Strasburg (Ger. Strassburg, Fr. Strasbourg), formerly the capital of the French department of Bas-Rhin, but since 1871 capital of the German imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine, stands on the river Ill and the canals connecting the Rhine with the Rhone and the Marne, 2 miles from the left bank of the Rhine, and 300 miles E. of Paris. The citadel, originally built by Vauban (1682-84), was demolished by the Germans during the bombardment of 1870, but since then they have rebuilt it and strengthened the fortifications with some fourteen detached forts on the adjacent heights, so that Strasburg now ranks as a first-class fortress of great strength. Its position near the borders of France, Germany, and Switzerland is favourable to its commerce, and gives it great strategic importance. The most celebrated building in the city is the cathedral or minster, founded in 1015 or in 1179, but principally built between 1277 and 1439; some of the oldest parts are Romanesque (portions of choir and transept), but the church as a whole is one of the sublimest specimens of Gothic architecture in existence. The principal architect (to whom most of the glorious western façade is due) was Erwin von Steinbach (fl. 1318). Only one of the two towers was completed, with a spire of open stone-work (1439); it is 466 feet high. The minster has a remarkable astronomical clock dating from 1838-42; in it are portions of an older one made in 1571, but there was a remarkable clock here in the 14th century. In the present one are, besides a complete planetarium and perpetual calendar, many automaton figures—angels which strike the quarters, twelve apostles which come forth at noon and pass in procession before a figure of Christ, and a cock which crows at stated times. In the church are also a magnificent rose-window (42 feet across), a fine pulpit, and grand stained glass. The damage done to the structure during the siege of 1870 was carefully repaired. Other notable buildings are the Protestant church of St Thomas, with the tomb of Marshal Saxe, the imperial palace, the library (formerly the castle, and then the episcopal palace), the new university, the public buildings of the province, and the arsenal. The university of Strasburg was the only French university besides Paris with the full complement of faculties. Founded in 1621, on the basis of the academy of Johannes Sturm (q.v.), it became specially famous in the branches of medicine and philology, but was broken up during the Revolution. In 1803 a Protestant academy was established with ten chairs; and five years later Napoleon founded an imperial academy with faculties of law, medicine, physical science, and philosophy; in 1819 a partial fusion of these academies took place. The university was reorganised as a German institution in 1872, is equipped with new university buildings (1884), magnificent laboratories, &c., and has more than 100 teachers and 900 students. The famous library, with nearly 200,000 volumes and precious Incunabula (q.v.), was entirely destroyed by fire during the bombardment in 1870, but was replaced by a new collection that has now swelled to 600,000 volumes. The trade of Strasburg, especially its transit trade, is very extensive, and it has a great variety of manufactures—beer, patés de foie gras, leather, cutlery, engines, musical instruments, jewellery, tobacco, furniture, chemicals, fancy articles, &c. Pop. (1880) 104,471; (1890) 123,566—one-half Catholics.
Strasburg, the Argentoratum of the Romans, was colonised by them during the reign of Augustus. Here Julian won a great victory over the Alemanni in 357 A.D. The name Stratisburgum first appears in the 6th century. It became a free town of the German empire in the 13th century, and both then and in the early part of the 15th century occupied a prominent position in respect of culture and enlightenment. In 1681 it was seized by Louvois, at the command of Louis XIV., in a time of profound peace, and was confirmed to him by the treaty of Ryswick, but retained the quaint appearance of a German imperial city. On September 28, 1870, after a siege of seven weeks, Strasburg surrendered to the Germans.
See Seinguerlet, Strasbourg pendant la Revolution; German works by Apell (Berl. 1884) and Krieger (Strasb. 1885); for the siege, Wagner (3 vols. Berl. 1874-77); also the article ALSACE.