Old Town Hall (Ensisheim)
The old town hall in Ensisheim is a former regimental palace in the Alsatian municipality of Ensisheim . It is listed as a monument historique .
history
In 1341 Ensisheim became the administrative seat of the Austrian foothills and the capital of the Landgraviate of Alsace as part of the Habsburg Empire . In 1506 Maximilian I expanded the administration and justice system. In 1532 it was decided to build an administration building. Between 1535 and 1547 the master builders Stephan Gadinner and Heinrich Hermann built an administrative headquarters under Landvogt Gabriel von Salamanca-Ortenburg based on the model of the Koïfhus in Colmar . In 1636 the building became a barracks during the Thirty Years War . In 1658 it became the seat of the Conseil souverain d'Alsace , which was to reorganize Alsace after the Peace of Westphalia and to set up administrative structures. When the council was relocated to Breisach am Rhein in 1674 , the building was initially empty and was then the town hall from 1701 to 1958.
Today the Musée de la Régence with a historical and archaeological section is housed here next to the tourist office. The showpiece of the museum is the Ensisheim meteorite , which hit the city walls on November 7, 1492.
architecture
The right-angled building with two storeys and a hipped roof is influenced by the late Gothic and Renaissance periods . At the apex of the complex sits an octagonal stair tower with a star vault and a striking aedicule with a bust of Jakob Balde at the entrance. The eastern wing is designed on the ground floor as an open columned hall with a reticulated vault and is accessed via pointed arches. Markets and public court sessions used to take place here. Above it is a large conference room on the first floor, the three-part narrow windows of which are still influenced by Gothic. Fluted pilasters and wall columns structure the outside of the building. The capitals protrude on the ground floor in heavily framed wall templates, which originally probably contained images of emperors or archdukes and were removed during the French Revolution . There is a balcony on the south side.
literature
- Walter Hotz: Handbook of the art monuments in Alsace and Lorraine. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1976, p. 52.
- Dominique Toursel-Harster, Jean-Pierre Beck, Guy Bronner: Dictionnaire des Monuments historiques d'Alsace . La Nuée Bleue, Strasbourg 1995, pp. 124-126.
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 51 ′ 55.1 ″ N , 7 ° 21 ′ 7.5 ″ E