Sélestat - Sainte-Foy

Sélestat was probably not more than a village when Charlemagne stayed here over Christmas 775. Nowadays Sélestat claims to be the place of origin of the christmas-tree, based on an invoice from 1521.

The "Église Sainte-Foy de Sélestat" was built in only 10 years between 1170 and 1180, succeeding an earlier ("Holy Sepulcre") church from around 1085 built by Hildegard von Egisheim. Of this church, only the rectangular crypt (and some carvings) remained. Hildegard´s grandson Frederick I Barbarossa funded the construction of the new church, which was the center of a benedictine monastery, depending on the abbey St. Foy in Conques.