Only a step from there, we discover “rue des Soeurs”, nicely embellished with some of the few half-timbered and corbelled houses that tempt us in.

Soultz has very few walls with wooden sections. Some are to be found on a few gables, but seldom on entire façades. In terms of regional picturesque, the stone-built city does not vie with the villages of the Sundgau or the wine-producing area that are of a different design.

Throughout the small town, several houses with turreted staircases stand proudly erect (nearly twenty in all) next to a porch leading down to cellars; quite often, on the keystone of their semicircular arch, the ploughshare or the pruning knife appear between the digits representing the year the house was built, also on both sides, the initials of the owner who built it; these names refer to old families of Soultz, some of which still exist today.

The window frames are richly moulded; one can still make out the marks of the casements that were taken out. The original designs of the mullioned mouldings are extremely varied, stretching from the traditional rolled leaf to the small human head or the lovingly sculpted floret.

ITwo types of spiral staircase can be found in these turrets : one with a straight central newel, the other a much richer structure with a hollow newel and a string adorned with beautiful mouldings.
On the under side of the central string of the Waldner* house, on “rue de Lattre”, there are small mascarons which give it a more pronounced charm. Several of these moulded strings are topped with an ornamented stone crown the same diameter as the central recess.
Their bases are all different. In a courtyard on “rue de la Fabrique”, there is one depicting an angel’s head and another standing on a small-cabled column. We note that all these houses date back to the end of the XVth, beginning of the XVIIth century, seldom before 1575 or after 1620.

Other characteristics of the houses of Soultz : buttresses supporting almost all façades, particularly the corners and both sides of the porches. Their aim is to increase the stability and to compensate for the absence of deep foundations to which the very humid and unstable soil hardly lent itself at the time.

Let us continue our walk to the end of “rue des Soeurs” where we find the old covered way of the inner defence walls again. As we go by, we admire the oriel window of the old “hôtel Saint-Michel” (1622); the story of its origin is written and easily recognizable on one of its two lower panels.

The city walls are in some places eight metres high and you can clearly tell where they have been pulled down when you look at the last adjacent little house.
This house is no more than a ruin and will no doubt disappear shortly.

Heading onto “rue Jean Jaurès” and underneath the last house still standing on the covered way (all the others have disappeared), we walk towards the “hôtel de la Couronne”, recognizable by its cut-out Renaissance gables, its forged sign and its oriel window overlooking the street.
In the courtyard, one can see a wonderful doorframe with two figures, a coat of arms with initials as well as other patterns such as masks and acanthus sculpted on it.

A little further away, we walk underneath the tall porch of n°8 “rue des Ouvriers” to which the owner allowed us access. It is the best-preserved courtyard of the city. This is the typical house of a Soultz wine grower : turreted staircase, porches, elegant oriel windows, outbuildings encircling the courtyard, wooden gallery with turned balusters and acanthus patterns sculpted on the supporting posts.

VWe leave the rampart on the South side of the city where the “porte de Bollwiller” (Feldtor or Fälltor), a double gate with a drawbridge, as well as the “Tour Verte” once stood; the latter’s name is probably due to the green glazed tiles that used to cover it. We go down “rue du Temple” where so much antiquated charm is now hidden underneath the colours of modern coatings. We take a look at this cart door dated 1656 and slanted to let horse-drawn carts in, given the narrowness of the street.

Further on, an expert will see the vestiges of bossed belting courses revealing the presence of what used to be a fortified house in the Middle Ages. On “rue d’Or”, if we are lucky to find the gate open, we shall discover a wonderful example of another building style dating back to the second half of the XVIIIth century : a charming manor house with mullioned windows and arched lintels built in a semicircle and covered with a double pitch broken roof.

Many very similar houses date back to that period. They all contain wonderful oak stairways with shaped balusters, but you will find the most typical one at n°8 “rue des Blés”. The former owners would gladly tell us that, a long time ago, a certain Pierre Fresnay visited the town with his inseparable companion Yvonne Printemps; whilst admiring the pink sandstone steps set in those heavy balustrade banisters made of old oak, he dreamingly expressed the wish to shoot a film sequence there one day…

But let us close behind us the ancient oak door with its refined design and a beaten lintel where one can no longer distinguish the pattern of the vanished coat of arms. The inner panelling and doors of this very beautiful bourgeois house have also disappeared; it is the precious evidence of a bygone age of which we can only deplore the lost charms…

We leave behind us the old Chapel courtyard where the outline of the small Cistercian church, the tower of which is unfortunately missing, and the old convent buildings have lost all monastic dignity in spite of their picturesque quality.

