Esplanade, Strasbourg — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Esplanade?

The quarter's own museum is the Musée zoologique de la ville de Strasbourg, kept beside the campus on Boulevard de la Victoire. Its galleries gather zoological specimens. West across the water lies the Grande Île, where the city's major museums sit within a short walk.

Chief among them are the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg and the Musée archéologique de Strasbourg, the Musée alsacien along the quay of the Ill, and the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art at the island's western end.

What is the history of Esplanade?

The name recalls the esplanade, the open, level ground once kept clear outside a town's walls so the defenders' guns had an unbroken field of fire. Strasbourg gained such ground after 1681, when Louis XIV took the city and Vauban raised a citadel on its eastern side. The glacis lay empty for generations.

From the late 1950s the state filled them with apartment towers and the growing University of Strasbourg, turning the old military margin into a dense modern quarter. The Parc de la Citadelle preserves what survives of the fortress.

Where is Esplanade?

The quarter sits on the left bank of the Ill, reached from the Grande Île by crossing the river eastward. Krutenau separates it from the medieval centre. To the south, the streets run on into Neudorf, while along the eastern flank the Parc de la Citadelle keeps the green remnant of Strasbourg's old star-shaped fortress. Boulevard de la Victoire marks the campus edge.