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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The house located at 65, rue du Quatre-Régiment-des-Spahis-Moroccoans in Rouffach (High Rhine) is a remarkable example of Alsatian civil architecture from the 3rd quarter of the 17th century. Built in 1671 for M. A. Willeman and Erasme Bollenbach, it features a square house with an angular housing decorated with sculptures (flowers, angelots). Its windows, with ground chambranles and lintels with roses, recall those of two other Roufachois houses, suggesting the intervention of the same craftsman or architect. The front door, framed by ionic pilasters and grotesque masks, is surmounted by a window on top of the door, while the coat of arms of the sponsors (a lion and a wild man) were added during the restoration of 1913 by Louis Keller.

The building was listed as a historical monument in 1929, with protection on its facades and roofs. The restoration of 1913 modified certain elements: two spirals of the cellar were replaced by windows on the ground floor, and the allegory of the lodge was redone, incorporating the coat of arms of the Willeman-Bollenbach spouses. A carriageway door, dated 1672, remains on the rue de la Gendarmerie. Undocumented dependencies were not studied. This building illustrates the fascist of the Alsatian bourgeois houses of the modern era, mixing late Renaissance and emerging Baroque influences.

The house is part of the architectural heritage of Rouffach, a city marked by its medieval history and its role in the Alsatian vineyard. Its state of conservation and sculptural details make it a valuable witness to local constructive techniques in the 17th century. The street where it stands, formerly called Poincaré Street, reflects the city's urban and memorial recompositions, especially after the First World War. The carved motifs (rosacs, angelos) and the talking weapons of the sponsors underline the symbolic importance of ornamentation for the affirmation of social status at that time.

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