Saverne and Marmoutier: The Château of the Rohans and the Romanesque Abbey Front
Grand Est, France
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200
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+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Saverne and Marmoutier: The Château of the Rohans and the Romanesque Abbey Front
200 + 100 XP
In the centre of Saverne, the château of the Rohans, a former bishops' palace, was rebuilt in neoclassical style by Nicolas Salins de Montfort after the second of two fires — one in 1709, then the one of 8 September 1779 that destroyed the main building outright; it now houses the town museums. A few kilometres south, the abbey of Marmoutier, founded around 589 by Irish monks under Saint Leobard, a disciple of Columbanus, lost its monastic buildings at the Revolution, but its church keeps a magnificent west front of the 10th and 11th centuries, with an open three-arched porch between two square towers, and an organ of 1710 that is one of only four surviving instruments by André Silbermann.
Required Activities
1
of 5
Go through the musée d'art et d'histoire, the oldest municipal museum in Alsace after Strasbourg and Colmar, for its archaeology and the Louise Weiss bequest — and as you walk the state rooms, look for where the decoration simply stops: the work was abandoned in 1790 and the cardinal who ordered this palace, Louis René Édouard de Rohan, never lived in it, having been swallowed by the affair of the diamond necklace
2
of 5
Walk out of the château onto the terraces behind it and follow the line of Robert de Cotte's water east: a basin 130 m wide by 220 m long, then a canal 60 m across running dead straight for four kilometres, broken two and a half kilometres out by a circular basin 260 m in diameter. Work out on the ground how much of that is still there and what the town has built over
3
of 5
Stand back on the place du Marché and take the west front apart: the open porch of three arches, the two square towers that flank it, and above the porch the great tribune, the one surviving piece of the 11th-century church, which the 12th-century bell tower is built on top of. Then find the stairs inside the towers, which are what the first floor is reached by
4
of 5
Walk through the porch and name the three ages of the building as you go: a Gothic nave of the 14th century, a choir rebuilt in the 18th, and the 10th and 11th-century front behind you — then go round the outside to the north transept and find the 12th-century doorway surviving in its wall. The name over the door is Maur's: the fifth abbot rebuilt the place after a fire in 724, and Mauri Monasterium became Marmoutier
5
of 5
Find the organ case above the tribune and work out what you are looking at: an André Silbermann of 1710, one of only four of his instruments left in the world, with Molsheim, Ebersmunster and Altorf — Albert Schweitzer used to come and play it and pushed through its restoration in 1955. Listen for the oldest bell in the tower too, cast in 1707, which is never rung with the others
Go through the musée d'art et d'histoire, the oldest municipal museum in Alsace after Strasbourg and Colmar, for its archaeology and the Louise Weiss bequest — and as you walk the state rooms, look for where the decoration simply stops: the work was abandoned in 1790 and the cardinal who ordered this palace, Louis René Édouard de Rohan, never lived in it, having been swallowed by the affair of the diamond necklace
Walk out of the château onto the terraces behind it and follow the line of Robert de Cotte's water east: a basin 130 m wide by 220 m long, then a canal 60 m across running dead straight for four kilometres, broken two and a half kilometres out by a circular basin 260 m in diameter. Work out on the ground how much of that is still there and what the town has built over
Stand back on the place du Marché and take the west front apart: the open porch of three arches, the two square towers that flank it, and above the porch the great tribune, the one surviving piece of the 11th-century church, which the 12th-century bell tower is built on top of. Then find the stairs inside the towers, which are what the first floor is reached by
Walk through the porch and name the three ages of the building as you go: a Gothic nave of the 14th century, a choir rebuilt in the 18th, and the 10th and 11th-century front behind you — then go round the outside to the north transept and find the 12th-century doorway surviving in its wall. The name over the door is Maur's: the fifth abbot rebuilt the place after a fire in 724, and Mauri Monasterium became Marmoutier
Find the organ case above the tribune and work out what you are looking at: an André Silbermann of 1710, one of only four of his instruments left in the world, with Molsheim, Ebersmunster and Altorf — Albert Schweitzer used to come and play it and pushed through its restoration in 1955. Listen for the oldest bell in the tower too, cast in 1707, which is never rung with the others
Before you go
The château is a working municipal building — a museum, a 500-seat theatre, a primary school and a youth hostel all share it — so only the museum wing is open to visitors. It runs Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to noon and 2pm to 6pm from 15 June to 15 September; from 16 September to 14 June it opens Wednesday to Friday afternoons only, 2pm to 6pm, with mornings added at weekends. It is shut every Monday and Tuesday and on 1 January, Good Friday, 1 May, 1 November and 24, 25 and 31 December. The abbey church at Marmoutier is the parish church and open most days, but the organ is only heard at services and recitals, and the tribune above the porch is not normally accessible; ask about guided visits if you want to go up.
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About Grand Est
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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