Soultz-Haut-Rhin

Soultz-Haut-Rhin (; ) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin département in Grand Est in north-eastern France.

Its inhabitants are called Soultziens (male) or Soultziennes (female).

Geography

The town of Soultz-Haut-Rhin has an enclave located northeast of Goldbach-Altenbach.

The town of Soultz was built around a salted water source from which originates its name.

History

The origins of Soultz go back to the 7th century.

667 : the written name of Sulza (salted source) is mentioned in a donation from Adalrich, Duke of Alsace, father of Saint Odile, of the bann of Soultz to the convent of Ebersmunster.

The Soultz Railway was a long military light railway with a track gauge of that the Germans built and operated during World War I from Soultz to the Niederwald terminus below the Hartmannswillerkopf near Wattwiller.

Demography

Places of interest

Soultz has houses from the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

• The Church of Saint-Maurice is a Gothic building (1270–1489)
• Château de Buchenek is a 13th-century castle, now a museum
• La Nef des Jouets (The Toys Vessel, museum of toys)
• The 1860 town hall is a Renaissance Revival building

People

• Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès, who married Catherine Gontcharoff, eldest sister of Alexander Pushkin's wife, and killed Pushkin in a duel.
• Auguste-César West (1810–1880), prefect of Haut-Rhin from 1848 to 1850, then prefect of Bas-Rhin until 1855 and of Haute-Garonne until 1859.
• Bernard Genghini, footballer, born in 1958 in Soultz
• Pierre Villon (1901–1980), whose real name was Pierre Ginsburger, was a French political figure who took part in the Resistance.
• Katia Krafft, volcanologist, born in 1942 in Soultz. Wife of the volcanologist Maurice Krafft. Both of them were carried off in 1991 by a pyroclastical flow on the sides of Mount Unzen (Japan).

See also

• Communes of the Haut-Rhin department

References