Visit to Strasbourg Cathedral, France

I chose randomly again the place that I will be featuring in this Europe travel blog. This time I want to introduce Strasbourg, the capital of the Alsace region of France. Some hours sightseeing is not enough to see everything in this city but I am glad that I was there and was able to experience some of its sights. One of it is the famous Strasbourg Cathedral.

Also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg and called in French as Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg, in German as Liebfrauenmünster zu Straßburg, is a Roman Catholic Cathedral in this city. It is considered to be one of the finest example of late Gothic architecture. Some of its parts are in Romanesque architecture. It's construction started in 1015 and was completed in 1439.

Don't miss to go inside once you are there and take a look of its 18-metre astronomical clock, one of the largest in the world.

The Strasbourg Cathedral during our visit last December 2010.

the interior of the Cathedral.

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Visit to Strasbourg, France

I was thinking if Strasbourg once belong to Germany. The name doesn't sound like French but German instead. I need to research about this in the future. It's been almost year now since we visited this city. It is located near the border of German and is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France. It is also the official seat of the European Parliament.

We only had some hours sightseeing in this city which is not enough to see everything there. At least we were able to see some of its sights. Among the few of its interesting sights include;

-Its sandstone Gothic Cathedral with its astronomical clock.
-The Château de Pourtalès
-The Barrage Vauban
-Place du Marché aux Cochons de Lait.
-Place Kléber
-Parks like the Parc de l'Orangerie
-Museums like The Musée des Beaux-Arts, The Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame

Etymology of Strasbourg:

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."
wikipedia.org

the famous Gothic Cathedral in Strasbourg.

the Christmas market in front of the Cathedral square. You can also see the interesting and historical houses in this city.

These images were taken during our visit last December 6, 2010.

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Christmas Market in Strasbourg, France

The Christkindelsmärik called in French as Marché de Noël in Strasbourg, France is an event held annually from November 24 to December 24, 2010. This event was said to begin since 1570 and considered as one of the oldest Christmas markets. It usually takes place at on Place Kléber, Place Broglie, Place du Marché aux cochons de lait and around the Strasbourg cathedral.

We are one of the 1.5 to 2 millions of visitors who witnessed this event this year. I find Strasbourg a very interesting city. Visiting it for some hours is not enough to see all around the city. I am just happy that I experienced this event once in my life. I believed I will be coming back to Strasbourg in the future.

Here are some images I took during our visit last December 13, 2010.

one of the stalls we visited. this is where the bus driver dropped us as we had a walk in the city.

another stall located near the Strasbourg Cathedral.

you never get hungry when visiting a Christmas market. Stall like this is selling crepes filled with marmelade or nougat.

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