Guebwiller Attractions
Guebwiller (pop. 11,883), situated at the mouth of the Lauch valley, known as Florival ("Valley of Flowers"), developed in the eighth century around a grange belonging to Murbach Abbey. The Romanesque and Gothic church of St-Léger, which dates from the Hohenstaufen period, has fine sculpture on the central doorway. The church of Notre-Dame (18th C) is one of the few Baroque churches in Alsace and has fine carved woodwork. The Dominican church (14th C) has a cycle of frescoes, and there is a museum in the choir. The atomic physicist Alfred Kastler (Nobel Prize 1966) was born in Guebwiller.
Murbach
North-west of Guebwiller is the famous Romanesque Benedictine abbey of Murbach, which in the eighth and ninth centuries was the cultural center of Upper Alsace and one of its most powerful lordships. All that survives is the towers, transept and choir of the abbey church, which ranks with Marmoutier and Rosheim as one of the oldest and most important monuments of Romanesque architecture in Alsace.
