France · Grand Est · Strasbourg
Neustadt, Strasbourg — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Neustadt is the planned quarter that German architects laid out north and east of Strasbourg's medieval Grande Île after 1871. Its wide avenues and imperial-era public buildings run from the university district down to the river Ill, where the twin-spired St. Paul's Church marks the skyline. The name means new town. Visitors know it for museums, monumental squares and the contrast it strikes with the older streets across the water.
About Neustadt
Where to stay in Neustadt
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Staying in Neustadt puts you among broad boulevards and grand nineteenth-century facades, away from the crowds of the Grande Île. The mood is residential. Hotels here sit within a flat walk of the old town and the museums lining the Ill.
It suits travellers who want quiet evenings and tram access rather than nightlife at the door. St. Paul's Church and the Musée Tomi Ungerer stand nearby, while the Grande Île across the water holds the densest cluster of rooms.
About Neustadt
What are the main landmarks in Neustadt?
The Neustadt's own landmark is St. Paul's Church, a twin-spired church rising over the Ill. Two museums fill the quarter itself. The Musée Tomi Ungerer holds the illustrator's drawings, and the Musée zoologique de la ville de Strasbourg sits beside the university.
Across into the Grande Île cluster the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, the Musée des Arts décoratifs de Strasbourg and the Musée archéologique de Strasbourg, with the Musée alsacien and the Strasbourg Historical Museum along the island quays. Spires punctuate both banks, Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune Protestant Church and Saint William's Church among them.
What is the history of Neustadt?
After the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, Alsace passed to the German Empire, and Strasbourg became the capital of its new imperial territory. The Germans extended the city far beyond the medieval Grande Île, laying out the Neustadt with wide avenues, parks and public institutions. The scale was deliberate.
St. Paul's Church, raised as a garrison church in the 1890s, belongs to this campaign, which greatly enlarged the built city. Its planned German streets beside the French old town make the quarter a rare surviving stretch of Wilhelmine city-building.
Where is Neustadt?
The quarter wraps around the north and east flanks of the Grande Île, separated from the old town by branches of the river Ill. Its streets form a grid, long straight axes meeting at open squares rather than the medieval lanes across the water. The university district anchors its east.
Near there St. Paul's Church rises where two arms of the Ill divide.
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Updated July 2026