Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...
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 ha ...
in north-eastern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
The village is located on the eastern beginnings of the
Vosges Mountains
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 single ...
, between
Molsheim
Molsheim () is a commune and a subprefecture in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
to the north and
Sélestat
Sélestat (; Alsatian: ''Schlettstàdt''; German: ''Schlettstadt'') is a commune in the Grand Est region of France. An administrative division (sous-préfecture) of the Bas-Rhin department, the town lies on the Ill river, from the Rhine and the ...
top the south. It is a few kilometres to the west of the Autoroute A35, the principal north-south highway in
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 ha ...
.
Economy
Tourism is important to the local economy which is positioned on the Elsässer Weinstraße. The village also takes a pride in its
vineyards
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vine ...
.
History
The village is on the course of a Roman road: it is therefore believed that the area must have been settled during the
Roman empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...
period. The name is thought to come from the Latin "Itineris villa" which indicates a hostelry for travellers.
In terms of surviving written records, a so-called
Letter of Indulgence
In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of ...
to Itterswiller dates from 1330.
Celebrations
An annual
church festival
Kermesse, or kermis, or kirmess, is a Dutch language term derived from 'kerk' (church) and 'mis' (mass) that became borrowed in English, French, Spanish and many other languages, originally denoting the mass said on the anniversary of the foundat ...
takes place at the end of September or start of October.