By far the most prominent building is the minster, or cathedral, which in its present form represents the activity of four centuries. Part of the crypt dates from about 1015; the apse shows the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic style; and the nave, finished in 1275, is a fine specimen of pure Gothic. Of the elaborate west façade, with its singular screen of double tracery, the original design was furnished by Erwin of Steinbach (c. 1318). The upper part of the façade and the towers were afterwards completed in accordance with a different plan, and the intricate open-work spire on the north tower, 465 feet high, was added in 1435. The sculptural ornamentation both without and within is very rich. The astronomical clock in the south transept, constructed in 1838-42, contains some fragments of the famous clock built by Dasypodius in 1571. The church of St Thomas, a Gothic building of the 13th and 14th centuries, contains a fine monument to Marshal Saxe, considered the chef d'oeuvre of the sculptor Pigalle. Other notable buildings are the Temple-Neuf, or Neukirche, rebuilt since 1870; the old episcopal palace (1731-41), now the library; the old prefecture; the theatre; the townhouse; and the so-called “aubette,” containing the conservatorium of music. The university of Strasburg, which was suppressed in the French Revolution as a stronghold of German sentiment, was reopened in 1872, and now occupies a handsome new building erected for it in 1884. The university and town library, containing about 600,000 volumes, consists largely of the books sent from all parts of Germany to compensate for the town library destroyed in the bombardment of 1870. The precious incunabula and manuscripts which then perished are, however, irreplaceable. General Kleber, who was a native of Strasburg, and Gutenberg, who spent part of his life here, are both commemorated by statues. Many private houses are most quaint and interesting illustrations of timber architecture. Pleasant public parks and gardens fringe the town.

The population in 1880 was 104,471, including 51,859 Roman Catholics, 48,691 Protestants, and 3521 Jews. In 1885 the total population had risen to 112,091, showing an increase of 7·29 per cent. The town, strictly so called, does not contain more than 90,000 inhabitants, the rest belonging to the suburban villages. Even before the war of 1870- 71 more than half of the inhabitants spoke German as their mother-tongue, and this proportion has probably been somewhat increased since. The sympathies of the people, however, like those of most of the Alsatians, lay with France, and it will require the growth of a new generation to bring about a complete reconciliation to German rule.

The chief industries of Strasburg are tanning, brewing, and the making of steel goods, machinery, and tobacco. To these must be added the stall-fattening of geese for its celebrated pâtés de foie gras, an occupation which forms a most useful source of income to the poorer classes. The annual value of these "fat liver pies” sent out from Strasburg is over £100,000. The position of the town at the intersection of natural highways between France and Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, early made it a place of considerable commercial importance, and it now carries on a brisk trade in agricultural produce, hams, sausages, sauerkraut, and hops. Its full development in this direction, though favoured by the canals connecting the Rhine with the Rhone and the Marne, has been somewhat hampered by the iron girdle of fortifications.

Strasburg has always been a place of great strategic importance, and as such strongly fortified. The pentagonal citadel constructed by Vauban in 1682-84 was destroyed during the siege of 1870. The new German system of fortifications consists of a girdle of fourteen detached forts, at a distance of three to five miles from the centre of the town. Kehl, the tête-de-pontoï Strasburg, and several villages are included within this enceinte, and three of the outworks lie on the right bank of the Rhine, in the territory of Baden. In case of need a great part of the environs can be laid under water by the garrison.

The site of Strasburg seems to have been originally occupied by a Celtic settlement, which the Romans conquered and replaced by the fortified station of Argentoratum, afterwards the headquarters of the eighth legion. In the year 357 the emperor Julian saved the frontier of the Rhine by a decisive victory gained here over the Alemanni, but about half a century later the whole of the district now called Alsace fell into the hands of that Teutonic people. Towards the end of the 5th century the town passed to the Franks, who named it Strataburgum. The famous “Strasburg oaths” (see Germany, vol. x. p. 480) were taken here in 842; and in 923, through the homage paid by the duke of Lorraine to Henry I., began the connexion of the town with the kingdom of Germany which was to last for more than seven centuries. The bishopric of Strasburg was founded in the Merovingian period, and soon attained great wealth and importance. The early history of Strasburg, as in the case of most episcopal cities, consists mainly of a record of the struggle between the bishops and the citizens,— the latter, as they grew in wealth and power, feeling the fetters of ecclesiastical rule inconsistent with their full development. The conflict was finally decided in favour of the citizens by the battle of Oberhausbergen in 1262; and the position of free imperial city, which had been conferred upon Strasburg by Philip of Swabia, was not again disputed. The throwing off of the episcopal yoke was followed by an internal revolution (1332), which admitted the guilds to a share in the government of the city and impressed upon it the democratic character that it bore down to the French Revolution. Strasburg now became one of the most flourishing of all the imperial towns, and the names of natives or residents like Sebastian Brant, Tauler, Fischart, and Geiler von Kaysersberg show that its pre-eminence was not confined to the material sphere. On the other hand, its fair fame is sullied by such acts as the burning in 1349 of 2000 Jews, accused of causing a pestilence by poisoning the wells. In 1381 Strasburg joined the Städtebund, or Swabian League, and about a century later it rendered efficient aid to the Swiss confederates at Granson and Nancy. The Reformation found ready acceptance at Strasburg, its foremost champion here being Martin Bucer, and the city was skilfully piloted through the ensuing period of religious dissension by its “stadtmeister” Jacob Sturm, who secured for it very favourable terms at the end of the Schmalkald War. In the Thirty Years’ War Strasburg escaped without molestation by observing a prudent neutrality. In 1681, during a time of peace, it was suddenly seized by Louis XIV., and this unjustifiable action received formal recognition at the peace of Ryswick in 1697. The immediate effect of the change of superiors was a partial reaction in favour of Roman Catholicism, but the city remained essentially German until the French Revolution, when it was deprived of its. privileges as a free town and sank to the level of a French provincial capital. It was at Strasburg that Louis Napoleon made his first ineffectual attempt to grasp power. In the war of 1870 Strasburg, with its garrison of 17,000 men, surrendered to the Germans after a siege of seven weeks. The town and cathedral suffered considerably from the bombardment, but all traces of the havoc have now disappeared.