Strasbourg
capital and largest city of Grand Est, located in the historical region of Alsace
Strasbourg is a prefecture and commune, and the largest city of the Grand Est region of northeastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department and the official seat of the European Parliament.
In 2023, the city had 294,229 inhabitants, while Greater Strasbourg had a population of 522,596. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 875,163 the same year, making it the eighth-largest metro area in France and home to 14% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict had a population of roughly 1,020,000 in 2020. Strasbourg is one of the de facto three main capitals of the European Union (alongside Brussels, Luxembourg), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the European Parliament, the Eurocorps and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. An organization separate from the European Union, the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines most commonly known in French as "Pharmacopée Européenne", and its European Audiovisual Observatory) is also located in the city.
Together with Geneva (United Nations) and New York City (United Nations world headquarters), Strasbourg is among the few cities in the world that are not national capitals and host international organisations of the first order. The city is the seat of many non-European international institutions such as the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights. It is the second city in France in terms of international congresses and symposia, after Paris.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Strasbourg” as capital and largest city of Grand Est, located in the historical region of Alsace. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as capital and largest city of Grand Est, located in the historical region of Alsace. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6602. VIAF identifies the subject as 150696197. The Library of Congress control number is n79077528. Authority coordinates are 48.573, 7.752. 4 of 8 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2023 and 2020.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Strasbourg”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Strasbourg primary sources, Strasbourg archive and Strasbourg research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Strasbourg”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Strasbourg” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.