Eguisheim is another pretty little town in the Alsace of France, with another hard name to pronounce. You can help me out in the comments section if you think you know how it's meant to be said.
It's located in the Grand Est part of the country just a quick 14 minute drive from the city of Colmar. Its similar to the other towns we visited in the region in many ways but still maintains its own sort of unique character. For instance, Eguisheim is situated along the Alsace wine route and is also a part of Les Plus Beaux Villages organization. However, it has a much different look and feel about it compared to the others. It's colorful yes, but much less bright, more pastel looking and it definitely feels more medeival in its homes, buildings and architecture.
The first thing that you notice upon your arrival is the towns layout. It's built in concentric circles around a small square with an ancient castle at its center. The castle was built around 1000 A.D. and its situated near the town fountain beside a small chaple.
The town used to be surrounded by a wall with houses built up against it and today this is what creates its distinctive circular layout.
You can see the curve of the street as you walk down it but it's so gradual looking that you don't really even notice that you're walking in a rather small circle.
One minute you may ask to yourself "I wonder how long it will take to walk the entire perimeter?" and the next minute you'll realize that you are already back where you started. In that regard the town plays a little trick on you.
Walking around the inner perimeter brings you to a famous island house and a particularly pretty spot to take photos.
Its probably the most photographed location in the entire village.
Here is a photo of my wife making fun of me. As we approached the island house I told her that it was a famous landmark and that she should take a photo of it. Then I unwittingly stepped in front of her to take my own photo and completely ruined her shot. She got me back by walking around me in circles mimicking me being unaware of my surroundings. It was pretty funny and we both had a laugh over it.
A neat feat of the town are these information plaques that you see scattered around in various locations.
I believe that there were 12 of them or so and they contain various tidbits of information about the history of Eguisheim or interesting facts about some of the landmarks. They are fun to hunt down and are very informative.
Despite the town being fortified and having a wall built around it, it was never actually used for military purposes. Its role in history was an economic one. The town was built along a Roman trade route and is located on a rich and fertile plot of land that is perfect for growing vineyards. It has two towers and gates that mark its entrances. Early in its history, one of the gates provided access to the vineyards and the other looked towards Roman road. In the past Eguisheim imposed a toll at these gate on merchants wanting to enter the city.
I mentioned earlier that Eguisheim was not as brightly colored as the other towns of the Alsace, but despite that the history of its color is somewhat interesting. In the 16th century the exposed timbers were protected from the elements with black soot or iron oxide (aka "rust").
In the 17th century color became a sort of symbol of wealth and status when the more wealthy towns folk began painting their homes using expensive pigments, mostly pastel colors. In the 19th century cementing the outside of homes became the fashion which completely hid the colors entirely but offered another layer of protection to a homes exterior. Today most of the cement has since been removed in order to expose the timbers again and people once again began to paint their homes in a variety of pastel colors.
Aside from tourism, wine production has played a large economic role for Eguisheim throughout its history, dating back all the way to celtic times. Today there are many wine producers in the immediate area and several shops and tasting rooms within the town itself.
Another cool thing to see which is common in many of the towns of this part of France are the large storks nests built at the highest peaks of the village.
Storks are a sort of mascot of the region and you see them being sold in gift shops in every town - stuffed animals, carvings, pictures, and clothing all bearing the mark of the stork. In the summer we drove by several fields with dozens of white and black storks gathered together. It's the only part of France that I myself have seen this.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Eguisheim is a quaint and charming town of the Alsace but it is very small compared to some of the others. I don't think it's the type of place you can spend a whole day at unless maybe you go there for lunch or dinner. We were there for maybe an hour and a half in the morning of our visit and that was more than enough time to see the entire village, including sampling some wine at one of the local shops. If you are staying in Colmar then it's worth checking out because it's so close but it's a bit farther from the other villages to the North, so keep all of that in mind if you do decide to check it out. We definitely liked the town, but compared to Riquewihr, Kayserberg, and Colmar, I personally rank it low on my "must see" places list of the Alsace. It's the type of place you want to see if you have extra time but don't necessarily want to make a special trip for it.
Thats just my opinion and some food for thought.
