Eguisheim is another pretty little town in the Alsace of France, with another hard name to pronounce. You can help me out in the comments section if you think you know how it's meant to be said.
It's located in the Grand Est part of the country just a quick 14 minute drive from the city of Colmar. Its similar to the other towns we visited in the region in many ways but still maintains its own sort of unique character. For instance, Eguisheim is situated along the Alsace wine route and is also a part of Les Plus Beaux Villages organization. However, it has a much different look and feel about it compared to the others. It's colorful yes, but much less bright, more pastel looking and it definitely feels more medeival in its homes, buildings and architecture.
The first thing that you notice upon your arrival is the towns layout. It's built in concentric circles around a small square with an ancient castle at its center. The castle was built around 1000 A.D. and its situated near the town fountain beside a small chaple.
The town used to be surrounded by a wall with houses built up against it and today this is what creates its distinctive circular layout.
You can see the curve of the street as you walk down it but it's so gradual looking that you don't really even notice that you're walking in a rather small circle.
One minute you may ask to yourself "I wonder how long it will take to walk the entire perimeter?" and the next minute you'll realize that you are already back where you started. In that regard the town plays a little trick on you.
Walking around the inner perimeter brings you to a famous island house and a particularly pretty spot to take photos.
Its probably the most photographed location in the entire village.
Here is a photo of my wife making fun of me. As we approached the island house I told her that it was a famous landmark and that she should take a photo of it. Then I unwittingly stepped in front of her to take my own photo and completely ruined her shot. She got me back by walking around me in circles mimicking me being unaware of my surroundings. It was pretty funny and we both had a laugh over it.
A neat feat of the town are these information plaques that you see scattered around in various locations.
I believe that there were 12 of them or so and they contain various tidbits of information about the history of Eguisheim or interesting facts about some of the landmarks. They are fun to hunt down and are very informative.
Despite the town being fortified and having a wall built around it, it was never actually used for military purposes. Its role in history was an economic one. The town was built along a Roman trade route and is located on a rich and fertile plot of land that is perfect for growing vineyards. It has two towers and gates that mark its entrances. Early in its history, one of the gates provided access to the vineyards and the other looked towards Roman road. In the past Eguisheim imposed a toll at these gate on merchants wanting to enter the city.
I mentioned earlier that Eguisheim was not as brightly colored as the other towns of the Alsace, but despite that the history of its color is somewhat interesting. In the 16th century the exposed timbers were protected from the elements with black soot or iron oxide (aka "rust").
In the 17th century color became a sort of symbol of wealth and status when the more wealthy towns folk began painting their homes using expensive pigments, mostly pastel colors. In the 19th century cementing the outside of homes became the fashion which completely hid the colors entirely but offered another layer of protection to a homes exterior. Today most of the cement has since been removed in order to expose the timbers again and people once again began to paint their homes in a variety of pastel colors.
Aside from tourism, wine production has played a large economic role for Eguisheim throughout its history, dating back all the way to celtic times. Today there are many wine producers in the immediate area and several shops and tasting rooms within the town itself.
Another cool thing to see which is common in many of the towns of this part of France are the large storks nests built at the highest peaks of the village.
Storks are a sort of mascot of the region and you see them being sold in gift shops in every town - stuffed animals, carvings, pictures, and clothing all bearing the mark of the stork. In the summer we drove by several fields with dozens of white and black storks gathered together. It's the only part of France that I myself have seen this.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Eguisheim is a quaint and charming town of the Alsace but it is very small compared to some of the others. I don't think it's the type of place you can spend a whole day at unless maybe you go there for lunch or dinner. We were there for maybe an hour and a half in the morning of our visit and that was more than enough time to see the entire village, including sampling some wine at one of the local shops. If you are staying in Colmar then it's worth checking out because it's so close but it's a bit farther from the other villages to the North, so keep all of that in mind if you do decide to check it out. We definitely liked the town, but compared to Riquewihr, Kayserberg, and Colmar, I personally rank it low on my "must see" places list of the Alsace. It's the type of place you want to see if you have extra time but don't necessarily want to make a special trip for it.
Thats just my opinion and some food for thought.
It's crazy to see how much the architecture didn't change in a 1000 years, it's actually super rare come to think of it.Next thing you know, @leaky20 is trapped in the land of Henzel & Grettel 😄
You kept the big one for last with Colmar, right?
Haha yeah sort of a storybook location.
Yeah I suppose so. We were there two nights so I have a bunch of photos and that's always daunting to upload them all haha. Maybe I'm just procrastinating 😕 🙃
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Thanks. Nice catch!
What a found look around this cute town. You gave us so many interesting details like the exposed beams and color of the houses and the storks. That is cool that the highest point was on top of the church. The island house is interesting. I think you would have to have the right personality to live right in the middle.
Yeah that's a good point. To be honest I can't remember if it's still someone's home or if it was a shed or something like that. Regardless that point would still have applied back in the day when it was a house. I wouldn't want to live in the center like that though. Lol
I absolutely love your little tour of the cities in Elsass! The history connected with the layout of the city is very interesting. The houses really look a bit darker, but by no means gloomy :) The small details and the plants on the walls of the houses make it look picturesque
Yeah the weather was a bit dreary so the colors didn't pop like they probably would on a bright and sunny day. The flowers and plants were nice though.
That's right, then it usually looks a bit darker. Yes - simply unique the attention to detail!:)
Love it. Especially the island house.
I also love the colorful housing.
Yeah the islanhouse is quite unique. I've seen a few others but not too often
This place is so beautiful!! I'm in Italy right now and I'm writing the name of this town to visit it soon! I loved it!!
The region is quite nice so you won't be disappointed!
The city seems very nice, but since you say that in Alsace there are places which are much worth to be visited, I think that if I ever get the chance to visit this area I will skip this city (which I have already "seen" in this thanks to you) and visit the other ones you mentioned
Yeah if your time is limited for a trip then this is probably the town to skip. Our favorites were Strasbourg, Colmar and Riquewihr but not necessarily in that order. There are other spots as well, like Chateau Haut Koenigsbourg, Kayserberg and Ribeauville.
Thanks a lot for the tips @leaky20
No problem 🙂
This place looks gorgeous. I would love to go there for a chilling weekend :D
It's a cool area if you do get a chance. There are lots of neat towns around.
that looks lovely, something out of a fairy tale, ya pooch looks fed up though 😂
Haha yeah the dog gets tired from all the walking. He probably was fed up 😆
😂, there is a little old lady lives close to me she has three bichons, she takes them out for a walk in a pram FS!!!!
Lmao 🤣 that's hilarious. That would be funny to see
yes very funny!!!
Looks as a very charming town. The island house is cute😉.
Yes the island house is very charming.
Seems to be a quiet town. Old but beautiful. BTW, am I seeing a bird's nest on the top of the cathedral?
Yes those nests are stork nests. They are in many of the towns in the Alsace region of France
Ah, lovely 🤍
@leaky20 | Eguisheim reminded me of cities in fairy tales. I can't even imagine, it turns out that there is still something like that, I mean, those towers, buildings that point towards the sky. The colors of the buildings are very classic. I mean, wow, awesome!
Yeah it's definitely a pretty location. I agree that it's fairytale like. Tiny colorful homes have that effect I think.
It is a charming town indeed. It might have changed a lot since the original town founded centuries ago, but still, I can see the "medieval" aspect of the town, kinda. Especially the roads.
Yeah the cobblestone roads definitely show it's heritage.
This town looks so beautiful, it's old style, i like the architecture, and every street or every house looks flowery. It looks great!
Yeah it's got some pretty architecture for sure and there can never be too many flowers in a town
fabulous photos
Thanks I'm glad you liked them.
What a beautiful town with so many beautiful houses in it...I'll be waiting to see your tour to Alsace region, I'll love to see how it looks.
If you're interested in the Alsace region you'll have to check out the previous posts. The last few have been in that area. I have one more stop though that I'll post in the future 😁
I'll check it out thanks alot
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Eguisheim, a very quaint little town with amazing architecture, very neat, clean, gorgeous.
Yeah I think it's all those things as well 🙂
I really like this architecture
Mee too :)
It really looks like a place from a movie, it is a very beautiful dream place, congratulations that you have been able to enjoy it and show us. greetings from Argentina!!
Greetings!
Yeah it would make for a good film set
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Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!France is a big country so it's not easy to see the whole thing. I haven't been to Italy yet but hope to one day. Until then we will just have to visit these places vicariously through others on Hive 😁