The Hills of Habsheim walking tour

Habsheim has been favoured since the Neolithic period thanks to the richness of the loessic plateau, then by its position near the old Roman road Augst - Strasbourg. A church dedicated to Saint Martin was established there as early as the Merovingian period (it is at least attested at the beginning of the 8th century). It was rebuilt in 1787-89, retaining the bell tower where the Gothic openings of the 13th century floors can be seen. Next to the church, a fountain with a very old barrel (1565) has the village coat of arms, two lizards and a goshawk, the emblematic bird of prey of the Habsburg family, owners of the place until 1648 (attachment to France). On the other side of the street, the town hall was rebuilt in 1953. It exploded in December 1944 when Colonel Fabien, a hero of the Resistance, mishandled a grenade, which cost him and four of his fellow officers their lives. The arcaded building is the Dorfhüs, a former Renaissance-style community house (1578), which bears the ancient coat of arms of Habsheim. On the left-hand side of the building, the explanatory panel of the "Autour" tour encourages visitors to discover the heritage of this former small Habsburg town (the name of the tour recalls the bird of prey called "Habicht" in German, from which the names Habsburg and perhaps Habsheim come).

These meadows and orchards, some of which have been abandoned, surround the village and have been preserved by the consolidation of the land. A few vines even remain, evidence of an important vineyard which covered nearly 150 ha in 1760, 78 ha in 1900.

A shortcut branches off to the left with the green cross sign. It partially follows the Habsheim-Rixheim intercommunal boundary and reduces the distance of the circuit by about 1km.

There was a nice view of this reservoir a few years ago before it was enclosed.

This shelter of the Rixheim arboriculturists is open to the public and includes an orientation table with a view of the Vosges.

A short 200m round trip allows you to see the nearby bell tower of the Saint-Léger church in Rixheim, which has parts dating from the 12th century, as well as the adjacent cemetery where, in the upper part, a square is dedicated to the Zuber family.

Erected in 1870, it was damaged by a bombing in 1944 and restored after the war. The path leading eastwards (Habsheim) leads to a hill covered by a small wood near which there was a semaphore (former Chappe telegraph, late 18th and early 19th century).

This is the highest point of the circuit (319m, bench and cross). As its name indicates, it offers a panoramic view from the Vosges to the Black Forest, passing through the Hardt forest, the Sausheim incineration plant, the Peugeot plant and the Chalampé industrial complex. In 1799, a wooden tower was erected on this site, allowing optical signals to be transmitted over a distance of almost 15 km using the Chappe telegraph method. This relay station, located between the church in Wittenheim and a hill in Stetten, was part of the Strasbourg-Huningue military link during Bonaparte's campaigns in Switzerland and Italy.

Gypsboden, on the right as you descend, indicates the former presence of gypsum quarries in the municipality of Zimmersheim (which can be seen in the valley). On the way down, there is a nice view of the village of Eschentzwiller and its perched bell tower, the Jura in the background, the town of Basel a little to the left and, in the distance, on a clear day, the snow-covered Bernese Alps.

It was originally located outside the old town and has been surrounded since 1811 by the new Habsheim cemetery (the old one adjoined the church of St Martin). The chapel, an important place of pilgrimage since the 14th century, contains remarkable statues, including a piéta dating from 1500 and a Virgin and Child (1520-1530). In front of the wall of the cemetery, a panel explains the archaeological finds, not far from there, near the road leading to Eschentzwiller, of the remains of a Roman villa dating from the 1st to the 3rd century. This villa, like the church of St-Martin, was located near the Roman road from Augst to Strasbourg.

It owes its name to the 3 mills it used to feed in Eschentzwiller, the old one of which became the "Au vieux Moulin" (Old Mill) in the 1960s and 2000s.

The village (currently 4900 inhabitants) was mainly built along the old Mulhouse-Basel national road. At the beginning of the 17th century, there were a dozen inns. Until the 1950s, the horse-drawn carriages of the market gardeners from the Saint-Louis-Sierentz region used to pass through here very early in the morning on their way to sell their fruit, vegetables and poultry at the Mulhouse market.