Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Bowe House, located on the 50th Polygon Road in Strasbourg, is a building built during the 4th quarter of the 19th century. It is distinguished by the use of cast iron for its architectural elements, reflecting an Anglo-Saxon stylistic influence. This choice of materials and design is part of the industrial innovation of the time, where cast iron, a robust and malleable material, allowed complex and durable ornaments. The building is now protected: its facades, its roof and its fence wall with cast iron railings were inscribed in the Historical Monuments by order of 21 April 1995.

The road to the Polygone, where the Bowe House is located, is a major road in the Strasbourg district of Neudorf. It appeared in the 14th century under the name Weg zum neuen Hof ("Chemin vers la nouvelle ferme"), and initially linked Strasbourg to the agricultural suburb of Neuhof. In the 19th century it became a strategic axis to access the military terrain of the Polygon, used for artillery exercises and imperial parades, notably under Napoleon III in 1857 and William II in 1899. This route, now commercial and residential, has undergone several urban transformations, including major renovations in 2002 and 2020.

During the German period (from 1871 onwards), the Polygone road developed as a dynamic shopping street, served by a tramway from 1885. The Bowe House is part of this context of urbanization and modernization of southern Strasbourg, marked by Germanic cultural and architectural influence. The 1943 bombings damaged some of the surrounding buildings, but Bowe House, preserved, still bears witness to the architectural eclecticism of the late 19th century. Its location, close to the Polygone airfield (former military terrain transformed into an airbase and then into a leisure space), highlights its anchoring in both a civilian and a military history.

External links