Gries | |
|---|---|
 The town hall in Gries | |
 Coat of arms | |
 Location of Gries | |
  Gries  Gries | |
| Coordinates:48°45′20″N7°49′02″E / 48.7556°N 7.8172°E /48.7556; 7.8172 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Grand Est |
| Department | Bas-Rhin |
| Arrondissement | Haguenau-Wissembourg |
| Canton | Brumath |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | Éric Hoffstetter[1] |
Area 1 | 12.23 km2 (4.72 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 2,886 |
| • Density | 236.0/km2 (611.2/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 67169 /67240 |
| Elevation | 125–169 m (410–554 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Gries (French pronunciation:[ɡʁis]) is acommune in theBas-Rhin département inGrand Est in north-eastern France.[3] It lies 7 km to the south-southeast ofHaguenau.
The first document mentioning the name of the village is dated 13 March 826. Gries is mentioned for the first time under the nameGerareshusa. By 830, it is calledGerireshusa.
According to the pastor Guggenbühl[4] the name comes from the given nameGerhard. The name of the village would therefore be in modernstandard High GermanGerhardshausen, which suggests that it was owned by a certain "Gerhard", whose identity so far has not been discovered.
A document from 974 uses the nameGrioz which more closely resembles the current name of the village. Guggenbühl[4] explains that name change as follows: very fast the suffix-hausen ofGerireshausen has been abandoned, the resultingGerires being transformed over the years first toGrioz, then toGrieze and finally to currentGries.
Belonging to thelandgraves ofLower Alsace until 1332, the town passed subsequently toLichtenberg and then toZweibrücken-Bitsch, before belonging to the count ofHanau-Lichtenberg who introduced theReformation. Thus its population became Protestant by virtue of the principlecujus regio, ejus religio. In 1622 – during theThirty Years War – Gries was completely destroyed by the troops ofMansfeld upon which its inhabitants fled toStrasbourg.
To repopulate the region, settlers fromSwitzerland (Swiss German) came to the town. Thelandgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt were the last masters of the village from 1736 until theFrench Revolution, when it was annexed by France. The landgraves contributed significantly to its development.
Southeast of the village is a mound, the only remains of an ancient castle, the residence of thebishop of Strasbourg, which remained occupied until the late fifteenth century, when it was destroyed.
The Protestant church contains an organ built byJohann Andreas Silbermann in 1781.[5]
The present mayor is Éric Hoffstetter, elected in 2020. He succeeded Claude Kern, who was in office from 2001 until 2020.
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 2,093 | — |
| 1975 | 2,281 | +1.24% |
| 1982 | 2,319 | +0.24% |
| 1990 | 2,464 | +0.76% |
| 1999 | 2,688 | +0.97% |
| 2007 | 2,743 | +0.25% |
| 2012 | 2,791 | +0.35% |
| 2017 | 2,864 | +0.52% |
| Source: INSEE[6] | ||
The Espace Sport La Foret is one of the home arenas for the basketball teamAlliance Sport Alsace (ASA) of theLNB Pro B.
Gries istwinned with:
Gries,Rhineland-Palatinate,Germany since 20 May 1979This other Gries lies in the west of thePalatinate about 20 km west ofKaiserslautern. Since the 1979 establishment of the partnership, it has been well developed. The relatively short distance between Gries (France) and Gries (Germany) – only about 110 km – has made private contacts easy. Even a Palatine-Alsatian marriage, complete with children, has sprung from this partnership. There are regular visits back and forth by each municipality's councils.
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