Guebwiller

Guebwiller (French pronunciation: [ɡebvilɛʁ] ; Alsatian: Gàwiller [ˈkaːviləʁ]; German: Gebweiler) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin département in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It was a sub-prefecture of the department until 2015.

It is situated 20 km (12 mi) northwest of Mulhouse at the foot of the Vosges mountains. The Ballon de Guebwiller, the highest point in the Vosges, lies 8 km (5.0 mi) to the west of the town.

In 2018, Guebwiller had a population of 11,022 and its urban area had a population of 28,662.

History

Guebweiler, as Gebweiler, is mentioned as early as 774. It belonged to the religious foundation of Murbach, and in 1759 the abbots chose it for their residence. In 1789, at the outbreak of the French Revolution, the monastic buildings were laid in ruins, and, though the archives were rescued and removed to Colmar, the library perished.

Geography

Climate

Guebwiller has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb). The average annual temperature in Guebwiller is 11.2 °C (52.2 °F). The average annual rainfall is 941.7 mm (37.07 in) with December as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 20.2 °C (68.4 °F), and lowest in January, at around 2.1 °C (35.8 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Guebwiller was 39.9 °C (103.8 °F) on 13 August 2003; the lowest temperature ever recorded was −16.3 °C (2.7 °F) on 20 December 2009.

Population

People

Guebwiller was the birthplace of

Émile Keller (1820-1909)
Niklaus Riggenbach (1817-1899), engineer
Théodore Deck (1823-1891), ceramist
Gustave Schlumberger (1844-1929), historian, Byzantinist, numismatist
Jean Schlumberger (1877-1968), publisher and writer
Conrad Schlumberger (1878-1936), co-founder of Schlumberger
Charles Hueber (1883-1943), politician
Marcel Schlumberger (1884-1953), co-founder of Schlumberger
Al Weill (1893-1969), boxing manager
Alfred Kastler (1902-1984), physicist
Émile Baas (1906-1984), essayist
Eugène Ehrhart (1906-2000), mathematician
Armand Walter (1908-1995)
Robert Schilling (historian) (1913–2004),
Katia Krafft (1942-1991), volcanologist
Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin

Twin towns

Guebwiller is twinned with:

Lucerne (Switzerland)
Castelfiorentino (Italy)

Points of interest

Romanesque and early gothic church, Église Saint-Léger
Gothic former Dominican abbey Les Dominicains, now used as a cultural center.
Early Renaissance townhall (Hôtel de ville)
Neoclassical church Église Notre-Dame, the largest Neoclassical church in Alsace
Musée Théodore Deck et des pays du Florival, the largest museum in Haut-Rhin outside Colmar and Mulhouse
Parc de la Marseillaise
Synagogue of Guebwiller