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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house located at 1 rue du Général-Koenig in Neuwiller-lès-Saverne (Bas-Rhin) is a civil building from the 1st quarter of the 17th century, although its architectural style suggests a possible origin in the 16th century. It is distinguished by a sandstone facade decorated with late Renaissance and Gothic sculptures, such as human heads, rosestick medallions, and intersecting mouldings (Stabwerk). The carriageway door in the middle of the hanger and the elevated entrance door, framed with pilasters, bear witness to a special attention paid to its construction. At the back, the floor and the out-of-work stair turret are made of wood, while the half-croup roof covers the whole.

This house, located northwest of the Abbatial Enclosures, could have belonged to a canon, although no 18th-century documents confirm this hypothesis. At the beginning of this century, it housed a bakery, but its initial use remained uncertain. Inside, inaccessible during investigations, could be studied. The stain marks visible on the stones (such as sheets of acanthe) and the architectural hybrid elements (Renaissance/Gothic) suggest a construction by skilled local artisans, possibly linked to the neighbouring abbey.

Classified as a historic monument since 1934 (inscription of facades and roofs), this house illustrates the Alsatian civil architecture of the 16th-17th century hinge. Its entrance passage to the ground floor, its sill windows (some of which are walled), and its remodeled perron with seats underline its adaptation to domestic and commercial needs. The irregular stair turret, illuminated by crawling windows, and the north-west gable in crepe wood panel reveal mixed constructive techniques, typical of border regions where Germanic and French influences cross.

The location of the house, north of the Abbatial Enclosures of Neuwiller-lès-Saverne, may indicate a link with the religious community, although the archives are lacking to attest. Its state of preservation, despite modifications (roof, seats), allows to appreciate rare details such as the cellar door in full hanger or the shell niches of the carriage door. The two carved heads (male and female) surrounding the latter could symbolize the owners or allegorical figures, a common practice in Renaissance art.

Today, the house remains an exceptional testimony of the Alsatian civil heritage, marked by the coexistence of styles and materials. Its classification protects unique elements such as the shelled pediment of the entrance door or snout windows hidden by shutters. Although its exact history is fragmentary, its architecture reflects the cultural and artisanal exchanges of the period, between late Gothic tradition and Renaissance innovations.

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