Geography
Sainte Marie-aux-Mines is located in the massif of the Vosges Mountains, where it occupies the V-shaped valley of the Lièpvrette River. Nearby Lorraine is accessible by road over the Col de Sainte Marie (772 m) or the Tunnel Maurice-Lemaire (reopened, following a major upgrade, in October 2008). The Col des Bagenelles (903 m) leads to the Col du Bonhomme and to the Route des Crêtes (Road of the Ridges).
The Col du Haut de Ribeauvillé (742 m, 2,412 feet) gives direct access to Ribeauvillé, situated 20 km (12 mi) to the southeast. Sélestat in the Bas Rhin, a much more substantial commercial and political focus for the region, is just 26 km (16 mi) to the east, along the Liepvrette valley.
Sainte Marie-aux-Mines is surrounded on both sides of the valley by high mountains. The Lièpvrette River, which was formerly called Landbach, separates the city into two parts, and,formerly, into two different parishes.
Some 23 km to the west lies Sélestat at the crossroads of Highway 59 and the D 48, which crosses the Col des Bagenelles.
Early Latin documents called the town Fanum S. Mariae or S. Maria ad Fodinas. It was called in German Markirch or Mariakirch. After Alsace was retaken from the Germans in year II of the Republic, it was called Val-aux-Mines.
The valley of Sainte Marie-aux-Mines is sometimes called Val d’Argent. It contains five municipalities: Aubure, Lièpvre, Rombach-le-Franc, and Sainte Croix-aux-Mines. Established in 1790, it was subdivided temporarily, between 1795 and 1802, into two: the one restricted to the city of Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, and the other one including the four other municipalities with its center at Sainte Croix-aux-Mines.
The valley of Sainte Marie-aux-Mines was a part of the district of Colmar, but in 1871 it became part of the district of Ribeauvillé.
Read more about this topic: Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)