Crania ethnica'', grouped Eguisheim and others with the finds at Neanderthal and Naulette, creating a "race of Canstadt" that was so flexible that almost all fossil remains of humans would fit. Gustav Schwalbe (who first published on the skull in 1897), in a comparison with other skull fragments including those found in Spy, Belgium, concluded the skull was sufficiently different from

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...

skulls and approached the measurements of modern humans. One reviewer cast some doubt on Schwalbe's comparison and argued that only the

cranial vault The cranial vault is the space in the skull within the neurocranium, occupied by the brain. Development In humans, the cranial vault is imperfectly composed in newborns, to allow the large human head to pass through the birth canal. During bi ...

was substantially different from the others, but this, he said, could have been a normal variation from the mean within a group. Later scholars seem to have accepted the identification of the skull as belonging to a Neanderthal, though Schwalbe again, in 1902, insisted on the difference between the Eguisheim and Neanderthal skulls. In 1904 Schwalbe proposed a species he called ''Homo primigenius'' for what at least one of his contemporaries called ''Home neandertalensis'', and excluded the Eguisheim skull from that category. In early historic times it was inhabited by the

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

tribe of the Senones; the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

conquered the village and developed here the cultivation of wine. In the early Middle Ages, the

Dukes of Alsace The Duchy of Alsace ( la, Ducatus Alsacensi, ''Ducatum Elisatium''; german: Herzogtum Elsaß) was a large political subdivision of the Frankish Empire during the last century and a half of Merovingian rule. It corresponded to the territory of Alsac ...

built a castle here (11th century) around which the current settlement developed.

Climate

Eguisheim has a climate that is principally oceanic being influenced by the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, it is warm and temperate. It is rated as CfB on the Köppen-Geiger scale. Because Eguisheim is landinward temperatures in the summer regularly exceed . January is generally the coldest month, although the temperature occasionally drops below 0 °C, the average temperature is above freezing point. May and June are usually the wettest months of the year (there is rainfall almost every other day). June, July and August are the hottest months with the most sun. September is not extremely wet or hot, making it very suitable for the harvest of grapes.

Wine

Eguisheim has two areas which produce wine of exceptional quality, Eichberg (in English: Oak Mountain) and Pfersigberg (in English: Peach Mountain), characterised by the very hard

Muschelkalk The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; french: calcaire coquillier) is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million ...

. Besides the usual-quality wines, Eguisheim produces Edelzwicker, Côte d'Eguisheim (a local high-end variety of Edelzwicker) and Gentil, all blends of the "noble" grapes grown locally.

Tourism

The village is a popular tourist destination, in part because the Alsace "Wine Route" passes the village. The village is close to Husseren-les-Châteaux and is in the middle of vineyards. The village is connected to Husseren-les-Châteaux by the Route du Vin (D14). Around the Route du Vin is a wine trail through the vineyards called ''Sentier viticole Eguisheim'', which tries to explain the different grape varieties and the way wine is made in

. The area around Eguisheim is popular with hikers and cyclists. There are many marked trails. Popular destinations are Les Trois Châteaux (in Husseren-les-Châteaux) and Château de Hagueneck. A little further away are

Château du Hohlandsbourg The Château du Hohlandsbourg or ''Hohlandsberg'' is a ruined castle in the ''commune'' of Wintzenheim, near Colmar, in the Haut-Rhin ''département'' of France. It is open to the public between Easter and 11 November. History The construction of ...

and Château de Pflixbourg, which can be reached on foot or by car. The village is also a ''Village Cigogne d'Alsace'' (in Alsatian: Elsässisches Storckadorf), meaning that there are

stork Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...

s in the village. Eguisheim has a park dedicated to the

white stork The white stork (''Ciconia ciconia'') is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to e ...

(''Ciconia ciconia'') which is freely accessible.

Notable people

Leo IX Pope Leo IX (21 June 1002 – 19 April 1054), born Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Leo IX is considered to be one of the most historically ...

(1002–1054), pope of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Eguisheim was his alleged birthplace on 21 June 1002.Pope Leo IX on the Brittanica website
/ref> At this time Eguisheim was German.

International relations

Eguisheim is twinned with *

Hautvillers Hautvillers is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. The Abbey of St. Peter which existed here until the French Revolution was the home of the famous Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk whose work in wine-making helped to deve ...

, France *

La Louvière La Louvière (; wa, El Lovire) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boussoit, Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Houdeng-Aimeries, Houde ...

, Belgium * Hinterzarten, Germany It has also friendship agreements with: * Aubusson, France *

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium *

Tazewell, Tennessee Tazewell is a town in and the county seat of Claiborne County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,165 at the 2000 census and 2,218 at the 2010 census, and 2,348 at the 2020 census. The town is named for Tazewell, Virginia, which itsel ...

, USA

Gallery

{{authority control Communes of Haut-Rhin Plus Beaux Villages de France Neanderthal sites Prehistoric sites in France