Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The hotel of Andlau, located at 4 rue du Babil in Séletat (Bas-Rhin), is a building erected around 1760 as a residence of the Abbey of Andlau. Its architecture, including the carved door with chambranle and its original roof with broken slopes (disappeared in 1948), reflects the 18th century style. The illegible coat of arms of the door could belong to Marie Béatrice Breiten de Landenberg, an abbess of Andlau from 1750 to 1774, while a posterior shield suggests an earlier building on the site.

The hotel was sold after the Revolution to the niece of the Abbess, Madeleine Barbe de Landenberg, wife of Keppeler, intendant of the abbey and then prefect and Baron of Empire. In 1807 the city of Seletat acquired it to install the sub-prefecture, a function which it retained until 1948. That year, a fire ravaged the building, destroying the roof and a carved staircase. Restored, it then housed the Froebel kindergarten, while decorative elements (the 18th century doors) were transferred to the humanist library.

Ranked a historic monument since 1931 for its facades, roof and staircase (before its destruction), the Hotel d'Andlau illustrates the links between Alsatian religious heritage and local administrative history. Today, it is a communal property and retains traces of its abbatial and prefectural past, despite the transformations it has undergone. The accuracy of his dating (circa 1760) and the attribution to architect Martin Hasenbohler, referred to by historian A. Dorlan, remain unconfirmed by direct sources.

External links