Bergheim is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.

It is a completely fortified town and has an ancient and remarkable church, as well as magnificent towers and walls. The entire population was wiped out by two wars and the plague in the 17th-18th centuries. To replace the population, thousands of people from other countries were invited to immigrate to Bergheim. The majority of people who immigrated at that times were Swiss, German, Hungarian, Austrian, or Romanian.

The city runs on tourism and the grape vines that surround the city and the region.

Bergheim is a very pleasant winegrowing village on the Wine Trail, with a very uncommon past. It is one of the best preserved and most typical towns of Alsace. The Musée de la Sorcière (Witches Museum) shows an exhibition about the witch trials that took place in this town between 1582 and 1682.

Bergheim's remaining fortifications include a double defensive wall and a defensive gate and 9 towers. The town is entered by the arched doorway in the 14th century 'High Tower'. The encircling fortifications date from the 14th century, and is possible to walk some way around these fortifications, a good way to see both the layout of the village and have views across the surrounding countryside.

On entering Bergheim you will find a beautiful little town with a cobbled main street and brightly painted half-timber houses, indeed it was one of the most brightly painted towns of my visit to the Alsace region.

Start exploring at Place d'Arme, an attrative square lined with numerous pretty houses and the town hall - the church and the town hall are the main sights of historical interest in Bergheim. The streets off the square, especially the Grand Rue, also contain many interesting buildings, often in the typical Alsace 'painted and half-timbered' style.

Sights include:

• The ramparts with their towers.
• The Town Hall with its square and fountain.
• The pleasure garden and its famous lime tree of 1300.
• The gothic basilica.
• The current Bergheim church building was preceded by an earlier one, already dedicated to Mary, recorded in the year 705 and visited by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1146, while on his way from Basel to Worms to rally for the Second Crusade. That previous church was destroyed in 1287 during the great fire of Bergheim, which was started by the troops of Rudolf I of Germany. The current Bergheim church was built from 1320 to 1347 and largely modified from 1718 to 1725, which accounts for the fact that it presents features both of Gothic architecture and of Neoclassical architecture. The church is remarkable for its Gothic frescoes (both on the outside and the inside), which had been concealed in the 18th-century and rediscovered in 1959. A pair of Gothic statues from around 1460 are thought to be from the workshop of Nikolaus Gerhaert. The pipe organ is a 1903 instrument in a Baroque 1740 organ case.