Strasbourg Strasbourg is the seat of European Institutions since 1949: first of the International Commission on Civil Status and of the Council of Europe, later of the European Parliament, of the European Science Foundation, of Eurocorps, and others as well. Strasbourg is divided into the following districts: The city is chiefly known for its sandstone Gothic Cathedral with its famous astronomical clock, and for its medieval cityscape of Rhineland black and white timber-framed buildings, particularly in the "Petite France" district or "Gerberviertel" ("tanners' district") alongside the Ill and in the streets and squares surrounding the cathedral, where the renowned "Maison Kammerzell"
European institutions in Strasbourg as the seat of diverse information relays of the European Union, such as the Information Centre on European Institutions (CIIE), the Euro-Info Centre (EIC), the MEDIA Antenna and the European Documentation Centre (EDC) as well as the European Job Mobility Portal, the EURES network. The city also hosted the automated computerised network Schengen Information System and currently hosts the central unit of its new version, the Schengen Information System II, a back-up unit being located in Austria. Other bodies based in the city, most of them unrelated either to the Council of Europe or the European Union but working in