Strasbourg, France
Strasbourg (German Strassburg) is a river-port city of
northeastern France located on the Rhine, which constitutes the border with
Germany. The old city is an island in the Ill River; canals link
the rest of the city to the Rhine, the Rhône, and the Marne rivers.
Strasbourg was built as a German city, but was seized by Louis
XIV in 1681 and officially ceded to France in 1697. The
twelfth-century Cathedral of Notre Dame and the
eighteenth-century palace, the Château des Rohans, are
among the most notable landmarks. Strasbourg's porcelain and
china industry was famous in the eighteenth century, and the city
was the home of Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, who in 1792 composed the
Revolutionary national anthem, "La Marseillaise."
