Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Saint-Georges Chapel of Bouxwiller, classified as a historical monument since 1987, is part of a castral complex that is now extinct. Built in the early 14th century by the Werd and Lichtenberg families, it was originally a funeral chapel dedicated to Saint George. It housed the tombs of the Counts of Lichtenberg, including John I (died 1315) and Hans von Oettingen (died 1376), the last descendant of the Werd. The chapel was looted in 1525 during the peasant uprising, then served to welcome the bones of the Lichtenberg exhumed from Neuwiller-lès-Saverne.

In the 16th century, a wheat hall was attached to the chapel to store the county's grain reserves. This building, renovated in the 18th century, housed in winter an orangery whose trees were offered in 1806 to Empress Josephine, contributing to the creation of the orangery of Strasbourg. The chapel, disused after the Peasant War, served as archives, prison in the 19th century, and was restored. Since 2013, it has been home to the Hanau Country Museum, tracing local history.

The architecture of the chapel reveals notable Gothic elements: a vaulted choir with armorial keys of Lichtenberg and Werd, broken arch windows, and a datable frame between 1420 and 1454. The wheat hall, on the ground floor, has nine bays in the middle of the hanger and a vaulted basement in a cradle. The gable wall, in sandstone, preserves traces of the old door from access to the castle. A carved crazy head adorns a chain of angle, reminiscent of medieval symbols.

The chapel was also the place of transfer of the remains of the Lichtenbergs in 1680, during the Vaubanian transformations of the nearby castle. After its acquisition by the city in 1803, the site had various uses (school, warehouse, workshop) before its restoration in 1989. Today, this monument illustrates the evolution of a castral space into a cultural place, mixing religious, agricultural and museum heritage.

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