Discovering Turckheim

History of Turckheim

A statuette of Mercury, Roman coins, pottery, graves with funerary vases testify to the Roman presence from 27 BC. JC on the Thalweg and Hohmur sites. (more details here)
In 896, an act of King Zwentibold confirms the existence of the Abbey of Munster which possessed in Turckheim a colongere court. It is in the Wissembourg charter that the place THORENCOHAIME is first mentioned.
The story is written only from the 14th century, when the city also belongs to the House of Austria, through the stronghold of Hohlandsbourg.
The chronicle of the Dominicans reports that in July 1288 a storm took 400 roofs, which proves that the agglomeration was already important.

In 1312, the Emperor Henry VII raised the village to the rank of city of Empire and granted permission to build an enclosure.

In 1354, Turckheim entered the league of the Decapolis. It was thus administered by a Landvogt, and placed under the protection of a county palatine of the Rhine.
The city prospered thanks to the wine trade and the authorization of the Emperor Maximilian to levy an entrance fee. Some Renaissance houses of the 16th century still bear witness to this prosperity.

The war of 30 years (in 1618, Turckheim has about 1200 inhabitants) and the arrival of the Swedes made terrible devastations, in 1648 the city shelters only 18 families.

At the end of this war, the King of France united the country of Alsace to the crown, and Turckheim became a French city while still considering himself bound to the Empire. It undermined harmony within the Decapolis.

On January 5th, 1675, Marshal Turenne wins the battle against the Imperialists of Frederick William Elector of Brandenburg, commander of the Austro-Brandenburg army. The city then experienced a new economic boom thanks to the French peace and the arrival of immigrant populations from Switzerland and Vorarlberg, and it is in 1743, that the first paper mill is built.

Towards 1830, after the Napoleonic epic, the trade recovers; a new church was built in 1839, the docks of the Fecht are dammed. In the old mills on the Muhlbach are developing paper mills and the textile industry.
The Colmar - Turckheim - Munster railway line was inaugurated in 1868.

The years of annexation to Germany (1871 - 1918) gave impetus to industry, but were difficult for viticulture because of the viticultural policy of the German administration and diseases of the vine.
After the dark years (1940 - 45), the city experienced a real renaissance; trade, industry and viticulture have shaped a unique landscape and the quality of life of its inhabitants.

Sources: History of an ancient imperial city. A. Billich

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