Photo spot in Strasbourg
The Barrage Vauban terrace at blue hour
The only elevated frame in a flat city — the whole of Petite France and the Ponts Couverts towers in one composition, lit from below at dusk.
About The Barrage Vauban terrace at blue hour
Get directionsThe Barrage Vauban is a seventeenth-century dam across the Ill, built to flood the approaches to the city, and its roof is a free public terrace. From up there you look straight back over the four medieval towers of the Ponts Couverts and into Petite France — the one place in Strasbourg that gives you height, and therefore the one composition where the whole quarter reads at once.
At ground level the city is flat and every frame is a street view; from the terrace the water, the bridges, the towers and the roofline of the tanners' quarter stack into a single layered picture. It is also a good place for a couple in the foreground with the quarter behind, because the parapet gives something to stand at and the background does the rest.
Blue hour is the hour. The towers and the bridges are floodlit and come on while the sky still has deep colour, and the water below holds all of it. That window is short — twenty to thirty minutes — so scout in daylight and be in position before it starts. Daytime works too, especially in winter when the low sun rakes across the quarter, but it is a documentary frame rather than a beautiful one.
Practical: the terrace is free and open with published hours that vary by season, and it closes in the evening — check the day's closing time before planning a blue-hour session, because in summer the light comes after many closing times. Access is by stairs and a lift; the vaulted gallery underneath, full of stone statuary from the cathedral, is worth ten minutes on the way through and is dry when it rains.
Best time to shoot
Blue hour, when the towers are floodlit and the sky still holds colour — twenty to thirty minutes
Tips
The terrace has seasonal closing times and shuts in the evening — check them, because in summer blue hour can come after closing.
Other spots in Strasbourg
The Petite France quays at seven in the morning
Sixteenth-century half-timbered houses leaning over the Ill, doubled in water flat enough to use as a mirror — but only before the city wakes.
The cathedral façade from Rue Mercière
Pink Vosges sandstone that goes ember-red in low evening sun, seen down a narrow street that gives it the room the square never does.
Ready to book?
Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know The Barrage Vauban terrace at blue hour — free of charge.