Guebwiller (french: Guebwiller, ; Alsatian: ''Gàwiller'' ; ) is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (, ; Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; german: Oberelsass, ) is a department in the Grand Est region of France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means '' Upper Rhine''. Haut-Rhin is t ...

department in

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administr ...

currently in north-eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. 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: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...

at the foot 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 singl ...

. The '' Ballon de Guebwiller'', 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, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...

had a population of 28,662.

History

Guebweiler, as Gebweiler, is mentioned as early as 774. It belonged to the religious foundation of

Murbach Murbach is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Murbach Abbey is located near Murbach. See also * Communes of the Haut-Rhin département The following is a list of the 366 communes of the French dep ...

, and in 1759 the abbots chose it for their residence. In 1789, at the outbreak of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, the monastic buildings were laid in ruins, and, though the archives were rescued and removed to

Colmar Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it i ...

, the library perished.

Geography

Climate

Guebwiller has a

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''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 coldest temperature ever recorded was on 20 December 2009.

Population

People

Guebwiller was the birthplace of * Casimir de Rathsamhausen (1698-1786) * Ignace Ritter (1732-1813), architect * François Joseph Rudler (1757-1837) *

Émile Keller Émile Keller (Belfort, 1828 – 1909) was a French writer and politician. Biography In 1857 he was elected as a deputy for the Haut-Rhin district to the French Assembly. He soon made himself prominent as a leader of the Roman Catholic Part ...

(1820-1909) *

Niklaus Riggenbach Niklaus Riggenbach (21 May 1817 – 25 July 1899) was the inventor of the Riggenbach rack system and the counter-pressure brake. He was also an engineer and locomotive builder. Niklaus Riggenbach, from Rünenberg, Basel-Landschaft, Swit ...

(1817-1899), engineer * Frédéric Ritter (1819-1893) * Théodore Deck (1823-1891), ceramist * Joseph Guerber (1824-1909), writer and journalist * Gustave Schlumberger (1844-1929), historian, Byzantinist, numismatist * Andreas Bauer (1866-1900) missionary Franciscan friar, martyr in China * Jeanne Bucher (1872-1946) * Prosper Merklen (1874-1939), physician * Jean Schlumberger (1877-1968), publisher and writer * Francois Conrad Schlumberger (1878-1936), co-founder of

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling comp ...

. see Schlumberger Brothers *

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 invo ...

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

. see Schlumberger Brothers * Louis Gava (1891-1965), conductor *

Al Weill Armand "Al" Weill (December 28, 1893 – October 20, 1969) was a boxing manager. Background Weill moved to the United States from his birthplace of France at the age of 13. In his early years, he began working as a professional ballroom dance ...

(1893-1969), boxing manager * Joseph Storck (1897-1989) *

Alfred Kastler Alfred Kastler (; 3 May 1902 – 7 January 1984) was a French physicist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Biography Kastler was born in Guebwiller (Alsace, German Empire) and later attended the Lycée Bartholdi in Colmar, Alsace, and École Normale S ...

(1902-1984), physicist * Émile Baas (1906-1984), essayist * Pierre Lévy (1907-2002), industrialist * Armand Walter (1908-1995) *

Robert Schilling (historian) Robert Schilling (17 April 1913 – 30 October 2004) was a 20th-century French historian and Latinist, a specialist in the history of religion in ancient Rome. Biography A former student of the École Normale Supérieure where he was admitted ...

(1913–2004), * Pierre Ritz (1922-2009), conductor and composer *

Katia Krafft Catherine Joséphine "Katia" Krafft (née Conrad; April 17, 1942 – June 3, 1991) and her husband, Maurice Paul Krafft (March 25, 1946 – June 3, 1991), were French volcanologists who died in a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen, in Japan, on June ...

(1942-1991), volcanologist * Roland Hodel (1943-), prefect and politician * Sonia Pelletier-Gautier (1958-), historian and writer

Twin towns

Guebwiller is twinned with: *

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label= Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital o ...

(

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

) *

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

(

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

)

Points of interest

* Romanesque and early

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

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 Christian monks and nuns. The c ...

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

Early Renaissance Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) 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 occ ...

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 Nota ...

* Synagogue of Guebwiller