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Origin and history

The Folie Marco Museum occupies a patrician residence built in 1763 in Barr (Bas-Rhin) by Louis-Félix Marco, baili of the local seigneury. The latter, a lawyer at the Conseil Souverain d'Alsace, undertook his construction to reflect his social status, but died ruined in 1772, forcing his heirs to sell the property. The building, nicknamed "insanity" because of its fascist considered by its contemporaries, was then occupied by bourgeois families such as the Kienlins or the Trawitz, who made changes to it.

In 1922 the brothers Henri and Gustave Schwartz, notables of Barr, acquired the house and installed their collections of antique furniture. They left it to the city in 1933 on condition of creating a museum there, opened in 1964. The building, partially listed as a historical monument since 1935, retains remarkable architectural features: armorized balcony facades, Louis XIV oak staircase, and an 18th-century garden renovated in 2001. The collections, organized on three floors, illustrate the evolution of Alsatian decorative arts from the 17th to the 19th century.

The ground floor features restoration style furniture, including a walnut dining room and an office with rooms stamped by Parisian cabinetmakers like G. Beneman. The first floor houses a musical lounge decorated with original wall decorations and a large central living room furnished with 18th-century tomb dressers. The second floor exhibits Alsatian Renaissance cabinets (17th century) and faiences of Hannong (Strasbourg) or Lunaville manufactures. The garden, decorated with ancient essences and stone elements like a balcony with atlantes from the Abbey of Andlau, completes this testimony of Alsatian bourgeois life.

The history of the place is marked by figures such as Louis-Félix Marco, the sponsor of madness, or the Schwartz brothers, whose legacy allowed the creation of the museum. The adjacent vineyard, acquired during the Revolution by Jean-Christophe Kienlin, also recalls the links between this residence and the local economy. Today labeled "Musée de France", the establishment combines architectural heritage and securities collections to evoke the social and artistic history of Alsace's Enlightenment in the industrial era.

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