Strasbourg · Self-guided audio walk

The Cathedral and the Grande Île

A short, flat first walk across the old island, from the main square to the cathedral and the palace.

6Stops
1.3 kmDistance
20+ minTime

This is the walk to do first in Strasbourg. It crosses the Grande Île in under forty minutes of walking, from Place Kléber and the bronze general buried beneath it to the pink sandstone cathedral, the carved Maison Kammerzell, and the Palais Rohan. Along the way you pass Place Gutenberg, where movable type took shape in the 1430s and 1440s, and a tiny square that once sold suckling pigs.

The cathedral is the heart of the loop. Its astronomical clock runs its full apostle parade once a day, and the tower platform is a paid climb. The narration gives both arrangements and the current prices, so you can time your visit.

Hear it on the street

Get the turn-by-turn audio guide in the app. The narration plays itself as you reach each stop, hands-free and offline.

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Stop by stop

The route

Interactive map of the route. The full stop list below works without it.

Must see

Photo by Txllxt TxllxT on Wikimedia Commons

Place Kléber

0:00

Strasbourg's main square, with General Kléber's bronze statue and his remains in the vault beneath it.

You're on Place Kléber, Strasbourg's largest central square. The bronze man in the middle is General Jean-Baptiste Kléber, a Strasbourg native who led the French army in Egypt and was stabbed to death in Cairo on 14 June 1800. Look at the stone base. His remains have been in a vault beneath this statue since 1838, and the bronze was unveiled two years later, on the fortieth anniversary of his death.

In his right hand he holds the letter from a British admiral ordering the French out of Egypt, and a sphinx at his feet stands for the country he refused to give up. The square itself was once a drill ground called the place d'Armes, and the long neoclassical building closing the north side, the Aubette, was built in 1770 as a guardhouse. Today it is all pedestrian space, redesigned in 2007 by the landscape architect Gilles Clément.

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≈5 min walk to the next stop

Must see

Photo by JoachimKohler-HB on Wikimedia Commons

Place Gutenberg

0:00

The square where Gutenberg worked on movable type, now marked by a bronze unveiled in 1840.

You're on Place Gutenberg, in front of the bronze of Johannes Gutenberg by the sculptor David d'Angers, unveiled on 24 June 1840. Gutenberg was born in Mainz, but Strasbourg is where he did the decisive work. Between 1434 and 1444 he lived in this city and made his first attempts at printing with movable type. The statue shows him holding out a printed page, and the text on it reads et la lumière fût, and there was light.

Behind the statue is the Neue Bau, the long building that once served as the city's town hall and now houses the chamber of commerce. This square was laid out around the year 1100 and was the city's political heart for centuries, under its old name of Place Saint-Martin. It took Gutenberg's name in 1840, for the four hundredth anniversary of printing.

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≈4 min walk to the next stop

Local pick

Photo by Ji-Elle on Wikimedia Commons

Place du Marché-aux-Cochons-de-Lait

0:00

A tiny half-timbered square behind the cathedral, named for the suckling pigs once sold here.

This is Place du Marché-aux-Cochons-de-Lait, a pocket of a square wedged between the tall half-timbered houses behind the cathedral. The name is literal: this was the market where suckling pigs were sold, and the square has carried it since the eighteenth century. Before that it answered to a string of names, one for each trade that passed through, a wood market, an herb market, a cabbage market, then a new fish market. The half-timbered houses around you are the reason the spot matters now. Their carved fronts and Renaissance facades were reworked and restored over the centuries, and the whole corner has been part of Strasbourg's pedestrian zone since 1973. From here the cathedral's pink tower presses in overhead, a reminder that you are only a few steps from the west front.

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≈3 min walk to the next stop

Free preview ends here · stops 4 to 6 continue in the app

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg

The pink sandstone Gothic cathedral, its astronomical clock, and the paid climb to the platform.

in app

Maison Kammerzell

The most ornate half-timbered house in Strasbourg, with a carved front rebuilt in 1589.

in app

Palais Rohan

An eighteenth-century Baroque palace holding three museums, beside the cathedral.

in app

Good to know

Before you go

How do I time the astronomical clock show?

The apostle parade runs at 12:30 every day. Buy tickets the same morning at the cathedral stalls between 10:00 and 11:00, or at the Saint-Michel entrance from 11:30. A film about the clock screens at noon, except Sundays and feast days.

SourceCathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg

Do I need a ticket to enter the cathedral?

Entry to the cathedral itself is free. The platform climb is paid, and the astronomical clock costs 4 euros for adults and 2 euros for children aged 6 to 17.

SourceCathédrale Notre-Dame de StrasbourgCathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg

Is the platform climb worth the time?

Yes if you want the view over the roofs and the Rhine plain. It opens at 09:30 in summer and 10:00 in winter, with a midday break. The last climb is 19:15 in summer and 17:15 in winter.

SourceCathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg

Keep exploring

More of Strasbourg

Keep exploring

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The hidden side

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The hidden side

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Walk the wide imperial axis Germany built after 1871, from a kaiser's palace to twin spires 76 metres tall.

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Provenance · last verified August 22, 2026

Built from the Wayside route itself: the stops, their order, and the walk between them.

Photo by Niklas König on Unsplash

Photo by Txllxt TxllxT on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by JoachimKohler-HB on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by Ji-Elle on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by Alex Tomaras on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by Mikheil Kuzmidi on Unsplash

Photo by Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Photo by Jerome SXB on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0