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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Wangen Hotel, located at 18-20 rue des Écoles in Marmoutier (Bas-Rhin), is a mansion built in the 16th century, between 1549 and 1556. This elongated building, distributed by a longitudinal corridor, is distinguished by its semi-out-of-work stairway turret housing a central core screw staircase. The southern facade, decorated with harped-angle chains and carved chambranles (medillons, roses, foliage), concentrates a Renaissance decor of varied but high quality inspiration. The armored coats of arms and an inscription above the door, revealed in 1997, evoke the alleged sponsors: Georges de Wangen de Géroldseck, representative of the bishop of Strasbourg, and his wife Suzanne de Seylo.

The main house body, oriented east-west, rests on the medieval enclosure of the city, of which remains remains in the cellars. The stair turret, dated 1556, bears an inscription in German mentioning Georg von Wangen and Susanna von Schonau. At the Revolution, the coats of arms were hammered, and the building became town hall and school in the 19th century. Renovated in 1997, it now houses a kindergarten and library. The facades, protected since 1998, illustrate the Alsatian civil architecture of the Renaissance, mixing Germanic influences and Italian motifs.

Square outbuildings, with ground doors and windows, complete the whole. Inside, an arch adorned with carved diamond remains, while the more sober posterior elevations open onto a garden below. The tasker marks visible on the chambranles remind the artisans who worked on this site. The hotel, a communal property, bears witness to local history, from its role as a seigneurial residence to its contemporary educational vocation.

Wangen's family, linked to Marmoutier Abbey, lived there until the 17th century. Georg Theoderic de Wangen had cenotaphs erected there in honour of his ancestors in the abbey church. The building, marked by transformations (closed windows, metal staircase added), nevertheless retains a remarkable stylistic unit, characteristic of the Alsatian urban hotels of the Renaissance. Its inscription in historic monuments highlights its heritage value, both architectural and memorial.

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