Strasbourg Strasbourg Cathedral towering above the Old Town City flag City coat of arms Strasbourg Location within Alsace region  Strasbourg Administration Country France Region Alsace Department Bas-Rhin Arrondissement Strasbourg-Ville Canton chief town of 10 cantons Intercommunality Urban Community of Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries (PS) (2008–2014) Statistics Elevation 132–151 m (433–495 ft) Land area1 78.26 km2 (30.22 sq mi) Population2 272,975  (2006[1])  - Ranking 7th in France  - Density 3,488 /km2 (9,030 /sq mi) Urban area 222 km2 (86 sq mi) (2006[2])  - Population 440,264[3] (2006[2]) Metro area 1,351.5 km2 (521.8 sq mi) (2006[2])  - Population 638,670[4] (2006[2]) Time zone CET (UTC +1) Dialling code 0388, 0390, 0368 Website http://www.strasbourg.eu/ 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. Coordinates: 48°35′04″N 7°44′55″E / 48.5844°N 7.7486°E / 48.5844; 7.7486 Imperial City of Strasbourg Reichsstadt Straßburg (de) Ville libre de Strasbourg (fr) Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire ← 1262–1681 → Capital Strasbourg Government Republic Historical era Middle Ages  - City founded 12 BC  - Acquired by the Empire 923 1262  - Gained Reichsfreiheit 1262  - Straßburger Revolution 1332  - Annexed by France 1681  - Annexation recognised by     the Holy Roman Empire 1697

Strasbourg (French pronunciation: [stʁazbuʁ]; Lower Alsatian: Strossburi, [ˈʃd̥rɔːsb̥uri]; German: Straßburg, [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊɐ̯k]) is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking, explaining the city's Germanic name.^[5] In 2006, the city proper had 272,975 inhabitants and its urban community 467,375 inhabitants. With 638,670 inhabitants in 2006, Strasbourg's metropolitan area (aire urbaine) (only the part of the metropolitan area on French territory) is the ninth largest in France. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 884,988 inhabitants in 2008.^[6]

Strasbourg 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 the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine.

Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. Strasbourg is fused into the Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a bridge of unity between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture.

Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as of road, rail, and river communications. The port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany.^[7] In terms of city rankings, Strasbourg has been ranked third in France and 18th globally for innovation.^[8]

Etymology[link]

The city's Gallicized name is of Germanic origin and means "Town (at the crossing) of roads". The modern Stras- is cognate to the German Straße / Strasse which itself is derived from Latin strata ("street"), while -bourg (French for "village") is cognate to the German -burg ("fortress, town, citadel") and English borough. So the whole name would be roughly translated into English as "Fortress on the Street"^[5], or better, "Fortress on the Road" (or crossroads).

Geography[link]

Strasbourg is situated on the Ill River, where it flows into the Rhine on the border with Germany, across from the German town Kehl. The city is situated in the Upper Rhine Plain, approximately 20 km (12 mi) east of the Vosges Mountains and 25 km (16 mi) west of the Black Forest.

The location and the resulting poor natural ventilation makes Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France,^[9][10] although the progressive disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city are showing encouraging results.^[11] The Grand contournement ouest (GCO) project, nurtured since 1999, plans the construction of a 24 km (15 mi) long highway connection between the junctions of the A 4 and the A 35 autoroutes in the north and of the A4 and the A352 and A35 autoroutes in the south, meant to divest another significant portion of motorized traffic from the unité urbaine.^[12]

Climate diagram of Strasbourg

Climate[link]

Strasbourg's climate is classified as Oceanic (Köppen climate classification Cfb), with warm, relatively sunny summers and cold, overcast winters. Precipitation is elevated from mid-spring to the end of summer, but remains largely constant throughout the year, totaling 631.4 mm annually. On average, snow falls on 30 days per year.

The highest temperature ever recorded was 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) in August of 2003, during the 2003 European heat wave. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -23.4 °C (-10.1 °F) in December 1938.