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Origin and history

The home of Saint Odile, located in Obernai in the Lower Rhine, is a building whose origins date back to an alleged Regia villa of the Merovingian period. The site, occupied in the 12th and 13th centuries by a castle of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, was set on fire in 1246 by the bishop of Strasbourg Henri de Stahleck, then abandoned. After its acquisition by the city in 1466, a reconstruction was attested in 1470 thanks to the communal archives. The building served as a school from 1497, before being enlarged in the late 16th century to become a public attic.

Over the centuries, this multipurpose monument will successively house a municipal depot, a tobacco shop, and then become a school again in 1848 under the direction of Ringeisen. Ranked as historical monuments in 1981 for its facades and roofs, it now bears the traces of its turbulent history, with modern commemorative inscriptions and a bachic inscription on base. Its current location, at 128 Athic Street, makes it a major architectural testimony to the urban evolution of Obernai.

Historical sources highlight its central role in community life: place of education, storage of crops, and administrative space. The house thus embodies the social and economic transformations of the region, from the Merovingian times to the contemporary era, while remaining associated with the legendary figure of Saint Odile, patron saint of Alsace.

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