Featured The Dekapolis (Décapole)

GILT SILVER MEDAL - CITY OF STRASBOURG / DEKAPOLIS (Décapole)
Year: 1655 - 1678



City of Strasbourg Silver (gilt) Medal with City Coat of Arms and Ten Coats of Arms of the Cities of the Dekapolis.

This beautiful medal was possibly minted some time between 1655 and 1678 when other similar medals were created on a similar theme, showing instead the crests of the Stettmeisters (Masters of the City), Ammeisters (Magistrates) or crests of the different guilds of the city. It depicts two lions on the obverse supporting the behelmte stadtwappen (the city's coat of arms with a helmet). The coat of arms is encircled by the arms of the 10 cities of the Dekapolis. On the reverse is the city of Strasbourg with an angel flying above holding palms in one hand and an olive branch in the other and the initials R.G. below.

Obverse: THUE RECHT SCHEU NIEMAND - Do Right, Fear Nobody


Reverse: FORCHTE GOTT EHRET DEN KONIG - Fear God and Honor the King




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Founded and ratified by Karel IV in 1354, the Dekapolis (La Décapole) was an alliance of ten cities in the Alsace region of the Holy Roman Empire with the city of Haguenau as its capital. Alsace is a region on the French and German border which has been an area of dispute between the two nations. Although representatives of the league met in Strasbourg, the city was not a member of the alliance.

The Dekapolis included the cities of Münster, Kaysersberg, Türkheim, Colmar, Schlettstadt, Landau, Weissenburg, Rosheim, Hagenau and Oberehnheim.

Strasbourg remained an independent city though its concerns and fate mirrored the cities of the Dekapolis. The cities were ravaged during the Thirty Years' War, taken by King Louis XIV of France and he retained them according to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. After the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1679 the alliance was dissolved and the city of Strasbourg would be seized by the French King in September of 1681.
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All pictures are my own. Thanks

 

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Cool medal. I really like the "cities in view" medals because it gives a snapshot of what the place looked like at the time.

 

I agree completely...

Here is an illustration that look a lot like what is shown on the medal.