Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin

Saint-Louis
Former town hall of Saint-Louis
Coat of arms
Saint-Louis
Location within Grand Est region  Saint-Louis
Coordinates: 47°35′N 7°34′E / 47.59°N 7.57°E / 47.59; 7.57Coordinates: 47°35′N 7°34′E / 47.59°N 7.57°E / 47.59; 7.57
Country	France
Region	Grand Est
Department	Haut-Rhin
Arrondissement	Mulhouse
Canton	Huningue
Intercommunality	Trois Frontières
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	Jean-Marie Zoellé
Area1	16.85 km2 (6.51 sq mi)
Population (2012)2	19,990
• Density	1,200/km2 (3,100/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	68297 /68300
Dialling codes	0389, +41 61 (for companies in the EuroAirport using Swisscom)
Elevation	237–278 m (778–912 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Saint-Louis (German: Sankt Ludwig) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.

The inhabitants are called Ludoviciens.

Saint-Louis is located at the German and Swiss borders, just north of Basel. The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is situated on its territory. The commune of Saint-Louis also contains the former villages of Bourgfelden and Neuweg (also known as Saint-Louis-la-Chaussée, or Näiwaag in Sundgau Alsatian).

Following the conquest of the Sundgau and other parts of the Alsace by France in the course of the Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia, the French crown took a growing interest in the control and security of the land west of the Rhine at the Rhine knee below the territory of the Basle (which joined the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1501). In 1679, therefore, as part of a deliberation proclamation of his continued expansion policy on the Upper Rhine (which included the capture of Colmar in 1673, the defeat of imperial and Palatine troops at Türckheim, the plundering of the town in 1675, and the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1679), Louis XIV ordered the construction of Hüningen Fortress at this strategic point. The occupants of the place, the fishing village of Hüningen, had to leave to make way for this military fortification, the construction of which was carried out by fortress architect, Vauban in 1680. The villagers were rehoused in the newly founded Village-Neuf and on the road from Basle to Paris via Mulhouse, where the first element of the present day village of Saint-Louis was established on the state border. This settlement, consisting of several border guards and taverns was initially part of the municipality of Hüningen's "new village". On 26 November 1684 – around 3 years after the high point of France's policy of annexation or politique des Réunions - the capture of Strasbourg - the town was officially named by Louis XIV. Its patron is not actually the Sun King himself, but his predecessor, the canonized King Louis IX or Saint Louis.