Last modified: 2025-09-06 by olivier touzeau
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Flag of Eguisheim - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 2 June 2025
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Eguisheim (1,735 inhabitants, 1,413 ha) lies on the edge of the Ballons des Vosges Nature Park, where the Vosges meet the Upper Rhine Plain, about 7 kilometres from Colmar.
Eguisheim is based on the gently sloping, sun-exposed hills of the Schlossberg, which have enabled the planting of vines. The vineyards around Eguisheim produce Alsace wine of high quality. The village is ranked in the top 20 of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. In May 2013 it was elected the 'Village préféré des Français' (Favorite French Village), an annual distinction that passes from town to town throughout France. The commune is self-styled "cradle of the Alsatian vineyard".
Several archaeological remains testify to the occupation of the Eguisheim site since the Paleolithic period. After the Celts, the Romans built a camp at the entrance to Eguisheim and developed vineyards. Eberhardt, grandson of Adalric, third Duke of Alsace, founded the first castle of Eguisheim in 720 and, in 727, with Saint-Pirmin, Murbach Abbey. In the mid-10th century, Eguisheim, located in the Sundgau region, was infused with the Counts of Nordgau, renowned for founding abbeys. Leo IX (1002–1054), pope of the Catholic Church from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054, was born in Eguisheim. The town of Eguisheim grew around its castle, inhabited by the episcopal bailiff until 1752. The city resisted Emperor Adolph of Nassau in 1298, but was unable to prevent the Dauphin of France, the future Louis XI, and his Armagnacs, from sacking the town in 1444. Thetown was plagued by epidemics, military occupations and requisitions, poor harvests, and depopulation during the Thirty Years' War.
In the 15th century, most of the Northern European courts purchased Alsace wine. Eguisheim wine was shipped from Colmar via the Ill River and then from Strasbourg via the Rhine. The quality of the wine was such that it could withstand several weeks of barrel transport, and exceptional vintages like 1539 were preserved for several decades. Some vineyards, more renowned than others, appeared: Eichberg and Pfersigberg in Eguisheim. In the 19th century, the Alsatian vineyard reached 28,000 hectares, producing mass-produced wines and no longer exporting its products. Then came a tragic period, when powdery mildew, downy mildew, and phylloxera threatened its very existence. The vineyard covered only 6,000 hectares in 1945, but only on the best hillsides. From then on, a revolution began because Eguisheim, like other Alsatian vineyards, launched a policy of quality wines: the very productive grape varieties were replaced by selected vines.
Olivier Touzeau, 2 June 2025
The flag of Eguisheim and of several French, Belgian, German
and Italian cities can be seen in this article in L'Alsace newspaper (2019): "For the 59th Eguisheim Winegrowers' Festival, Mayor Claude Centlivre
wanted to fly the flags of the "friendly" towns around the renovated
old wine press." Flags from the left to the right: Mortagne-au-Perche -
Nuits-Saint-Georges - La Louvière - Hinterzarten - Eguisheim -
Hautvillers - Lacapelle-Marival - Spa - Aubusson.
2d row: Rocamadour - Friendship pact with Charras, Rougnac-Cobiers &
Grassac - République de Montmartre - Gabicce Mare.
The flag of the commune is white with logo, including the motto: "cradle of the Alsatian vineyard".
Olivier Touzeau, 2 June 2025