Église Catholique Saint-Pierre le-Vieux, Strasbourg, Alsace, France

"The Church of Old Saint Peters (French: Église Saint-Pierre le Vieux) is a by simultaneum Catholic and Lutheran church building in Strasbourg, Alsace is first mentioned in 1130.

In the Middle Ages it was one of Diocese of Strasbourg's nine parish churches.

On 22 May 1398 the Chapter of the Abbey of Honau, which had been in Rhinau since 1290, moved to Old St Peter's because of flooding in Rhinau. The Chapter stayed there until 1529, conducting its services in the choir, while the parish occupied the nave. When the Catholic rite was restored in 1683, the Chapter returned to the Church and stayed there until 1790, when it was wound up.

On 20 February 1529, when Strasbourg openly joined the Reformation and suspended the practice of the mass, the Church became Lutheran. Martin Bucer and the other Strasbourg reformers had campaigned for several years to have Protestant services in all of Strasbourg's churches, but in 1525 the city council had voted to retain the mass in several churches, including Old St Peter's.

In 1535, in the context of the Reform, a Latin school, or 'Middle school' was opened at Old Saint Peters.

In 1683, two years after the annexation of Strasbourg by France, Louis XIV ordered that part of the Church be returned to the Catholics and that a wall be constructed inside the church by the rood screen, to restrict the Protestant services to the Nave. It was not until 2012 that a door was opened in this dividing wall.

In the 19th century, the Catholic part of the Church was extended. The extension was designed by the architect Conrath and opened in 1867. The 1762 pipe organ of the Catholic part was moved to the Church of Saint Maurice in Soultz-les-Bains in 1865.

The Catholic Church contains relics of Brigit of Kildare as well as a number of important works of art classified as Monuments historiques such as the "Passion of Christ", a series of ten Gothic paintings by Heinrich (or Henri) Lutzelmann (1485), the "Scenes from the Life of St Peter" an (incomplete) series of four wooden early Renaissance or late Gothic reliefs made around 1500 and a series of four 1504 paintings depicting "Scenes of the Life of Christ after the Resurrection".

The Lutheran part of the church, presently owned and used by a congregation within the Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine, also features some notable works of art, among which the wooden Renaissance relief "Holy Family" (1520s) by Hans Wydyz, classified as a Monument historique.

Strasbourg (UK: /ˈstræzbɜːrɡ/, US: /ˈstræs-, ˈstrɑːsbʊərɡ, ˈstrɑːzbʊərɡ, -bɜːrɡ, strɑːzˈbʊər/, French: [stʁazbuʁ, stʁasbuʁ]; Bas Rhin Alsatian: Strossburi [ˈʃd̥ʁɔːsb̥uʁi], Haut Rhin Alsatian: Strossburig [ˈʃd̥ʁɔːsb̥uʁiɡ̊]; German: Straßburg [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊʁk] Latin: Argentoratum) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of Eastern France and the official seat of the European Parliament. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department.

In 2018, the city proper had 284,677 inhabitants and both the Eurométropole de Strasbourg (Greater Strasbourg) and the Arrondissement of Strasbourg had 500,510 inhabitants. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 790,087 in 2017 (not counting the section across the border in Germany), making it the ninth-largest metro area in France and home to 13% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 958,421 inhabitants. Strasbourg is one of the de facto four main capitals of the European Union (alongside Brussels, Luxembourg and Frankfurt), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the European Parliament, the Eurocorps and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. An organization separate from the European Union, the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines most commonly known in French as "Pharmacopée Européenne", and its European Audiovisual Observatory) is also located in the city.

Together with Basel (Bank for International Settlements), Geneva (United Nations headquarters in Europe), The Hague (International Court of Justice) and New York City (United Nations world headquarters), Strasbourg is among the few cities in the world that is not a state capital that hosts international organisations of the first order. The city is the seat of many non-European international institutions such as the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights. It is the second city in France in terms of international congress and symposia, after Paris. Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988. Strasbourg is immersed in Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a cultural bridge between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second-largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture. It is also home to the largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque.

Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, and river transportation. The port of Strasbourg is the second-largest on the Rhine after Duisburg in Germany, and the second-largest river port in France after Paris.

Alsace (/ælˈsæs/, also US: /ælˈseɪs, ˈælsæs/; French: [alzas]; Low Alemannic German/Alsatian: 's Elsàss [ˈɛlsɑs]; German: Elsass [ˈɛlzas]; Latin: Alsatia) is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2017, it had a population of 1,889,589.

Until 1871, Alsace included the area now known as the Territoire de Belfort, which formed its southernmost part. From 1982 to 2016, Alsace was the smallest administrative région in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French Parliament in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. Due to protests it was decided in 2019 that Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin would form the future European Collectivity of Alsace in 2021.

Alsatian is an Alemannic dialect closely related to Swabian and Swiss German, although since World War II most Alsatians primarily speak French. Internal and international migration since 1945 has also changed the ethnolinguistic composition of Alsace. For more than 300 years, from the Thirty Years' War to World War II, the political status of Alsace was heavily contested between France and various German states in wars and diplomatic conferences. The economic and cultural capital of Alsace, as well as its largest city, is Strasbourg, which sits right on the contemporary German international border. The city is the seat of several international organisations and bodies." - info from Wikipedia.

During the summer of 2018 I went on my first ever cycling tour. On my own I cycled from Strasbourg, France to Geneva, Switzerland passing through the major cities of Switzerland. In total I cycled 1,185 km over the course of 16 days and took more than 8,000 photos.

Now on Instagram.

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon.

Some rights reserved

Taken in: France / Grand Est / La Petite France (show map)

Taken on: June 20, 2018

Tags:

Bike

Tour

Adventure

Cycling

Europe

Historic

Architecture

Travel

France

French

Alsace

Strasbourg

City

Religious

Church

Gothic

Stone « less

Sets appears in: • Europe Cycling Tour 2018 • France more » • Alsace, France « less

Stats: 5,876 views

go back

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: