From migrating peoples to the Roman Empire

A fertile land with a wide range of potential uses, the Selestadian region was settled by man very early on. Although we can say with certainty that man settled here as early as the Neolithic period (around 8,000 to 3,000 BC), traces of his presence have been found dating back to the Upper Palaeolithic (around 35,000 and 10,000 BC). As a result, Sélestat and the surrounding area were home to an unbroken human society until the Iron Age (around 800 to 50 BC).  It was also occupied by the Romans, as can be seen from the imperial coins found during excavations...

Between legend and reality

Legend has it that the town was founded by a giant called Sletto (or Schletto), one of whose ribs is preserved in the Humanist Library. This would explain the German name of Sélestat: Schlettstadt: town of Sletto.

In fact, the existence of Sélestat is attested as early as the 8th century, with the presence of a Carolingian chapel and a royal estate. It was in Sélestat that Charlemagne, on his way to Lombardy, spent Christmas in 775.

The arrival of the Benedictine monks

However, it was not until the end of the 11th century that Sélestat underwent further development. At this time, Countess Hildegarde de Buren, mother of the first Hohenstaufen, had a chapel built on her land, on the site of the present-day Sainte-Foy church, which she donated to the Benedictine monks of Conques in Rouergue. A number of monks moved to Sélestat in 1094 and founded the Sainte-Foy priory, a dependency of their Benedictine abbey, Sainte-Foy Abbey.

The rise of the local bourgeoisie
 

The town experienced a new boom in 1217 when the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, made Sélestat an imperial town. The Benedictine priory gradually lost its privileges to the local bourgeoisie. It was in the 13th century that the construction of Saint-Georges church began, next to Sainte-Foy church. It was also at this time that the town was surrounded by its first town wall, which was rebuilt at the end of the 13th century to encompass new religious communities. The town underwent considerable development in the Middle Ages, and there were many guilds. There were as many as fourteen in the 14th century. Fairs and markets multiplied. The town's squares have kept the names of the markets they once hosted (fish market square, pot market square, cabbage market square, etc.).

A member of the Decapolis
 

In 1354, Sélestat was one of the towns that formed the Decapolis, a league of ten free Alsatian towns within the Holy Roman Empire, whose purpose was to advise and help each other for security and defence purposes. Sélestat's central location made it the headquarters for the league's archives and meetings.

The influence of a humanist town
 

During the Renaissance, Sélestat reached its apogee. Thanks to its Latin school, founded in 1452, it was a town of some influence in Alsace and the Holy Roman Empire. A veritable hotbed of Rhenish humanism, the Sélestat Latin School trained great humanists, the most famous of whom were Beatus Rhenanus, Martin Bucer and Jacques Wimpheling. Erasmus himself was captivated by the intellectual ferment in the town in the 16th century and dedicated a poem to it: ‘L'éloge de Sélestat’.

17th and 18th centuries: under the Fleurs de Lys

During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), Sélestat was occupied by the Swedes and then by the French. In 1648, it became part of the Kingdom of France. The medieval fortifications were soon dismantled and replaced in 1675 by a new wall designed by Vauban. Until the Revolution, Sélestat enjoyed peace and prosperity. The presence of a garrison contributed to this economic growth.

From the Revolution to the Empire

The revolutionary troubles affected Sélestat as well as the whole of the Kingdom. That said, although there was no significant resistance to the Republic's advance, it was with some reluctance that the inhabitants embraced its ideals, particularly where the clergy were concerned. The Terror was lukewarm in Sélestat, with ‘only’ two executions. More enthusiastic was the welcome given to Bonaparte's Empire: Sélestat became a sub-prefecture in 1806, replacing Barr. Sélestat's industry and economy also prospered. The military glory of the regime was underpinned by the fierce resistance of Sélestat, which endured siege after siege in 1814, but never surrendered, despite bombs and epidemics, under the command of Charles Schweisguth in particular.

From the Empire to the Franco-Prussian War
 

After the fall of the Empire, Sélestat watched the succession of regimes from a distance. The revolutions of 1830 and 1848 had relatively little influence on the town, which was benevolent towards its homeland but reserved towards its leaders. The plebiscite of 1851, which installed Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte as Emperor, was nevertheless a great success, as it was almost everywhere in the provinces. More surprising was the result of the last plebiscite of the Second Empire, in 1870, a few months before the war that was to change the face of Alsace and Europe: unlike Alsace, which voted 81% ‘yes’, Sélestat voted ‘no’.

19th century: breaking down walls

In 1815, Sélestat played an important regional role in the south of the département, positioning itself as the administrative centre of the arrondissement and a hub of services. The first industrial development was modest but original.

Initially, the town specialised in weaving wire cloth for the paper industry, a Sélestadian invention. This activity would later take on an industrial character with the construction of two large factories outside the town walls.

The general demographic growth during the first half of the 19th century was good. This was fuelled by an excellent birth rate and migration. Nevertheless, this garrison town lacked air, as it was trapped within the confines of its ramparts, which gradually caused it to decline and precipitated the rural exodus of the second half of the century. It wasn't until 1875 that the ramparts were dismantled, allowing the town to expand outside the walls.

20th century: war and peace

This decompartmentalisation did not enable Sélestat to catch up demographically with the larger towns of Alsace. However, the improvements it benefited from (railway lines, improved public services) enabled it to play an important role as a crossroads in the département.

The 1914-1918 war cost the town a thousand inhabitants; on the other hand, the return to France was beneficial: the population grew significantly and the town expanded, while industries were set up in large numbers and access routes were multiplied: the Paris-Sélestat line, the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines tunnel.

The Second World War brought this growth to a halt, but once again Sélestat bounced back and, in the fifteen years following the end of the conflict, recorded its strongest growth since the beginning of the 19th century.

Since 1980 : a new start

This dynamic came to a halt during the crises of the 1970s, as Strasbourg and Colmar, in particular, expanded. But a new phase began in the 1980s. Various structures were created: the ADAC, the SIVOM and the Communauté de Communes, which supported the development of Sélestat as a stronghold of Central Alsace. The steady increase in population since the early 90s bears witness to the coherence of this policy.