Eguisheim is a French commune located in the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region. This town is located in the historical and cultural region of Alsace. The inhabitants are called the Éguisiens et Éguisiennes (also Éguisheimois, Eguisien, Eguisheimois).
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul
The church of Eguisheim of
Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul was erected in 1220 on an old
Carolingian foundation of which only the base of the bell tower
remains. This Gothic building has only a few Romanesque elements
which correspond to a certain period. The four-storey tower has twin
pointed windows, characteristic of the Gothic period. Inside this
bell tower is a portal with polychrome Romanesque sculpture
representing in the tympanum a blessing Christ, surrounded by the
holy apostles Peter and Paul. On the lintel is carved the parable of
the wise men and the foolish Virgins who each knock on the door of
paradise (on the side of the wise Virgins, Christ welcomes them
while with the foolish Virgins the door remains closed).
The
frame of the bell tower dates from the sixteenth century and
supports four bells suspended from beams. The construction was made
in such a way that the vibrations did not propagate to the masonry.
The old church of Eguisheim, dedicated to the apostles Saint Peter
and Saint Paul, was demolished in 1807. Only the Roman-Gothic tower
remains with a very interesting historiated portal. It gave way to a
styleless building, consecrated on July 2, 1809. There is still an
old Romanesque tank that local tradition wants to date back to the
time of Leon IX.
The Callinet Frères organ, from 1839, was
rebuilt by Alfred Kern in 1962.
13th or 14th century porch
The porch belongs to the old church
of Eguisheim whose moldings are in Romanesque style, while the
architectural lines are Gothic. The portal has four columns on each
side, the tops of the capitals of which are carved. Towards the top
of the capitals we can see a tympanum representing Christ blessing
the Earth and at his side the apostles Peter and Paul. The scene
below represents the parable of the Wise Virgins and the Foolish
Virgins. The former are greeted at the door of paradise by Christ,
while the latter knock on the door of paradise which remains closed.
Polychrome wood of the opening Virgin
Inside the Church of
Saints Peter and Paul is a polychrome wooden statue of an opening
Virgin from the fourteenth century (height 119 cm). This Virgin and
Child presents a face with a sweet smile. She carries the child as
if to present it to all who pass by. A hollowed-out piece of wood
that lies under the throat of the statue may have contained relics.
Most opening Virgins fall into two categories: Passionists and
Trinitarians, representing Mary as daughter, wife, and mother. This
is the only one that exists in Alsace, and is different since the
paintings, from the seventeenth century, represent the holy
sacrament (classified M.H in 1978).
Ancient traditions
Among the traditions brought to this parish, let us mention the
processions that used to take place there. On the feast of Saint
Mark, the population of Eguisheim went to the convent of Saint Mark
in Gueberschwihr nearby. On the day of the Invention of the Cross,
the procession went to the town of Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine and on the
feast of Saint Urbain, the parishioners went on horseback to tour
the suburbs. Hence the custom of still carrying the bust of Saint
Urban in the procession of the ban today. During Rogation Week, the
procession went to various places: Monday in Herrlisheim, Tuesday in
Feldkirch, Wednesday and Ascension Day around Eguisheim. On Fridays,
the parishioners rode around the ban. On Rogation Saturday, the
population went to Marbach Abbey.
The large ancient estate extending over the municipalities of
Egisheim and Husseren would be named Exsa or Exa, leaving the Alsatian
variants Agse or Egse which are nicknames that the city still bears
today for its inhabitants. Die drei Hexe denote in literary German
tinged with alsatism the three castles long in ruins or in tatters on
the said municipalities. Even if it is the simplified form die drei
egisheimer Schlösser, the literal translation of Drei Hexe in "Three
Witches", has awakened the assumptions of the nostalgic for infernal
worlds.
It seems that the Gallo-Roman name Exsa characterizes a
withdrawal, an entrenchment, a defense in relation to the Roman road of
common circulation. This prefix thus qualifies the hills, the mountains
and the terroir of the vast, eccentric Gallo-Roman estate.
