Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house at 6 rue Latérale is an emblematic building of Riquewihr, built in 1551 as attest to the vintages engraved on the lodge and sigh. It consists of three bodies of buildings: a gable-on-street main house with a sandstone lodge decorated with sculptures, a body of passage adjacent to the west, and a narrow building to the east. The street façade features ground windows, shingles, and a Renaissance door sculpted with female busts, while the courtyard houses an ionic door. The heads damaged during the Revolution were restored by sculptor Roth in the 19th century.

The building was erected by the mason Muntschi Deutsch, whose mark appears on the lodge, as well as on his own house located on the 4th of the same street. The unidentified trademark of the sponsor also appears on the carved elements. In 1608, a re-used door, dating back to this year, bearing the initials C S and a cooper emblem (Caspar Schmidt), was incorporated into the body of passage. This door originally came from the adjoining house at 6 bis. The property, now occupied by the Hugel winery, has undergone modifications: expansion of the courtyard, destruction of outbuildings, and displacement of the well to Saint-Nicolas Street.

Classified as a historic monument since 18 March 1930, the house specifically protects its facades (on street and on courtyard), the golden (logette), and the old well of the courtyard. Its architecture combines Renaissance influences and Alsatian traditions, with local materials such as sandstone and woodpan. The triplet windows, repeated on several buildings in Muntschi Deutsch, testify to a stylistic unit unique to the artisan. The copper blanket and gargoyles, prior to the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), highlight the wealth of original owners, probably linked to the wine trade or handicrafts.

The house illustrates the economic dynamism of Riquewihr in the 16th century, a prosperous city thanks to its wine market and its position on the Alsatian trade routes. Renaissance sculptures and decorations, such as ionic pilasters or lion heads, reflect the adoption of new artistic currents by the local elite. The building, though modified over the centuries, preserves rare original elements, such as the mason's mark or the initials of the sponsor, offering a precious testimony of the bourgeois life of the time.

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