Saint-Hippolyte (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃.t‿ipɔlit] ⓘ; German: Sankt Pilt; Alsatian: Sàmpìlt) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.

Saint-Hippolyte is situated at the foot of the Vosges, to the southwest of Sélestat between Rodern and Orschwiller, and is directly accessible via exit number 18 from the A35 motorway.

[3] Saint Fulrad (710-784), a relative of the Pippinids, later 14th abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, a powerful politician and diplomat, possessed immense properties in this area.

In 764 Fulrad also obtained from the pope the relics of Saint Hippolytus, a 3rd-century bishop and martyr,[6] to whom the new monastery was dedicated, and from whom the village later took its name:[7] it is first mentioned as Sankt Pilt in 835.

The monks were successful in blocking the move, however, and at length obtained confirmation of their title in the form of a diploma of Lothair I executed at Verdun on 4 August 854.

This helped him to eventual victory in his fight to retain the ducal title given him by Emperor Henry III, against the claims of the deposed duke, Godfrey the Bearded.

[8] A deed of 1078,[9] purportedly made at Saint-Dié, records the return to St. Denis' Abbey by Gerhard's successor, Theodoric II, Duke of Lorraine, of the possessions usurped by his father, and is signed by several high dignitaries of the time both lay and ecclesiastical, including Pibon, bishop of Toul, Theodoric, bishop of Verdun, and Rembald, provost of Saint-Dié, as well as three counts and several other lords.

The hold of the Dukes of Lorraine on Saint-Hipployte was still not secure, however, and they were next obliged to defend it against the lord of Ribeaupierre and the Landgrave of Alsace, who also had expansionist aims on the village.

Towards 1115 the duke succeeded in setting aside any remaining claims by St. Denis' Abbey, which as it was located not in Alsace or Lorraine but in Paris, was a foreign proprietor.

In 1290 Lièpvre was given in fee to Henri I, Sire of Blâmont by Duke Frederick III, but he retained Saint-Hippolyte, and in 1310 completely fortified it with walls and unbridgeable ditches.

In 1324, Leopold I, Duke of Austria, in conflict with Louis of Oetingen, seized Saint-Hippolyte and sold it to the bishop of Strasbourg, landgrave of Alsace.

In 1370 and 1374 John I, Duke of Lorraine, had twice to re-take possession of Saint-Hippolyte, which he then passed to his father-in-law Eberhard II, Count of Württemberg, who two years later resold it, in 1393, to the bishop of Strasbourg.

Eberhard III, Count of Württemberg then took control of Saint-Hippolyte, before returning it to Friedrich von Blankenheim, bishop of Strasbourg.

This wealth attracted bands of Bretons, Lombards, Gascons, Spanish, Scots which (receiving the name of Armagnac because of service to the King of France) pillaged the region.

The Sire of Commercy occupied the city until 1 January 1445, emptying cellars and attics, plundering houses, hunting inhabitants and keeping only artisans.

The Armagnacs had to engage in battles in the nearby municipalities (Sélestat, Bergheim and Ribeauvillé) where groups of companions, Gesellen, slowed down the invaders.

After this period of devastation, Saint-Hippolyte passed several times between the hands of new owners, but eventually returned again to the Dukes of Lorraine two years later.

In 1516, Franz von Sickingen (1481–1523) a German adventurer who wared at the expense of Geroldseck's Gangolf (1527–1569) near Saverne, near Wangen's house against him duke of Lorraine seized Saint-Hippolyte by surprise with his 6000 soldiers without appointing damages to the city [12] in Valley of Lièpvre.

Under excuse to avenge the weak and the oppressed, François de Sickingen carried his devastation in him Electorate of the Palatinate and declared war to the imperial cities and in religious institution.

To protect in future Valley of Lièpvre and Saint-Hippolyte duke of Lorraine confided the nurse of it from 1516 to an Alsatian Lord who was quite devoted to him (her), the count of Thierstein.

Excitement gained also the lands of Lorraine: to Saint-Hippolyte, the priest Wolfgang Schuh, who had been named by the canons of the Saint Georges collegiate church of Nancy, renounced Catholicism, got married and was followed with number of his parishioners.

The priest Wolfang Schuh (1493–1525) was arrested for crime of heresy in May 1525 by Gaspard d' Haussonville, governor of Blâmont and leads in Nancy and condemned to be burned on a wood-house on 20 June 1525.

The inhabitants of Saint-Hippolyte, including the children from seven to twelve years, in sign of punishment, should walk barefoot and head discovered in procession wax candle to the hand, until the sanctuary of Dusenbach.

The rest of time the city was lived by one governor or bailli who represented duke of Lorraine who was charged to take care of the order and to perceive royalties and taxes variously.

Nicolas, baron of Bollwiller and untervogt of Alsace, administered Valley of Villé by a superior bursar, Jean-Jacques de Ostein and by an officer, Armand Widmann.

Jean de Widranges had a grievous tendency to press his fellow countrymen in tax, duty, and taille variously.

The representatives of the city eventually complained with duke of Lorraine who proceeded to an inquiry on the spot which joined the assertions of the population.

A sculptured paving stone and polychromée fixed to the north facade of the city hall calls back the recollection of Widranges's Ulrich.

The plague touched Bergheim[17] a little later when a gigantic lawsuit appeared 35 women accused of witchcraft native eight of which of Saint-Hippolyte and two of Thannenkirch.

Most of the time the so-called witches were simple women, credibly tramps or Romani which had managed to extort money and from donations in kind to a little bit gullible inhabitants.