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Origin and history

The Protestant church of Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune, located in Strasbourg in the Lower Rhine, is an emblematic monument dating back to the seventh century. At the present location was a wooden chapel dedicated to St. Colomban of Bangor, built by Irish monks. This chapel, surrounded by a cemetery outside the walls, served as a place for artisans and travellers of the Roman way from Strasbourg to Trier. A hospice welcomed pilgrims, homeless and sick. Around the year one thousand, a second church was built, served by monks.

In the 11th century Bishop William I had a Romanesque collegiate church built in place of the chapel Saint Colomban, dedicated to St Peter and consecrated by Pope Leo IX in 1049 or 1053. Nicknamed "Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune" to distinguish it from another Strasbourg church, it became a rich canonial chapter, with up to fifteen canons at the end of the Middle Ages. The latter, initially living in a community under the rule of St.Chrodegang, gradually abandoned this common life for individual housing. The chapter operated a school, a renowned library, and its members often held diplomatic or legal roles.

The church was rebuilt in a Gothic style in the 14th century, with chapels added in the 14th and 15th centuries. After the enlargement of the walls of Strasbourg (1200-1220), it found itself intramural. The Protestant Reformation was introduced in 1524 by Wolfgang Capiton, appointed pastor despite the opposition of the Catholic canons. They left the city with the treasures of the chapter, but kept the joy of the choir. In 1682 Louis XIV restored Catholic worship in the choir, separated from the Protestant nave by a wall until 1893, when a new Catholic church was built nearby.

The building, classified as a historic monument since 1862, was completely restored between 1897 and 1901 by architect Carl Schäfer, who reconstructed medieval murals covered with badigeon since the 16th century. These frescoes, such as La Navicella or Le Cortège des Nations, today combine original elements and neo-Gothic reconstructions. The organ by Jean André Silbermann (1780), restored several times, is famous for his recordings of Bach's works by Helmut Walcha. The church, rendered exclusively to Protestant worship in 1893, remains a major cultural and spiritual place, attracting more than 80,000 annual visitors.

Among the notable events, the Baptist saw the baptism of Blessed Charles of Foucauld during the simultaneum period (cohabitation of Catholic and Protestant cults). Successive pastors, like Friedrich Theodor Horning (1846-1882), marked the parish by their liturgical and social commitment. The Second World War also affected the community, with thirty parishioners killed during the bombing of Strasbourg in 1944. Today, the church preserves its medieval Jube, a rare example of Alsatian, and a polychrome statue of an angel of two meters, a place of devotion for visitors.

The architecture of the church combines Romanesque elements (bottom of the bell tower, cloister columns) and Gothic elements (voûts, chapels). The cloister, partly of the 11th century, houses funeral slabs and a Gothic baptismal tank. The stained glass of the choir and the statue of an angel with baptismal fonts date from the restoration of 1897-1901. The murals, such as La Pesée des Souls, illustrate medieval themes of the Last Judgment, while the organs, including Silbermann's, bear witness to an exceptional musical tradition, linked to figures such as Alfred Kern or Norbert Dufourcq.

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