Photo : OTCOM / Wikimedia Commons (domaine public)
Obernai
Obernai is a small town of the Bas-Rhin about twenty kilometres south-west of Strasbourg, at the foot of the Vosges foothills, on the Alsace wine route. Mentioned as early as 778, it obtained town status around 1240, joined the Decapolis, an alliance of ten imperial towns, in 1354, then became a French royal town in 1679. It was annexed to Germany from 1871 to 1919.
The old centre brings together half-timbered houses, a Renaissance-style town hall and the Place du Marché, where the Chapel tower, a former belfry about sixty metres high, and a well dated 1579 whose curb is adorned with carved decoration, stand. Obernai is also linked to Saint Odile, patron saint of Alsace, whose Hohenbourg monastery, about fifteen kilometres away, is the region's main place of pilgrimage. The neighbouring hillsides are planted with vines.
