Photo : MartinD / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Mulhouse
An independent republic allied to Switzerland until its attachment to France in 1798, Mulhouse built its prosperity on the textile industry, particularly fabric printing, which earned it the nickname "French Manchester" in the nineteenth century. The Renaissance town hall, entirely covered with trompe-l'œil frescoes, overlooks the Place de la Réunion, the town's historic heart where the Saint-Étienne temple also stands, the largest Protestant building in France. Heir to this rich industrial past, Mulhouse today concentrates one of the most important collections of technical museums in Europe, from the Cité de l'Automobile, which houses the Schlumpf collection, to the Cité du Train devoted to the railway, by way of the Fabric Printing museum that retraces the history of local textiles. This museum conversion has made the town a major cultural hub of the Grand Est region.
