If half-timbered buildings like the ones above are the first image in your mind of Strasbourg, you wouldn’t be far off—but the city’s architectural heritage is actually quite varied and tells stories of its long history on the border between French and German influence and rule.
Founded as a Roman camp, it spent most of the Middle Ages as a free city within the Holy Roman Empire, ruled sometimes by its bishops, sometimes by other nobles and kings, but never truly what we know now as “French” or “German” and speaking mostly a local language called Elsass.
That came to an end in 1681 when Louis XIV took control of the Protestant city and declared it French and Catholic. He did more than declare; he turned it into an important garrison town for French troops, and sent in a French bishop to return the Cathedral to Catholic worship.
He also sent French architects to add a French look to the city; one of the first projects was a residence for the bishop. Now known as the Palais Rohan, it houses Strasbourg’s fine arts museum. Its ‘French connection’ is unmistakable.
More typical of previous Alsatian architecture are half-timbered buildings, some of them seemingly absurdly tall, with their steep roofs punctuated by several levels of gables.
Don’t be taken in by the lack of half-timbering on numbers of buildings that otherwise seem to fit the mold; over the past 150 years or so, numbers of older buildings ‘modernized’ by plastering over the underlying joints, and even, in some cases, modifying them to allow larger windows. The two buildings in the second picture were twins until the 1950s.
Some recent buildings have made a pass, architecturally, at keeping the old styles alive.
Occasionally a spot that could be Paris… and then some that show interesting mixes and survivals.
But Louis XIV was not the last monarch to march into Strasbourg and demand design alterations. When Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to Prussia in 1870, the German Emperor saw Strasbourg as a key western city as France had seen it as an eastern border. He determined to make it as German as could be, with German in the schools, and with a new German-speaking university, a new German-style railroad station, and an entire ‘Neustadt’ or ‘New City’ at the edge of the old town.
On the Kaiserplatz, now Place de la Republique, an elaborate palace with extensive gardens, modeled on German styles, was built for the Kaiser, suitable for the capital of his new province. He actually visited it only a dozen times in twenty years; today it houses French government cultural offices.
Next door was the Parliament building, now the National Theatre of Strasbourg; nearby the Prefecture, home to government offices then and now, and the University Library.
Not all of Strasbourg’s newer buildings represent national aspirations, of course, and the tide of architectural change across Europe at the end of the 19th century arrived in Strasbourg, too—from both the German and Austrian Jugendstil and the related Franco-Belgian Art Nouveau.
The Galleries Lafayette building from 1912 is an interesting mix, including its four statues representing the seasons. As Strasbourg changed hands in 1918, 1940 and 1945, so did the store occupying the building.
On Place Broglie, across from the city’s main open-air market, this 1901 gem was built for a custom tailor. Its wrought-iron railings and the bulbous dome have made it a landmark.
The 1734 home at the right was built in 1734. It has a symmetrical Louis XIV facade, with local-style gables and skylights—and an unfortunate 20th-century addition in front.
Below, a few more buildings of interest. The last is the oldest; it was built in 1642 as a cannon foundry, renowned for its technical expertise.
And, not far from the Neustadt complex, some pleasant late 19th century apartment buildings.
