Ensisheim
Encyclopedia
Ensisheim is a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin is a département of the Alsace region of France, named after the Rhine river. Its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less populated of the two departements of Alsace, although is still densely populated compared to the rest of France.-Subdivisions:The department...

 department in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

 in north-eastern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

On 7 November 1492, a 250 pound meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...

 fell
Meteorite falls
Meteorite falls, also called observed falls, are those meteorites that were witnessed by people or automated devices as they moved through the atmosphere or hit the Earth, and were subsequently collected. All other meteorites are called "finds"...

 there, and since then it has attracted many meteorite enthusiasts. It was described in detail by the contemporary poet Sebastian Brant
Sebastian Brant
Sebastian Brant was an Alsatian humanist and satirist. He is best known for his satire Das Narrenschiff .-Biography:...

.

Ensisheim is also the birthplace of the composer Boëllmann. The Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...

 origins
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

 of the village's name reflects the area's history.

Among the earliest-known clear examples for the practice of trepanation
Trepanation
Trepanning, also known as trephination, trephining or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created...

 was identified from a Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 burial site near the town. Researchers from Freiburg University reported in 1997 an analysis of the well-preserved skeletal remains of an approximately 50-year-old man, whose cranium showed clear evidence of two trepanation
Trepanation
Trepanning, also known as trephination, trephining or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created...

 procedures. One had fully healed and the other partially so, indicating the subject had survived the operations. The remains were dated to between 5100 and 4900 BC.

History

In the remotest times of the Old Neolithic Era, built during the first migration are wares of the Ribboned Ceramics Civilization from Central Europe. With thousand-year old V before B.C., the highly thatched Roofwigs of the large Dannbian Farms of "les Octrois" and Radfeld" are already filling the horizon. The archeological extractions of these Ribboned sites confirm a continuous human occupation from the prehistoric period to Carolingienne agglomeration which developed in the Dannbian Killocks of "les Octrois", however, the origins of Ensisheim still remain rather vague. In 768, the village is mentioned as Enghisehaim.

During the 2nd half of the 13th Century, Rudolph of Habsburg, who reached Imperial Dignity, builds the powerful castle of Koenigsbourg. This fortress probably involved the displacement of the primitive village. In 1431, Emperor Sigismund establishes in Ensisheim the seat of the Austrian Regency and makes the city the capital of his possessions in High Alsace, Country of Bade and North of Switzerland..

When on 7th November 1492, a 250-pound meteorite falls into a field close to the town, Sebastian Brant
Sebastian Brant
Sebastian Brant was an Alsatian humanist and satirist. He is best known for his satire Das Narrenschiff .-Biography:...

 (1458–1521), author of "Das Narrenschiff", takes this opportunity to exert his influence on Maximilian of Austria by writing "Loose Leaves Concerning the Fall of the Meteorite", which leads the king to lead in a war against France. The administrative and legal functions of the city conferred her to the prosperity which reached its peak between the end if the XVI th and the beginning of the XVII th centuries. Ensisheim, was mostly a rural community with no more than 200 noble families. From 1585 to 1634, the city owned a monetary workshop which became the most significant in Alsace after Strasbourg. Nevertheless, as far as the devastating shadow of the
"Thirty Year War" (1618–1648) grows, Imperial Administration leave
Ensisheim, in 1630. During this dreadful period which falls on Alsace,
Ensisheim, will be pillaged 7 times between 1631 and 1638. The tragic
consequence of this war would cause the ruin and the decline of the city.

In 1648 after the Treaty of Westphalia, the Habsburg possessions are
transferred to the French Crown which runs them by creating a Royal
Chamber, then in 1662, the Provincial Council. By that time, Ensisheim was known again as the French province of Alsace, even though this function will be short. When the imperial troops returned in 1674, the Provincial Council retire in Breisach
Breisach
Breisach is a town with approximately 16,500 inhabitants, situated along the Rhine in the Rhine Valley, in the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about halfway between Freiburg and Colmar — 20 kilometres away from each — and about 60 kilometres north of Basel near the...

. The city will be defiantly taken again the following year by Marshall Turenne and a castle will be raised on the grounds in 1682. The departure of the Sovereign Council resulted in the erase of Ensisheim. Now considered as a simple chief town of baillage until the revolution. At the end of the Empire, the city will once again be occupied between 1814 and 1820 by the Cossacks and the Austrians. At the beginning of the 20th century, the development of the extraction of potash leads to a new rise for the city of Ensisheim, which will have to still undergo much devastation during world War II. Nowadays, Ensisheim, became a rather significant demographic and economic center.

Sister cities

Ensisheim has Two twin towns : Markdorf
Markdorf
Markdorf is a town in the Bodensee district, in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. It is situated near Lake Constance, 10 km northwest of Friedrichshafen....

 in Germany and Castroville, Texas
Castroville, Texas
Castroville is a city in Medina County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,664 at the 2000 census. Prior to 1893, Castroville was the first county seat of Medina County....

 in the USA.
It is also a member of the Communauté de communes du Centre Haut-Rhin and of the Pays Rhin-Vignoble-Grand Ballon.

See also

  • Meteorite falls
    Meteorite falls
    Meteorite falls, also called observed falls, are those meteorites that were witnessed by people or automated devices as they moved through the atmosphere or hit the Earth, and were subsequently collected. All other meteorites are called "finds"...

  • Communes of the Haut-Rhin département
    Communes of the Haut-Rhin département
    The following is a list of the 377 communes of the Haut-Rhin département, in France.* Communauté d'agglomération of Colmar, created in 2004.* Communauté d'agglomération Mulhouse Sud Alsace, created in 2001....

  • Communaute de communes du Centre Haut-Rhin (available in English, German and french languages)
  • Pays Rhin Vignoble Grand Ballon (french only)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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