Strasbourg

Strasbourg grew from the Roman camp of Argentoratum into a Rhine trading city whose identity has long been shaped by the shifting frontier between France and the German lands. The cathedral’s spire and the half-timbered lanes of La Petite France evoke a medieval free city of guilds, humanist learning, and Reformation debate, later marked by annexations from Louis XIV’s 1681 takeover to the German Empire in 1871–1918. After 1945 it recast itself as a European capital, hosting the Council of Europe (1949) and the European Parliament as civic symbols of reconciliation.