11th and 12th centuries: Hildegarde de Buren and the monks of Conques

Hildegarde of Buren founded a small church on this site in 1087 and donated it in 1094 to the Abbey of Sainte Foy in Conques, Rouergue. The monks soon found that the space was too small, and in the 12th century began building a new, larger church. What remains of Hildegarde of Buren's church is the crypt beneath the transept. In it is a strange mould of a death mask found during work on the crypt in 1893. The identity of the person from whom the mould came has been the subject of much speculation. Could it have been Hildegard or her daughter? It's hard to say. That's why it's called ‘La belle inconnue de Sélestat’ (The beautiful unknown of Sélestat).

17th and 18th centuries: The arrival of the Jesuits

The Benedictine monks of Conques left Sélestat in 1424. They were replaced in 1615 by the Jesuits, who redesigned the church to suit their tastes, enlarging the windows in the aisles and creating galleries above the aisles.

Later, in 1734, the Jesuits remodelled the north tower of the building, accentuating the difference in height between the two towers.

1889-1893: Restoration of the church

At the end of the 19th century, the architect Charles Winkler was commissioned to restore the church to its original appearance. He removed the Jesuit work but harmonised the towers on the façade by raising the south tower to the same height as the north tower. Both towers were crowned with rhomboidal spires. This type of crown did not exist in Alsace in the Middle Ages.