The
Carolingian cartularies around 770 name the estate Aginesheim. For some
toponymists adept at anthroponymic influence, the proper name of
Germanic origin Agino, Egeno or Egino would be very frequent in the old
titles which corresponds to a certain Egino, a descendant of Duke
Aldaric. As for the suffix -heim, according to them it is an old
Germanic lexeme meaning "house, dwelling", then "village" by extension.
Another hypothesis assumes an adaptation of a small estate belonging
to this eccentric terroir previously described, the diminutive of Exsa,
Exsina, slowly pronounced Agesina then altered to Agina. The diminutive
suggests that this is an ancient deviation from the estate.
The
suffix -heim is quite commonplace to designate an important, often royal
estate, not only in Alsace, but also in Swabia and throughout Germany.
Slightly altered in -hem in its Flemish form, it is found in Belgium and
Nord-Pas-de-Calais. It is even attested as far as Great Britain in the
form -ham. Its origin can also be explained in the Gallic language, the
form -heim being only a simple adaptation or translation into the
Germanic language. Thus the meeting with the Saxon genitive of
dependence explains Aginasheim or later Eginesheim then Egisheim. The
evolutionary hypothesis would not be the same for Eginesberg altered
early in Egischberg then Eichberg, which designates the hill of the
local grand cru.
We note that the initial spelling was in German
"Egisheim", the letter U having been intercalated to "dress up" the
toponym in French, so it is a simple retouching causing the phonetic
francization.
The castles mentioned would be old squares or
surveillance towers of the plain and the local piedmont. They are really
built and erected in ashlar only in the twelfth century, they were
called castel de Vaudémont or burg de Weckmund, Wahlenburg or
Wahlenburg, Dagsburg or Dabo, named after three dominant seigneurial
families. The city has long belonged to the Eguisheim-Dabo; the Weckmund
and the Wahlenbourg, more modest, who perhaps receive their name
backwards from the castle, are related families by marriage.
The territory has been occupied since the Paleolithic
Several
archaeological remains or fossils unearthed in the lehm layers of the
municipal territory, in particular in November 1865 the remains of a
Neanderthal man, according to its discoverer Doctor Faudel, prove that
Eguisheim has been occupied since the Paleolithic. The first settlement
of the region can be attributed to the Cro-Magnons. Later, other
civilizations came to mark their cultural imprints on the region by
bringing their artifacts and their mortuary customs, as the numerous
burials discovered in the last century seem to testify. The trade of the
Celtic peoples of the tribe of the Leuces, then the Rauracs and the
Sequanes is attested by coins and field installations, the Roman legions
would have erected a camp at the entrance of the village. Later, the
Gallo-Romans develop the cultivation of the vine probably on the slopes
or near the habitats. The Roman presence on the site is evidenced by a
tile discovered in 1900 at the foot of the Schlossberg hill, bearing the
mention Prima Legio Martia, a battalion of legionnaires led by the
Emperor Diocletian (284-305).
The dukes and Counts of Alsace
During the time of the Merovingians, Alsace was ruled first by counts,
then by dukes. The first duke of the legendary line of the Etichonides,
Etichon (or Aldaric, or Attic) is the best known of them. The Alsatian
Christian tradition designates him as the father of Saint Odile in the
seventh century. It is at this time that the vines begin to massively
cover the slopes of the well-exposed hills. Pepin the Brief puts a
violent end to the sovereignty of this ducal line erected into a real
local dynasty in 754 but presumed offspring or pretenders to the
inheritance of this fallen and hunted line at the time of Charlemagne
reappear better tolerated at the end of the Carolingian era.
After the slow disintegration of the Carolingian empire in the ninth and
tenth centuries, the counts of Alsace and Swabia take the reins of the
region. Around the year 1000, one of these counts, Hugh IV of Nordgau,
after the death of his nephew Eberhard VI in 1027, is invested with
Nordgau, to which he adds the county of Eguisheim.
