Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The house at 20-22 rue de la Laine in Wissembourg is a T-plan building, built in 1598-1599 for unidentified sponsors, members of the municipal council (Hausgenossen). The building combines a house body along the street and a wing in return, with sandstone facades on the ground floor and carved wood panel on the floors. Architectural details include guette posts, cock-eye links, and prominent chambranle windows, typical of the Alsatian Renaissance. A half-out-of-work staircase turret, dated 1599, features a door adorned with moldings and a curved pediment with traces of wooded coat of arms remaining.

The monument retains remarkable elements such as a lodge above an old well niche, an inner curved column, and closed coffer bays. The 1599 vintage also appears on the wheelbarrow of the turret's arrow, while 1598 is engraved on a street side window. The building, divided into two properties, underwent subsequent modifications, including the addition of an external wooden staircase and the removal of a recessed well. Ranked a historic monument in 1929, it illustrates the bourgeois civil architecture of Wissembourg at the end of the 16th century, marked by the influence of local corporations and urban elites.

The twin coats, partially erased, suggest affluent sponsors, probably linked to the city's trade or administration. The gang of three armed besants indicates their membership in the municipal council (Hausgenossen), a key institution in the political organization of Wissembourg in modern times. The north and south courtyards, formerly communicating, reflect a spatial organization typical of Alsatian patriotic houses, where economic and domestic activities coexisted. The renovated outbuildings bear witness to the successive adaptations of the building throughout the centuries.

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