Many Roman artifacts have also been found along the current Route des Romains, the road that led to Argentoratum, in the suburb of Koenigshoffen.

Among the most outstanding finds in Koenigshoffen were (found in 1911–12) the fragments of a grand Mithraeum that had been shattered by early Christians in the fourth century.

Early in the fifth century, the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine, conquered, and then settled what is today Alsace and a large part of Switzerland.

[4] A major commercial centre, the town came under the control of the Holy Roman Empire in 923, through the homage paid by the Duke of Lorraine to German King Henry I.

The deadly bubonic plague of 1348 was followed on 14 February 1349 by one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history: several thousand Jews were publicly burnt to death.

Printing created environment favorable for humanism, with thinkers such as Jakob Wimpheling, Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg and Sébastien Brant; by pointing out ecclesiastical abuses, they prepared the ground for Protestantism.

In 1519, the theses of Martin Luther were attached to the door of the cathedral, and the directors of the city, especially Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck welcomed the change.

The Strasbourg Councillor Sturm and guildmaster Matthias represented the city at the Imperial Diet of Speyer (1529), where their protest led to the schism of the Catholic Church and the evolution of Protestantism.

Strasbourg Cathedral, however, was taken from the Lutherans to be returned to the Catholics as the French authorities tried to promote Catholicism wherever they could (some other historic churches remained in Protestant hands).

The cathedral lost hundreds of its statues (later replaced by copies in the 19th century) and in April 1794, there was talk of tearing its spire down, on the grounds that it was against the principle of equality.

At the end of 1799, Napoléon Bonaparte seized power and issued orders that established prefectures, a commodity market (1801), and a chamber of commerce in 1801.

[22] On 24 and 26 August 1870, the Museum of Fine Arts was destroyed by fire, as was the Municipal Library housed in the Gothic former Dominican church, with its unique collection of medieval manuscripts (most famously the Hortus deliciarum), rare Renaissance books, archeological finds and historical artifacts.

The gothic cathedral was damaged as well as the medieval church of Temple Neuf, the theatre, the city hall, the court of justice and many houses.

As part of Imperial Germany, Strasbourg was rebuilt and developed on a grand and representative scale, such as the Neue Stadt, or "new city" around the present Place de la République.

The University, founded in 1567 and suppressed during the French Revolution as a stronghold of German sentiment,[citation needed] was reopened in 1872 under the name Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität.

On 11 November 1918 (Armistice Day), communist insurgents proclaimed a "soviet government" in Strasbourg, following the example of Kurt Eisner in Munich as well as other German towns.

[26][27][28] Viewing the massive cheering crowd gathered under the balcony of Strasbourg's town hall, French President Raymond Poincaré stated that "the plebiscite is done".

[30] In 1920, Strasbourg became the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, previously located in Mannheim, one of the oldest European institutions.

[33] The political parties striving for an autonomous Alsace or a connection to France accounted only for a small proportion of votes in the last Reichstag, as well as in the local elections.

After the war, many Germans left Strasbourg and returned to Germany; some of them were denounced by the locals or expelled by the newly appointed authorities.

After the ceasefire following the Fall of France in June 1940, Alsace was annexed by Germany and a rigorous policy of Germanisation was imposed upon it by the Gauleiter Robert Heinrich Wagner.

The last Jews were deported on 15 July 1940 and the main synagogue, a huge Romanesque Revival building that had been a major architectural landmark with its 54 m (177 ft) dome since its completion in 1898, was set ablaze, then razed.

In September 1940 the first Alsatian resistance movement was created, led by Marcel Weinum and called La main noire (the Black Hand).

While the First World War had not notably damaged the city, Anglo-American bombing caused extensive destruction in raids of which at least one was allegedly carried out by mistake.

[37] In August 1944, several buildings in the Old Town were damaged by bombs, particularly the Palais Rohan, the Old Customs House (Ancienne Douane) and the Cathedral.

Many tried to escape from the incorporation, join the French Resistance, or desert the Wehrmacht but many could not because they were running the risk of having their families sent to work or concentration camps by the Germans.

Those sessions take place in the Immeuble Louise Weiss, inaugurated in 1999, which houses the largest parliamentary assembly room in Europe and of any democratic institution in the world.

This fire was an indirect consequence of the bombing raids of 1944: because of the destruction inflicted on the Palais Rohan, humidity had infiltrated the building, and moisture had to be fought.

On 6 July 2001, during an open-air concert in the Parc de Pourtalès, a single falling Platanus tree killed thirteen people and injured 97.

[42] On 11 December 2018, Chériff Chekatt, who had pledged allegiance to the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant", attacked civilians near the Christmas market, killing five and injuring 11.