Strasbourg, has always been a crossroad of continental Europe. Its name in German means crossing of roads. Open and cosmopolitan city, where Catholics and Protestants live in harmony and pray in the same cathedral. Its cosmopolitanism and centrality were some of the reasons why it was decided to make Strasbourg, since 1949, one of the capitals of a United Europe becoming the seat of the European Parliament and the European Commission for Human Rights.
The seventh largest city in France, capital of Alsace, has its heart in the old town center located on an island of the river Ill and is dominated by the majestic gothic cathedral with its 142-meter spire. Part of the island includes the old quarter of timber-framed houses of Petite France, once a meeting place for fishermen, dyers and millers and in our days home of craft workshops. This place where it seems that the time has stopped with its narrow streets, turreted bridges and half-timbered roofs has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988.