History of the building

Construction of the house was completed in 1538, according to the date inscribed in German Gothic, and was embellished by an oriel window with balcony added in 1545. Stéphane Ziegler, the architect for the town of Sélestat, built the house for himself and his wife, Anna Römer.

The oriel

The oriel is decorated with sculpted pilasters and 14 medallions, which were cut down during the French Revolution. These medallions did not feature profiles of princes or emperors, as was customary, but those of architects, artists and scholars of Greek and Roman antiquity, identified by a Latin inscription. This iconographic programme was provided to Ziegler by his friend Beatus Rhenanus, who was himself inspired by the treatise of Vitruvius, a Roman architect from the 1st century BC. Vitruvius was depicted on one of the medallions. This document is still kept at the Humanist Library in Sélestat.