Mulhouse, Alsace, France - City and Town Halls on Waymarking.com

The town:

Mulhouse is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département in eastern France close to the Swiss and German borders with a population of about 110,000.

The origin of Mulhouse is unknown, there are two legends that date the founding back to either the battle of Vosges in 58 BC or a battle in 451 against the Huns. The oldest document that mentions "Mulinhuson" is from 803, but there are little details; all old municipal documents were destroyed in a fire in the early 16th century.

It was part of Sundgau in the Holy Roman Empire and in 1347 it achieved the privilege to elect its own government. In 1354 it was a founding member of the Décapole, an alliance of ten Imperial cities in the region. After the War of the Six Deniers in 1466 Mulhouse loosened the relation to the alliance in favor of a closer cooperation with the Old Swiss Confederacy. In 1515 it left the Décapole and became an associate of the Swiss. In 1529 it became protestant.

When France annexed the Habsburg Alsatian areas in the end of the Thirty Years War and then the remaining Décapole cities until 1674, due do its alliance with Switzerland, Mulhouse stayed an independent Republic completely surrounded by French territory.

In the mid-18th century Mulhouse became one of the first centers of industrialisation. Because of the prohibitive customs duties for their products, the citizens of Mulhouse voted to join France in 1798 and became part of the Haut-Rhin département. From 1870 to 1918 Mulhouse was annexed to the German Empire as part of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine and then annexed by France again after World War I. From 1940 to 1945 it was occupied by German troops.

In the 19th century Mulhouse was called the "French Manchester". Today Mulhouse is the second largest city in the Alsace region and still an industrial center. The automobile factory of Peugeot is the largest employer in the region, but there are also a lot of chemical industry, electronics and engineering companies. It is also called the European capital of technical museums. In Mulhouse you can find the largest railway museum of Europe as well as the largest automobile museum and the largest electricity museum.

The town hall:

The town hall of Mulhouse is located north of the historic center. The four story building is large but not very representative. It is an example of purely functional architecture of the (probably, I could not find any dates) 19th century. It could also have been a factory, a hospital or a military barracks. Not to compare with the former renaissance town hall in the city center, which is one of the most wonderful buildings I have ever seen.

Name: Mairie Address: 2, rue Pierre et Marie Curie Mulhouse, Alsace France 68948 Date of Construction: 19th century? Web Site for City/Town/Municipality: [Web Link] Architect: Not listed Memorials/Commemorations/Dedications: Not listed

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