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Origin and history

The bench-rest of the King of Rome, located in Nordhouse, dates from the 1st quarter of the 19th century. It is part of a series of Alsatian public monuments built between 1811 and 1812 on the initiative of the Prefect of Bas-Rhin Adrien de Lezay-Marnesia. These benches, called Nabele Bänk ("Napoléon benches"), commemorated the birth of the King of Rome, son of Napoleon I and Marie-Louise of Austria. Their design allowed farmers, especially peasants carrying burdens on their heads, to rest on their journeys to markets.

The prefectoral dispatch of 22 April 1811 ordered the communes to erect these banks every 2.5 km, accompanied by 4 to 5 trees to offer shade. The costs were borne by the municipalities, although some refused on inadequate land. Of the 125 banks built in 1811, very few remain today. This monument, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1982, bears witness to the Napoleonic heritage in Alsace and to the rural social organization of the period.

The Alsatian benches are divided into two types: those of 1811, linked to the King of Rome, and those of 1854, sponsored by the Prefect Auguste-César West to celebrate the marriage of Napoleon III and of Eugénie de Montijo. These 448 were financed by the Department in a post-crisis economic context (1846-1848). Despite restoration campaigns in the 20th century, many have disappeared or been damaged, victims of weather or indifference.

Under German annexation (post-1870), maintenance measures were prescribed in 1906, but without effect. In 1910, the authorities judged these banks obsolete, their shape no longer corresponded to the uses (replacement of baskets by carts). Only a few examples, such as Nordhouse, have survived, protected since the 1980s by conservation orders.

This bench, located on the C.D. 888 in Nordhouse (Bas-Rhin), bears the date of 2 June 1811, recalling the baptism of the King of Rome. It illustrates the utilitarian and commemorative architecture of the early nineteenth century, as well as the changes in Alsatian agricultural practices and rural landscapes.

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