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Origin and history

The Lutheran University of Montbéliard was built between 1598 and 1607 by Heinrich Schickhardt, a major Renaissance architect who redesigned part of the city. It was the heart of the new Neuveville neighbourhood (now Faubourg de Besançon), designed by the same architect. Its opening was delayed by the wars, and it welcomed students only between 1670 and 1676, before closing after the French took Montbéliard.

In 1677 the building was converted to Catholic worship with the addition of a chapel in its western wing. The successive destructions (east, south and west wings in 1866 for the church of Saint Maimbeuf; part of the north wing in 1932 for a gymnasium) left only a fragment of the north wing. This vestige, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1989, now houses the church presbytery.

Architecturally, the university formed a four-winged closed square, whose stairway to the north wing was reused in the north tower of the church of Saint Maimbeuf. The building illustrates Protestant influence and urban planning reborn in a then Württemberge-dominated city, before its attachment to France.

Only part of the north wing, located 14 rue Saint-Maimbeuf, remains visible. The property now belongs to an association, and the protected facades/roofs correspond to the AL 160 cadastre.

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