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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The building at 44 Franciscan Street in Mulhouse occupies a historic location, once occupied in the thirteenth century by the supply (house of administration) of the Schoensteinbach convent. This religious place, now extinct, marked the ecclesiastical presence in a city in full medieval development, linked to the commercial and artisanal exchanges of the Alsatian region.

In 1713, the property was acquired by Engelbert Feer, then destroyed and rebuilt around 1764 by his son, Jean Jacques Feer, a Mulhousian merchant. The latter, married to Judith Cornetz — from a family of industrialists — erected a bourgeois house reflecting the prosperity of local elites in the Enlightenment century. The building, named Zum Loewenfels after its sale to Pierre Schlumberger in 1788, embodies the economic dynamism of Mulhouse, then turned to textiles and business.

In the 19th century, the building changed its vocation: bought in 1847 by brewer Jacques Degermann, it houses a brewery in its outbuildings, testifying to the industrial diversification of the city. After successive transformations, including the destruction of the annexes in 1949 by the circle Saint-Marie, the building was restored to become the home of the parish of Sainte-Marie. Its inscription to historical monuments in 1985 preserves a facade and roof characteristic of the 18th century Alsatian civil architecture.

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