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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The house at 6, Place d'Armes in Séletat is a building of the 3rd quarter of the 18th century, partially built on older bases (XVI century for some parts). It consists of three juxtaposed building bodies, whose central body, dated around 1770, features a carved door with a chambranle and an adorned staircase. The walls, probably made of brick covered with coating, support roofs with broken long panels, characteristic of the Alsatian architecture of the time.

In the 18th century, the building housed the Licorne pharmacy, originally set up 6 rue des Chevaliers. This officine, owned by the Fels families (17th century) and then Diell (18th century), was marked by a wrought iron impossible grid representing a unicorn, a symbol used in a sign painted around 1850. A bronze mortar from 1679, engraved on behalf of the pharmacist Gamaliel Fels, bears witness to his activity; This object, melted by Johann Peter Edel in Strasbourg, is now preserved at the Amsterdam Museum of Medicine.

The house was modernized after the transfer of the pharmacy rue du Marteau in the late 19th century, becoming a garment shop. Only the gate on street, inscribed in historical monuments by order of 21 April 1934, enjoys official protection. The building thus illustrates the evolution of urban uses in Alsace, between medical, commercial and architectural heritage.

The building blends elements from the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, reflecting the successive transformations of Séletat, a commercial and then industrial city. Its irregular staircase and ground windows at the back recall the functional adaptations made over the centuries. The accuracy of its current location is assessed as poor (note 5/10), based on available data.

The house is linked to dynasties of Alsatian pharmacists, such as the Fassenmeyer, who succeeded the Diells. Its history, in conjunction with that of the Licorne pharmacy, makes it a witness to the medical and craft practices of the Ancien Régime, in a region then under French and Germanic influence.

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