The library of the prince-bishops inside the Palais Rohan, Strasbourg, Grand Est, France
Some background information:
The Palais Rohan (in English: "Rohan Palace") is the former residence of the prince-bishops and cardinals of Strasbourg from the House of Rohan, an ancient French noble family. It was built next to Strasbourg Cathedral in the 1730s and is considered a masterpiece of French Baroque architecture. Since its completion in 1742, the palace has hosted a number of French monarchs such as Louis XV, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon Bonaparte and Joséphine, and Charles X.
In 1727 the French cardinal Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan commissioned the architect Robert de Cotte to design the palace. Building work on the Palais Rohan took place from 1732 until 1742. A budget of 344,000 French livres had been established for the construction – 200,000 livres lent from the Cathedral chapter and 144,000 raised as local taxes over a period of twelve years – but the final cost is estimated at one million French livres (being roughly the equivalent of 15 Mio. euros today). The palace is mostly built in yellow sandstone, with pink sandstone for the less visible parts.
The House of Rohan owned the palace until the French Revolution, when it was confiscated, declared state owned, and finally auctioned off in 1791. Bought by the municipality, it became the new hôtel de ville (in English: "town hall") of Strasbourg in the same year, which it remained until 1805. In that year, the municipality presented it to Napoleon Bonaparte, who returned the Hôtel de Hanau in exchange.
For both parties this arrangement proved favourable: For the municipality the maintenance of the Hôtel de Hanau was less costly than that of the larger Palais Rohan. And for Napoleon the Palais Rohan was the more conspicuous display of grandeur. As for the palace, imperial ownership meant renewed splendour. Some of the interiors were then refurbished to the liking of his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais and these interiors are still largely the current furnishings.
In 1871, the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War signified the end of French and the beginning of German rule over Alsace, which had until 1681 been linked to Germany through the Holy Roman Empire. France had to cede the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and Moselle to the newly created German Empire. Between 1872 and 1884, the Palais Rohan was used by the newly established Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität (in English: "Emperor Wilhelm University"). At first, it was the seat of the faculties of law, philosophy, and sciences, before it served as the university's library until 1895.
After this, the palace again became the property of the city that converted it into a museum of art. After the return of Alsace to French rule in 1918, the new director of the Musée des beaux-arts and the Musée des arts décoratifs put major efforts into presenting the Palais Rohan as a coherent whole again. In 1944, during World War II, the palace was damaged by British and American bombs, but after the war, restoration measures were undertaken soon. Today, the State Apartments are open to the puplic. But the palace also houses three museums, the Musée des beaux-arts (in English: "Museum of Fine Arts"), Musée des arts décoratifs (in English: "Museum of Decorative Arts") as well as the Musée archéologique (in English: "Archaeological Museum")-
Strasbourg is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and also the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. Furthermore it is the official seat of the European Parliament. Today the inner city of Strasbourg has about 276,170 inhabitants, while its metropolitan area has about 780,000 residents, making it the ninth largest metropolitan area in France. Strasbourg is located very close to the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace. This strategically important position as a borderland was responsible for both region and city being an apple of discord between France and Germany for many centuries.
But although Strasbourg was violently disputed throughout history, it has also always been a cultural bridge between France and Germany, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture.
The historic city centre of Strasbourg, the Grande Île (in English: "Grand Island") and thereby also the old quarter La Petite France with the Ponts Couverts as well as the famous Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg, was classified a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO as early as 1988. It was the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. By the way, the cathedral is widely considered to be among the finest examples of high Gothic architecture.
Strasbourg is situated on the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the Rhine, which also forms the eastern border of the modern city, facing across the river to the German town Kehl. The historic core of Strasbourg however lies on the Grande Île in the river Ill, which here flows parallel to the Rhine. The natural courses of the two rivers eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city.
Strasbourg is one of the de facto capitals of the European Union (alongside Brussels and Luxembourg), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory) and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is also the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights.
The Roman camp of Argentoratum, from which the city of Strasbourg grew, was first mentioned in 12 BC. Between 362 and 1262, Strasbourg was governed by the bishops of Strasbourg. In 1262, the citizens violently rebelled against the bishop's rule and Strasbourg became a free imperial city within the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation. In 1349, Strasbourg was the site of one of the worst pogroms of the Middle Ages, when over a thousand Jews were publicly burned to death. In the early 16th century the town was one of the first German cities to embrace the protestant, Lutheran faith. Because of this, it became a centre of humanistic learning and book printing. The first newspaper in Europe was printed in Strasbourg.
In 1681, the city was annexed by the French king Louis XIV, who took profit from the chaos following the Thirty Years' War in Germany. But France still kept treating the Alsace region as a de facto foreign province until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. The customs barrier alongside the Vosges mountains continued to exist while there still wasn’t any customs barrier between Germany and the Alsace region. Furthermore the town kept striking German coins until 1708. From 1770 to 1771, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe studied in Strasbourg. At this time the town was an important hub of the so-called "Sturm und Drang" movement in German literature.
In 1792, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed the Marseillaise in Strasbourg, the French national anthem, right after the French declaration of war against Austria. In the years 1805, 1806 and 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte sojourned in Strasbourg, together with his first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais. They used Palais Rohan as their domicile and Joséphine re-decorated several rooms according to her own taste and the fashion of the time.
After the Franco-Prussian War that lasted from 1870 to 1871, the city became German again, until 1918, when it reverted to France after the end of World War I. When France was defeated by Germany in 1940 in the course of World War II, the city and its still predominantly German-speaking population came under German control again. However, since the end of 1944, when Strasbourg was taken by Allied forces, it is again a French town. As a concession to the German-speaking section of the city’s residents, the street signs in Strasbourg are all bilingual.
Besides being one of the de facto capitals of the European Union, Strasbourg is an important economic centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail and river transportation. However, tourism also plays a major role in the town’s economy of today. Many tourists from all Europe, the US and Asia crowd Strasbourg’s streets at all seasons of the year, going sightseeing through this beautiful romantic historic city with its many old half-timbered houses.
