France's favourite village of 2020 braces for tourist influx

Former Swedish settlement of Hunspach, in Alsace, unlikely to remain ‘peaceful’ for long

At least half the inhabitants of Hunspach turned out in the centre of the village to celebrate the result. Photograph: STOCKFOLIO®/Alamy Stock Photo

Kim Willsher

Published on Thu 2 Jul 2020 14.06 BST

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French people have chosen Hunspach, which was once part of Sweden, as their favourite village of 2020.

The Alsace village of 652 inhabitants, on France’s eastern border with Germany, was selected in a TV poll of 700,000 viewers.

At least half the Hunspachois, as they are known, turned out in the centre of the village to celebrate the result, relayed via a giant screen on Wednesday evening.

Viewers said they had chosen Hunspach for its picturesque black and white half-timbered houses – similar to British Tudor architecture. Many of them have baroque-era convex glass windows, allowing inhabitants to see out without being seen.

Guide books describe Hunspach, also a stop on the Haguenau to Wissembourg railway, as “peaceful”, but it is unlikely to remain so for long. In 2014, Eguisheim, also in Alsace, was voted favourite village and promptly attracted hundreds of thousands tourists.

Hunspach is situated in north-east Alsace near the German border, in the northern part of the Vosges nature park, near the Fort de Schoenenbourg, one of the largest structures of the Maginot Line.

The village was first mentioned in a document in 1298. During the Reformation it became a Protestant village and in 1619 came under Swedish administration. After being attacked and destroyed by imperial troops in 1633 it was repopulated by immigrants from Switzerland. In 1797, Sweden handed the village back to the French crown.

The entire Alsace region was annexed to the new German empire in 1871 after France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. But in 1918, after Germany’s defeat in the first world war, Alsace was handed back to France under the treaty of Versailles. The region was occupied by Germany again during the second world war when inhabitants were ordered to become German citizens under Nazi decree.

Until now, Hunspach was best known for its annual Fête du Folklore, held during the last weekend in spring. The annual France’s Favourite Village competition is a showcase for little-known communes in France to encourage tourism.