Wissembourg

Wissembourg marks the entrance to the Regional Nature Reserve of the Northern Vosges. It has been part of the "World Biosphere Reserve" since 1989. A land of vineyards and orchards, it is the starting point for discoveries on foot or by eBike. Once a small village of artisans and winegrowers, we now experience Wissembourg as a welcoming and endearing town, where we can relax on the quaysides in the imposing shadow of the abbey church or sit on one of the many benches in the cobbled streets before strolling to the town walls.

It vividly tells its story along the small river Lauter. The city is rich in preserved religious heritage, despite a particularly difficult past. The town developed around the abbey of Saint Pierre and Paul, the second largest Gothic building in Alsace after Strasbourg Cathedral. After the state border between Germany and France often shifted, today the locals do not care to which state they belong for daily life. French winegrowers have their vineyards on the German side and German winegrowers on the French side.

In this respect, no one minds if we philosophize about whether Wissembourg is not perhaps the well-hidden gateway to the German Wineroad.