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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château Lacour, built in the 1st quarter of the 20th century (circa 1903), is an old industrial residence located 237 Clemenceau Street in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (Haut-Rhin). Sponsored by Jules Lacour, heir to a woollen fabric factory, this neo-baroque villa reflects the prestige of the Alsatian industrial families of the time. Its ordered facades, its column porch, and its openworked railing terraces make it a remarkable example of bourgeois architecture at the beginning of the century.

The property organizes around a garden enclosed by a wrought iron gate with Lacour weapons, pattern taken from the spirals and the stairway of the veranda. Inside, the vestibule leads to a hall with carved oak staircase ( lion's head and volutes), while the rooms keep marked parquet floors, studded panelling and a neo-baroque sandstone fireplace. The villa, next to the family factory Lacour, was divided into apartments after its sale in 1997, following the death of Fanny Lacour (1948).

Ranked Historic Monument since 1999, the castle protects its facades, roof, vestibule, stairway and four rooms of appartment, as well as its entrance gate. The residence illustrates the industrial golden age of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, where employer families like the Lacours marked the urban landscape. The nearby villa of Paul Lacour, destroyed in 1995, had been partially transferred to Europa Park (Germany).

Architecture combines neo-baroque influences (archiveloggia, bowl-window) and bourgeois functionality (half-circular veranda, glass marquise). The initials L and M (Lacour and Marchal) adorn the gates and doors, recalling the family alliance. The site, now in condominium, bears witness to the Alsatian industrial heritage and its architectural heritage.

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