Kaysersberg - One of the Most Beautiful French Villages - Alsace With its Impressive Architecture

Kaysersberg is a former French commune located in the Haut‑Rhin department, in the Grand Est region. This small commune is situated in the historical and cultural region of Alsace and became, on January 1 2016, a delegated commune of the new commune of Kaysersberg Vignoble. Its inhabitants are called Kaysersbergeois and Kaysersbergeoises. Kaysersberg was elected favorite village of the French at the end of the France 2 program presented by Stéphane Bern, competing with twelve other exceptional communes. The Kaysersberg valley has a marked identity shaped by its unique history, reflecting a region crossed by the tumults of history and various cultural, religious, and architectural movements. It is a syncretic wealth that can be found while traveling through the valley, with Romanesque churches, stone fortifications, cobbled streets, half‑timbered houses, places of meditation, and frescoes by Maurice Denis, all examples of a past that has left its mark on its presence. The valley’s strategic position allowed it to control the transit between Upper Alsace and Lorraine via the Col du Bonhomme, and it has been occupied by the military since Roman times. Around 1218, a fortress was built, marking the beginning of the city’s prosperous period under the Hohenstaufen family. Kaysersberg became an imperial city of the Holy Empire in 1293. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the city prospered thanks to numerous privileges such as the right to hold a weekly market and an annual fair, and it was part of the Décapole, a mutual alliance of ten cities in Alsace. Its wine production was very successful and exported to the Empire. The 17th century was difficult following the Thirty Years’ War, which left the region ruined by the passage of different armies, but the city returned to prosperity in the second half of the century. In the 19th century, a large number of textile industries settled in the region, and the 20th century saw the city partially destroyed by the Second World War.