Molsheim

Molsheim is a commune and a subprefecture in the Bas-Rhin department of the Grand Est region in north-eastern France, within the metropolitan area of Strasbourg. Its population was 9,318 in 2023, and it is the centre of an urban unit of about 27,000 inhabitants. The town was first mentioned as Mollesheim around 820 and received many rights from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1219. It was walled by 1263 and became a centre of the Counter-Reformation in Alsace, with a Jesuit school from 1580 and a Carthusian convent from 1591. Control passed from the Holy Roman Empire to France in 1648, and the town was German between 1871 and 1919. The old town keeps Alsatian houses, the Tour des Forgerons and the Metzig, and industry includes a Mercedes-Benz plant and the Bugatti Veyron, whose production began nearby in 2005.