Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines trip planner

Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in northeastern France.GeographySainte Marie-aux-Mines is located in the massif of the Vosges Mountains, where it occupies the V-shaped valley of the. Nearby Lorraine is accessible by road over the (772 m) or the Tunnel Maurice-Lemaire (reopened, following a major upgrade, in October 2008). The (903 m) leads to the Col du Bonhomme and to the Route des Crêtes (Road of the Ridges).The Col du Haut de Ribeauvillé (742 m, 2,412 feet) gives direct access to Ribeauvillé, situated 20km to the southeast. Sélestat in the Bas Rhin, a much more substantial commercial and political focus for the region, is just 26km to the east, along the Liepvrette valley.Sainte Marie-aux-Mines is surrounded on both sides of the valley by high mountains. The Lièpvrette River, which was formerly called Landbach, separates the city into two parts, and, formerly, into two different parishes.Some 23 km to the west lies Sélestat at the crossroads of Highway 59 and the D 48, which crosses the Col des Bagenelles.Early Latin documents called the town Fanum S. Mariae or S. Maria ad Fodinas. It was called in German Markirch or Mariakirch. After Alsace was retaken from the Germans in year II of the Republic, it was called Val-aux-Mines.