To make up for it, we will find a well that has survived since 1575; it is a poor and neglected relic that used to stand proudly in the middle of the large convent courtyard. Further on, we will take a glance at the “Promenade de la Citadelle” which used to be a boulevard leading onto the outer rampart. The inner ditch is now covered with little gardens amongst which emerges the truncated figure of what used to be the “Tour des Sorcières” forming the lower part of one of the most impressive defence towers of the walls : Meggenhornes Vicchus.

There are hardly any other surprises along “rues des Vignerons, des Charpentiers, des Tisserands, des Cuvetiers”, except for some attractive low-roofed little houses or small forgotten yards to which Progress seems to have granted a short reprieve…

EA large building on “rue de Lattre” is flanked by two turrets : one is square and massive, the other has a Renaissance door topped by the Waldner de Freundstein family*’s coat of arms held by two greyhounds and dated 1707. Nowadays, it is the headquarters of our “Brigade Verte” (local rangers). An inscription in gothic letters engraved on the lintel welcomes the visitor whereas another one on the back door is the voice of wisdom :
Aller Menschen Muth, trachtet nur nach Zeitlichen Guth.
Und Wenn sie das erwerben, legen sie sich hin und Sterben.
(All Man’s energy strives for temporal goods. Once he has acquired them, he lays down and dies). Several other remarkable door decorations are visible in our old streets. We have mentioned the “hôtel de la Couronne” and seen the Waldner* door.

A little further down on that same street, the “maison Horn” has also its turret enriched by another characteristic frame. The date of 1588 appears on it as well as decorations such as foliage and mouldings and the following text :
DOMINUS CUSTODIAT INTROITUM ET EXITUM TUUM EX HOC NUNC ET USQUE IN SECULUM MDLXXXVIII.
The lintel’s central escutcheon has also been erased.

Nearby, a heavy monolithic lintel with an elegant surbased arch has reappeared, having been overshadowed for decades, to show the quality of this building before its unfortunate reshaping last century.

From the fortified episcopal house…

The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem* settled down in the Northern suburb, beyond the Rimbach stream. The commandery they erected as a fortification inside their settlement was to become one of the most important ones in Alsace in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries since we are told that the ones in Colmar and Mulhouse were connected to it. As early as 1234, the settlement dedicated a first chapel to it, as shown by the excavations undertaken on the spot. Before long, this was replaced by a much more important church in the XIVth century and, judging by the remains discovered during the excavation work, it was of an outstanding quality. One cannot but deplore the fact that it was demolished, probably around 1600, for reasons that are still unclear today. The present-day chapel was rebuilt with re-used elements and material, but seemingly in the original Gothic style.

The suggested date of 1774 probably corresponds to the year the construction underwent changes, maybe even important ones. The roof and the windows were lowered and henceforth covered with XVIIIth century style lintels and a flat ceiling was installed. At that time, the isolated chapel and the main building were probably also connected.

Buildings from different periods, various pieces of evidence that were found, rectangular towers that once defended the access bridge across the ditch, guns and other suggestive elements prove that the settlement was important then.Die Gebäude der verschiedenen Epochen, wiedergefundene Zeichen und Markierungen, der rechteckige Turm, der eine Brücke verteidigte, die über den Towngraben geworfen werden konnte, die Feuerspeier und noch viele andere Beispiele zeugen von der Bedeutung und dem Einfluss, den die Kommanderie zu der damaligen Zeit hatte.

Baron Ferdinand de Hompesch* was the last Commander before being elected Grand Master of the Order of Malta where he soon had the unhappy privilege of surrendering the island in 1798 to a young general who was avid for conquests, laurels and power and called Napoleon Bonaparte.

The members of the Order were driven out and despoiled of their property during the tragic events of the revolution; they could not prevent their possessions, buildings and land being sold to private individuals.

Today, the city of Soultz owns the main part of these constructions. It has repaired and modernized the old XIIIth and XIVth century central building whilst nevertheless preserving some elements and pieces of evidence of that time and has restored the XVIIIth century chapel in order to create on the entire area a permanent exhibition called “la Nef des Jouets*” (Toy Museum).

However, the emblem of the Order, the ancient Maltese cross, is still present on the chapel ceiling whilst on its rooftop another eight pointed cross made of wrought iron reminds us of the building’s past functions…