Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The simultaneous church of St. Stephen of Wangen, located in the Lower Rhine (Great East), finds its origins in the 1st quarter of the 13th century, as evidenced by a sculpted sandstone tympanum of the Lamb of God dated 1214, during the reign of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. This vestige, the oldest preserved, attests to the early foundation of the building, supplemented by a fragment of Gothic stained glass representing a Trance Christ, now integrated into the window of the gate.

A major expansion took place in the 4th quarter of the 16th century, as indicated by an inscription in German commemorating the work carried out in 1581 under the abbesse Odile de Dürmentz (or Dormentz), abbesse of Saint-Étienne in Strasbourg. This period coincides with the introduction of the Protestant Reformation around 1540, marking a turning point in the religious history of the place. The church became simultaneous around 1690, when the choir was assigned to Catholics, a status still in force today.

The present building was entirely rebuilt from 1830 according to the plans of the architect Samain, with local entrepreneurs such as Louis Osterieth and Jean Moll le Jeune. This reconstruction accompanied the demolition of the former ossuary, a Romanesque and Gothic building documented by a drawing by Jean-André Silbermann (1722-1738). The stones of this ossuary were used to erect the current chapel on Rue Basse.

Among the protected elements are the tympanum of 1214 and the inscription of 1581, classified historical monuments since 1999. The church thus illustrates almost eight centuries of Alsatian religious and architectural history, between medieval heritage, denominational conflicts and modern transformations.

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