- Ribeauvillé
:"Not to be confused with
Ribeauville , in the Aisne department."French commune
nomcommune=Ribeauvillé
Ribeauvillé and its castle
région=Alsace
département=Haut-Rhin
arrondissement=Ribeauvillé
canton=Ribeauvillé (chief town)
insee=68269
cp=68150
maire=Jean-Louis Christ
mandat=2001 -2008
intercomm=Communauté
de communes de
Ribeauvillé et environs
longitude=7.31916666667
latitude=48.1961111111
alt moy=240 m
alt mini=188 m
alt maxi=989 m
hectares=3,221
km²=32.21
sans=4,929
date-sans=1999|dens=153|date-dens=1999Ribeauvillé (Alsatian: "Rappschwihr"; _de. Rappoltsweiler) is a town and commune in the
Haut-Rhin "département", in the French "région" ofAlsace . Population (1999): 4,929 ("Ribeauvillois" and "Ribeauvilloises").The picturesque town is located around 10 miles north of
Colmar and 75km south ofStrasbourg .History
Known in the 8th century as "Rathaldovilare", the town passed from the
bishops of Basel to the lords ofRappoltstein , who were among the most famous nobles in Alsace. The lord of Rappoltstein was the king or protector of the wandering minstrels of the land, who purchased his protection by paying him a tax.When the family became extinct in 1673, this office of "king of the pipers" ("Pfeiferkönig") passed to the counts palatine of
Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld . The minstrels had a pilgrimage chapel near Rappoltsweiler, dedicated to their patron saint,Maria von Dusenbach , and here they held an annual feast onSeptember 8 . Ribeauvillé was commonly known as "Rappoltsweiler" until the 19th century.ights
Ribeauvillé is in part surrounded by ancient walls, and has many picturesque medieval houses, and two old churches, of
St Gregory and St Augustine, both fine Gothic buildings. The town hall contains a valuable collection of antiquities. The Carolabad, a saline spring with a temperature of 64 F., which had a great repute in the middle ages, was rediscovered in 1888, and made Rappoltsweiler a watering-place.Near the town are the ruins of three famous castles, Ulrichsburg, Girsberg and Hohrappoltstein, which formerly belonged to the lords of Rappoltstein.
People
*
Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705), Lutheran theologian
*Johann Baptist Wendling (1723-1797), composer
*Carl August von Steinheil (1801-870), physicist
*Maurice Lévy (1838-1910), engineerExternal links
* [http://www.ribeauville-riquewihr.com/EN/index.php Tourist site]
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=115&letter=R Jewish Encyclopedia]
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