This family
linked to the most important dynasties, and moreover an ancient hidden
contender for the Etichonid heritage, counts in its ranks the counts of
Metz, the first emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, notably through
Adelaide, mother of Conrad II.
Hugh IV, Count of Eguisheim
married Heilwig of the county of Dabo (at the time Dachsburg, or
Dagsburg in German, located 68 kilometers as the crow flies from
Eguisheim). The couple will have nine children. Brunon, the youngest of
the boys, is trained for a clerical career before being bishop of Toul,
and subsequently Pope Leo IX.
A village founded by Eberhard
It
is Eberhard, grandson of Aldaric, third Duke of Alsace and nephew of
Saint Odile, who built the first castle of Eguisheim. It is around this
castle that the village of Eguisheim develops in the form of a fortified
residence, around 720. In 727, he asked Saint Pirmin to become abbot of
the Murbach Abbey that he had just built.
Native village of Leo
IX?
Eguisheim is the supposed birthplace of Bruno of
Eguisheim-Dagsbourg, former bishop of Toul, who became pope under the
name of Leo IX. He first became bishop of Toul, an office he held
between 1026 and 1051. He was born on June 21, 1002, probably at the
castle of Haut-Eguisheim 5 km from Colmar. He was the son of Hugh IV of
Eguisheim and Hedwig of the county of Dabo (Lower Alsace, today in
Moselle). The ancestors of Hugh IV descended directly from the
Etichonids. According to some historians, Leo IX is a distant cousin of
Saint Odile.
The colongère courses
There were five parallel
courts in Eguisheim whose names were: the Girsberger, the Kyburg or
Braunschweiger, the Catharinen, the Zorn or Escher, and finally the
Keiserdinghof. The other courses belonged to the latter. Was it the
court given to the abbey of Ebersmunster by Duke Etichon, confirmed by
Charlemagne in the year 810, by the popes Lucius III (1183) and Honorius
III (1224), kidnapped by Bishop Werner to be given to his brother Count
Radbot of Habsburg?
Court Unterlinden or Catharinenhof (1290)
The Catharinenhof is the old court of Hohenburg confirmed to the abbey
by Leo IX (1051). It was passed on to the Catherinettes of Colmar and
was later called "Unterlindenhof". In the twentieth century, it became
the Ginglinger House. Today, this courtyard is occupied by a
restaurateur.
This courtyard has a remarkable architectural layout
including advanced buildings. They made it possible to store the crops
and to serve as a place to evaluate and administer the goods. This
courtyard was from 1290 a property belonging to the Dominican convent of
Colmar, which has now become the Unterlinden Museum.
The Kyburg
or "Braunschweigerhof"
The Kyburg has long belonged to the Provost
marshal of Strasbourg Cathedral. In 1118, Countess Heilwig, daughter of
Gerard of Alsace, gave land to Our Lady of Strasbourg.
The
Girsbergerdinhof
The Girsbergerdinhof was originally the courtyard of
Marmoutier with adjacent chapel of Saint-Martin, cited in the pouillé of
the abbey (1128), in a charter of Bishop Ortlieb (1145) and confirmed by
Pope Alexander III (1179). Ulrich of Rappolstein bought this courtyard
for the sum of March 160 of silver and gave it in 1262 to the abbey of
Pairis. It became from that day on and remained until the Revolution the
Pairiserhof, occupied first by the Brucker family and then by the Bauer
family in the twentieth century. Bishop Widerold (991-999) gave a court,
and Saint Adelaide of the tithes of Eguisheim to the abbey of Eschau,
properties which were confirmed by Alexander III (1180). Maybe it's the
Escherdinghof?
The Marbacherhof
The court of Marbach is linked
to the donation of Count Albert (1092) and to that made before him, by
other members of the Eguisheim family, confirmed by Innocent III (1212)
and mentioned in the charters of Pairis (1314, 1334). This old columnar
courtyard belonged to the Abbey of Marbach from 1413 to 1590.
