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Origin and history

House Bürgerhof is a Gothic stoneware house located at 35 National Street in Wissembourg (Bas-Rhin). Dating from the 4th quarter of the 15th century, it is distinguished by its high two-sided roof, its three floors and its ground floor with a large hall and an entrance passageway. The windows on the 3rd floor, ground in a cellar with a china, as well as the west gable retaining the trace of an outdoor medieval fireplace, testify to its original architecture. The south wall is crowned with a frieze of trilobed arches, and a carved slab dating from 1506 bearing the inscription der burgerhoff, overlooks the south gate.

Acquired by the city in 1505 for 1030 guilders, this house became a meeting place for the corporations and receptions of the local bourgeoisie, hence its name Bürgerhof (court of the bourgeois). It was rented to innkeepers until the Revolution, then sold at auction in 1791 to the Apffel family. In the 19th century, it housed the horse post. A dendrochronological analysis would be necessary to clarify certain dates, particularly for the adjacent annex building, partly dated from the 1500s.

The house features remarkable architectural elements, such as an octagonal column with capital carved in the main hall, a ceiling with original solifs, and a complex structure with traditional assemblages (tenons, mortises, arond tails). Napoleon I stayed there in 1807. Subsequent changes include the remodelling of the 1st and 2nd floor windows at the end of the 18th century. Ranked a historic monument in 1935 for its facades and roof, it illustrates the importance of the patriotic houses in the medieval Alsatian cities.

Heinrich Holzapfel, confessed by the Duke of Deux-Ponts, built this house around 1475 after obtaining the right of bourgeoisie in Wissembourg. He also served as President of the Staffelgericht from 1482 to 1484. The carved slab of 1506, representing a savage man holding the arms of the Empire and the city, symbolizes the link between the house and municipal institutions. Ancient views reveal missing crenelated gables and angle scauguettes, partially preserved as cul-de-lampe.

The annex building (35a), redesigned and enhanced, could date in part from the 1500s. The adjacent house (35b) was added in 1601. In the back, a courtyard once housed outbuildings and a grain covered market. The structure, particularly well preserved, consists of three rows of poles on the first level and assemblages typical of medieval times. Despite the transformations, Bürgerhof remains an exceptional testimony of civil architecture and urban life at the end of the Middle Ages in Alsace.

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