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Origin and history

The Saint Martin church of Pfaffenheim, located in the Upper Rhine (Great East), is distinguished by its hybrid structure combining several periods. His Romanesque choir, built between 1215 and 1225 in Rouffach's yellow sandstone, is the oldest vestige. It features a polygonal apse decorated with Lombard friezes and blind arches inspired by the cathedrals of Spire or Bonn. The Romanesque nave of origin, perhaps prior to the 13th century, was replaced in 1836 by an ill-conceived neoclassical nave, requiring consolidations from 1850.

In 1892, architect Charles Winkler, in charge of historical monuments, rebuilt the nave in a neo-Gothic style while preserving the foundations of 1836. It also overwhelms the Romanesque bell tower of a neo-Gothic floor with a 72-metre arrow, destroyed in 1945 during the Liberation. The remains of the bell tower were then reduced to their base, covered with a temporary roof. After 1972, Bertrand Monnet, chief architect of the Historic Monuments, erected a modern concrete campanile, separated from the church, to replace the lost structure.

The Romanesque choir, now used as a chapel, houses a Gothic vault and a 15th century tabernacle. The neo-Gothic nave, in pink sandstone of Phalsbourg, is organized around carved capital colonnades and arches with warheads. Excavations in 1992 revealed the foundations of the early Romanesque nave and four burials, discreetly materialized in the present soil. The church, classified as a historical monument since 1840, thus embodies almost eight centuries of Alsatian architectural history.

The roman bedside, adorned with "villain claws" (polisors) and an erased fresco, contrasts with the western neogothic bedside, blind but decorated with trompe-l'oeil. The sacristy, contemporary of the choir, preserves deep sharpening traces and an enigmatic animal bust. These elements, combined with recent restorations, highlight the superposition of styles and uses over the centuries.

Monnet's campanile, with its clean lines, is inspired by Romanesque bell towers by its building roof, while adopting minimalist concrete language. This modern choice, controversial at the time, met the need to preserve the visual unity of the whole after the destructions of 1945. The church, still communal property, remains a unique testimony of the evolution of techniques and tastes, from the Middle Ages to the present.

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