Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house located at 6-8 rue Saint-Nicolas in Riquewihr, in the Haut-Rhin, is a historic monument listed since 1930. Built in the first quarter of the 17th century (1604-1605), it illustrates the Alsatian civil architecture of the period, blending cut sandstone and wood panels. Its house body, with a basement and two floors, features ground bays and a door in full hanger dated 1604, leading to an old harvester with press. A polygonal staircase turret, decorated with a wooded shield and date 1505, serves the upper levels where wall paintings (lions, ecus) remain.

The square outbuildings, partly made of wood with coffer, and the drop-through body (renaissance carriage door) complete the whole. The sandstone well of the court, the work marks, and the engraved vintages (1604 on the door, 1605 on the turret and a painted panel) attest to its construction for the Hans Schmidt cooper. The wood-pan floors of the passage body, more recent, suggest rearrangements, while the inscription to historical monuments in 1930 protects its facades, roofs, turrets and galleries.

This building reflects local wine-growing activity, with its vintage and press, characteristic of wine-growers' houses or affluent artisans in Alsace in the seventeenth century. The decorative elements (moulures, shields, lions) and the quality of the materials (stones, helical staircase) underline the social status of its sponsor. The carriageway door and the outbuildings organised around a closed courtyard testify to a function both residential, artisanal and agricultural, typical of the wine villages of the region.

The building retains traces of its original use, such as the task marks on windows and stairs, as well as hybrid architectural details (Renaissance and local tradition). The staircase turret, with its helical silt staircase, and the paintings on the second floor (ECU paired under a crown) evoke a desire for social representation. The 1505 vintage on the turret door could indicate a reuse of older elements during construction in the 17th century.

Located in the historic centre of Riquewihr, a preserved wine town in Haut-Rhin, this house is part of a remarkable urban complex, classified among the Most Beautiful Villages of France. Its inscription in 1930 is part of a policy of protecting Alsatian heritage, which was then threatened by modernization. Today, it embodies both the artisanal history of the region (tonnellery, viticulture) and the evolution of constructive techniques between the 16th and 17th centuries.

External links