Guebwiller (; Alsatian: ''Gàwiller'' ; ) is a commune in the

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

Grand Est Grand Est (; ) is an Regions of France, administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-A ...

in north-eastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It was a

sub-prefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefectures. ...

of the department until 2015.Décret n° 2014-1720 du 29 décembre 2014 portant suppression des arrondissements de Guebwiller et de Ribeauvillé (département du Haut-Rhin)
/ref> It is situated northwest of

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...

at the foot of the

Vosges mountains The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian (linguistics), Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its France–Germany border, border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the bor ...

. The ''

Ballon de Guebwiller The Grand Ballon () or Great Belchen ( ; ) is the highest mountain of the Vosges, located northwest of Mulhouse, France. It is also the highest point of the Grand-Est French region. Name ''Grand Ballon'' means "great ound-toppedmountain" ...

'', the highest point in the Vosges, lies to the west of the town. In 2018, Guebwiller had a population of 11,022 and its

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

had a population of 28,662.

History

Guebweiler, as Gebweiler, is mentioned as early as 774. It belonged to the religious foundation of Murbach, and in 1759 the abbots chose it for their residence. In 1789, at the outbreak of the French Revolution, the monastic buildings were laid in ruins, and, though the archives were rescued and removed to

Colmar Colmar (; ; or ) is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Alsace region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is the seat of the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department ...

, the library perished.

Geography

Climate

Guebwiller has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfb''). The average annual temperature in Guebwiller is . The average annual rainfall is with December as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Guebwiller was on 13 August 2003; the lowest temperature ever recorded was on 20 December 2009.

Population

People

Guebwiller was the birthplace of * Émile Keller (1820-1909) *

Niklaus Riggenbach Niklaus Riggenbach (21 May 1817 – 25 July 1899) was an Alsatian-born Swiss mechanic, railway engineer, politician and inventor of the rack railway system as well as the counter-pressure brake. Riggenbach was primarily known for introducin ...

(1817-1899), engineer *

Théodore Deck Joseph-Théodore Deck (2 January 1823 – 15 May 1891) was a 19th-century French Pottery, potter, an important figure in late 19th-century art pottery. Born in Guebwiller, Haut-Rhin, he began learning the trade in his early 20s, moving to Paris at ...

(1823-1891), ceramist *

Gustave Schlumberger Gustave Léon Schlumberger (17 October 1844 – 9 May 1929) was a French historian and numismatist who specialised in the era of the crusades and the Byzantine Empire. His ' (1878–82) is still considered the principal work on the coinage of the ...

(1844-1929), historian, Byzantinist, numismatist * Jean Schlumberger (1877-1968), publisher and writer * Conrad Schlumberger (1878-1936), co-founder of

Schlumberger Schlumberger (), doing business as SLB, is a global multinational oilfield services company. Founded in France in 1926, the company is now incorporated as Schlumberger NV in Willemstad, Curaçao, with principal executive offices in Houston ...

Charles Hueber Charles Louis Hueber (21 August 1883 – 18 August 1943) was an Alsatian politician. He was the mayor of Strasbourg between 1929 and 1935, and a member of the French National Assembly twice.Charles, Louis HUEBER (1883 - 1943)' Hueber became inv ...

(1883-1943), politician * Marcel Schlumberger (1884-1953), co-founder of

* Al Weill (1893-1969), boxing manager *

Alfred Kastler Alfred Kastler (; 3 May 1902 – 7 January 1984) was a German-born French physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics. He is known for the development of optical pumping. Biography Kastler was born in Guebwiller (Alsace, at the time part of the Germ ...

(1902-1984), physicist * Émile Baas (1906-1984), essayist * Eugène Ehrhart (1906-2000), mathematician * Armand Walter (1908-1995) * Robert Schilling (historian) (1913–2004), * Katia Krafft (1942-1991), volcanologist * Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin

Twin towns

Guebwiller is twinned with: *

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

(

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) *

Castelfiorentino Castelfiorentino is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, central-northern Italy, located between Florence (distance 30 km), Pisa (45 km) and Siena (55 km). The population numbers approxi ...

(

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

)

Points of interest

* Romanesque and early gothic church, ''Église Saint-Léger'' *Gothic former Dominican

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

''Les Dominicains'', now used as a cultural center. *

Early Renaissance Renaissance art (1350 – 1620) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occurr ...

townhall (''Hôtel de ville'') * Neoclassical church '' Église Notre-Dame'', the largest Neoclassical church in Alsace *''Musée Théodore Deck et des pays du Florival'', the largest museum in

outside Colmar and Mulhouse *

Parc de la Marseillaise The Parc de la Marseillaise is a public arboretum and botanical garden in the center of the town of Guebwiller, in the department of Haut-Rhin, in the Alsace Region of France. It is classified by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Notabl ...

* Synagogue of Guebwiller