The famous panorama
Ponts Couverts, Petite France and cathedral in one frame.
Claude TRUONG-NGOC โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Flocci Nivis โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Flocci Nivis โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Pedro J Pacheco โ CC BY-SA 4.0
The Ponts Couverts are four centuries older โ medieval bridges with watchtowers that lost their roofs long ago but kept the name. The dam was built behind to replace them defensively. Today: walk the bridges, photograph them from the dam โ that is the right division of labour.
Every time you pass โ the climb is two minutes and the view permanent. For the ideal shot: afternoon with sun behind you, or the first blue after sunset when the towers light up.
The modern art museum directly across the water, or a return through Petite France in evening light โ both minutes away.
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The Barrage Vauban is a stone bridge-dam built by Louis XIV's famous military engineer Vauban at the seventeenth century's end โ a water weapon, not a crossing: under siege its arches shut, flooding everything south until no army could pass. Happily the idea was rarely tested. Today it is Strasbourg's best balcony: its grassed roof, free to all, looks straight onto the Ponts Couverts with their three medieval towers, the Petite France houses behind, the cathedral spire deep in frame โ the city's famous panorama is taken from exactly here. Its covered inner gallery crosses the river past old stone statues stored in the half-dark โ an oddly charming passage โ and the site sits five minutes from the Petite France's heart, closing that walk naturally.
Ponts Couverts, Petite France and cathedral in one frame.
A covered crossing past old carvings stored in the dark.
A dam built to flood the city's south under siege โ Vauban's cunning.
Place du Quartier Blanc, 67000 Strasbourg