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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house of Mayor Eberlin is a large bourgeois house of rectangular plan, built in 1597 for Georges Eberlin, rich bourgeois and mayor of Riquewihr in 1598. Located at 5 rue des Trois-Églises, it replaces an earlier occupation of which remains an entry body dated 1528. The building, made of crepe sandstone and wood panels, features remarkable architectural elements: a polygonal staircase turret, ground-lined windows, and a late Gothic door decorated with interlocking sticks.

The house illustrates the opulence of the local elites in the 16th century, with details such as a pantry accessible by an external staircase, a fish gable, and marks of tasking on the screw staircase. The body of passage, partially destroyed during a fire in 1900, retains a door dated 1528 north side and a garden door of 1810. Redevelopments took place in the 19th century, especially on the wooden panel facade on the street side, today cracked.

Ranked a historic monument in 1995 for its facades, roofs, cellar and staircase turret, the house is an emblematic example of the Alsatian architecture of the Renaissance. Master builders Hans Schneider and Martin Hutter worked there, as evidenced by the construction techniques and the characteristic mouldings. Although private property is being restored, the building is currently abandoned.

Its rectangular plan, oriented north-south, and its spatial organization (courtyard, outbuildings, stable) reflect the way of life of the bourgeois winemakers of the period. The late Gothic gate probably inspired the house at 28 rue du Général-de-Gaulle, built in the early seventeenth century. Inside, wooden panel partitions with decorative mesh remind similar models in Kaysersberg, highlighting regional artistic exchanges.

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