Strasburg

Strasburg, or STRASSBURG, a German town and fortress of the first class, 1 mile from the Rhine and 250 miles S.E. of Paris, capital of the ceded Alsace-Lorraine district. The old fortifications, designed by Vauban, were destroyed in the Franco-German War, and the town is now defended by a chain of outlying forts. Many of the houses were destroyed during the bombardment, but have been rebuilt, and are for the most part lofty, while the streets are wide and clean and the squares extensive. The river Ill and its branches are crossed by many wooden bridges. Strasburg possesses a remarkably fine 13th century Gothic cathedral, with a spire 466 feet high, a nave 357 feet long, while the roof is 79 feet high. The west front, 230 feet high, has three portals, richly ornamented, and having above them a round window 48 feet in diameter. The astronomical self-regulating clock of Strasburg, with its figures that perform at the hour of noon, is renowned. Other buildings of note are a church, once Dominican, decorated with scenes from "The Dance of Death"; an ancient bishop's palace; the Church of St. Thomas, containing a statue of Marshal Saxe; a Jewish synagogue, the Stadthaus, Mint, Arsenal, University, Public Library, etc. The chief productions are woollen, linen and cotton goods, machinery, carpets, gloves, pates-de-foie-gras, chemicals; and brewing, dyeing, bleaching, tanning, iron working, sugar-refining, and tobacco-manufacturing are also carried on. There is an extensive trade in corn, wine, hops, tobacco, and the productions above mentioned. Strasburg has an archbishop. The town - then called Argentoratum - was a stronghold of the Romans against the Germans, and then passed into the possession or the latter. In the Middle Ages it was a free town and a republic, but in 1681 it was seized in time of peace by Louis XIV., and remained French till the Franco-German War of 1870.