It is a small town in the Canton of Barr located in the valley of the Andlau river in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains.

The surrounding communes include Mittelbergheim to the north-east, Eichhoffen to the east, Bernardvillé to the south, Le Hohwald to the north-west and Barr.

The Andlau River is 42.8 km long and flows from the Champ du Feu to the Ill and is the origin of the name of the town.

The village developed around the abbey of nuns founded in 880 AD by Richarde de Souabe, daughter of the Count of Alsace who was known as Erchangar.

The Emperor Charles IV, in confirming it in 1347, declared the abbey free of all charges and contributions and granted to the abbess Adelaide de Geroldseck, and her successors, the title of Princess of the Empire.

In addition to the charter from Emperor Charles IV many other anterior and posterior diplomas were granted to the abbey to confirm the privileges it had already obtained or to give it new ones.

The recipients were required to demonstrate sixteen Quarters of nobility without misalliance and the most illustrious families of Alsace and Germany vied for the honour of admitting their girls.

It is known that the Emperor Charles the Fat was too weak to govern the vast empire that had been reunited under him by the death of his two brothers left in the care of the Empress Richarde, his wife.

Courtiers, jealous of the authority of the bishop and the confidence that was accorded him by the Empress, long meditated his ruin and found a way to turn the heart of the weak monarch to jealousy which piety, talents, the eminent qualities of his wife, and twenty-five years of constantly happy marriage were powerless to stop.

She also found a source of consolation in letters in which she wrote with great distinction several beautiful poems which have been preserved until now where she writes of her resignation and the purity of her soul.

A century and a half later she was canonized by Pope Leo IX who was in Alsace, his homeland, and came to bless Andlau's new church built by the Abbess Mathilde, sister of Emperor Henry III.

Another proposal speaks of a knight of Andlau who helped Richarde to find a location where the bear was scratching the ground.

Nine years later Othon, Count of Andlau (Otto de Andelaha) appeared as a witness to a diploma from the Emperor Conrad III in favour of the Abbey of Saint-Blaise.

This family has produced many distinguished men which proves the high esteem which it enjoyed under an ancient privilege which was renewed by Charles V in 1550: the eldest son bore the title of hereditary knight of the Holy Roman Empire.

A pilgrimage was dedicated early in its history to the Virgin Mary in the crypt of the church where the canons met every day to pray.

The article was drawn largely from Alsace ancient and modern: topographical, historical, and statistical dictionary of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, published in 1865.