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Origin and history

The house located at 2 rue Claude-Ignace-Callinet in Rouffach (Haut-Rhin) is an old commissioned house of the Teutonic order, built in the 1st quarter of the 17th century. This large building, with drop-on-street and vaulted entrance passage, presents a remarkable architecture: yellow sandstone oriel decorated with armored shields, carved vaults, and a circular staircase turret. The coat of arms of Commanders such as Wolff Wilhelm von Weittingen and Georg Wilhelm Thun von Neienburg are visible there, along with engraved dates (1603, 1607, 1618) showing successive transformations.

Originally, the Teutonic Knights owned a command office in Sundheim (now extinct), founded in 1235 and dedicated to Saint Stephen. After repeated attacks (1444, 1525), they transferred their intramural siege to Rouffach, first rue des Recollets, then rue de la Gendarmerie where this building was erected. The front door, dated 1533 and re-used, could come from an earlier construction. In the 18th century, the knights left to settle on Poincaré Street, and the building became an inn.

The building combines Gothic elements (motifs of the oriel, broken arch) and baroque additions (drilled windows). The street façade, the oriel, the entrance passage, the courtyard with its turret and the roof have been protected since the inscription of historic monuments in 1929. A slab engraved in 1607 by Wolff Guillaume de Weittingen attests to his role in the works: "I, Wolff Guillaume de Weittingen, Commander [...] I did it with my own hand".

The commandory did not have a proper chapel, the knights using part of the nearby Franciscan church for their services and burials. Today, the building houses an inn, while keeping traces of its military and religious past, such as the staked shields (marteled coats of arms) and lapidary inscriptions. Its hybrid architecture reflects the successive adaptations, from the Renaissance to the modern era.

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