Marbacherhof was occupied in the last century by Gabriel Horber. It is
currently occupied by a private winemaker. The letter M can be found on
the lintel of the portal. The estate also has a voluminous cellar.
The Court of Peers (1160)
The abbey of Pairis founded in 1138 has
this courtyard since 1160. The monks of Pairis use this courtyard to
store crops and as an administrative center and also to manage property
and as a place to settle disputes that intervene the smooth running of
the community. In 1262, the courtyard was enlarged thanks to the
addition of the neighboring courtyard that Marmoutier owned and which
was donated by the sire of Ribeaupierre. This courtyard houses at the
time a chapel dedicated to Saint Martin which was destroyed during the
Revolution.
Eguisheim (in Alsatian, Egse or Agsa) covers 339 hectares and is
located at an altitude of 210 meters. It is based on the shallow hills
and well exposed to the sun of the Schlossberg which have allowed the
planting of vines. Eguisheim is located 5 km southwest of Colmar and can
be reached by the national road 83 towards Rouffach.
It is one of
the 188 municipalities of the Ballons des Vosges regional natural park.
Eguisheim is located on the Alsace Wine Route.
This village
was classified "Favorite village of the French" during the program
broadcast on France 2 on June 4, 2013.
The neighboring municipalities are Wintzenheim, Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine, Herrlisheim-près-Colmar, Obermorschwihr, Vœgtlinshoffen, Wettolsheim and Husseren-les-Châteaux.
In 2010, the climate of the municipality is of the climate type of
the Montargnardes margins, according to a study by the National Center
for Scientific Research based on a series of data covering the period
1971-20002. In 2020, Météo-France publishes a typology of the climates
of metropolitan France in which the municipality is exposed to a
semi-continental climate and is in a transition zone between the
climatic regions "Vosges" and "Alsace".
For the period 1971-2000,
the average annual temperature is 10.6 ° C, with an annual thermal
amplitude of 17.7 ° C. The average annual cumulative rainfall is 646 mm,
with 8.9 days of precipitation in January and 8.8 days in July. For the
period 1991-2020, the annual average temperature observed on the nearest
Météo-France meteorological station, "Trois-Épis_sapc", in the town of
Turckheim 5 km as the crow flies, is 9.8 ° C and the average annual
cumulative rainfall is 804.5 mm. The maximum temperature recorded on
this station is 35.7 ° C, reached on August 7, 2015; the minimum
temperature is -20 ° C, reached on January 13, 1987.
The climate
parameters of the municipality have been estimated for the middle of the
century (2041-2070) according to different greenhouse gas emission
scenarios based on the new DRIAS-2020 reference climate projections.
They can be consulted on a dedicated website published by Météo-France
in November 2022.
Eguisheim is an urban municipality, because it is part of the dense
municipalities or of intermediate density, within the meaning of the
municipal grid of density of the Insee.
In addition, the town is
part of the Colmar attraction area, of which it is a municipality of the
crown. This area, which includes 95 municipalities, is categorized into
areas of 50,000 to less than 200,000 inhabitants.
The land use of the municipality, as it appears from the European database of biophysical soil occupation Corine Land Cover (CLC), is marked by the importance of agricultural territories (64.3% in 2018), nevertheless decreasing compared to 1990 (65.9%). The detailed distribution in 2018 is as follows: arable land (35.1%), permanent crops (28.8%), forests (27.1%), urbanized areas (6.6%), continental waters (1.8%), heterogeneous agricultural areas (0.4%), industrial or commercial areas and communication networks (0.3%). The evolution of the land use of the municipality and its infrastructures can be observed on the various cartographic representations of the territory: the Cassini map (eighteenth century), the staff map (1820-1866) and the maps or aerial photos of the IGN for the current period (1950 to today).