The story of this place
Completed in 1439, the pink-sandstone Cathedral of Strasbourg soared to 142 metres and remained the tallest building in the world until 1874—an astonishing 435 years. Victor Hugo called it 'a gigantic and delicate marvel'. It stands in a city that has embodied the tug-of-war between France and Germany: Strasbourg was seized by Louis XIV in 1681, annexed by the German Empire in 1871, returned to France in 1918, reannexed by Nazi Germany in 1940, and freed in 1944. That turbulent frontier history is why Strasbourg now hosts the European Parliament as a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation. The cathedral's astronomical clock still performs its noon parade of apostles.