Old city hall of Mulhouse

A magnificent building in the service of art and history a Mulhouse in Alsace

Built in 1431, the old city hall of Mulhouse was destroyed by fire in 1551. The following year, its reconstruction was carried out under the leadership of the Basel stonemason Michel Lynthumer. They took advantage of this restoration to give it a clean Rhenish Renaissance architectural style.

Its high roofs are composed of glazed tiles with different colors. Its facades are pink and have golden frescoes. Montaigne qualified it as a magnificent golden palace in 1580.

A sumptuous reproduction of the Klapperstein (a stone weighing more than 10 kg, representing a grimacing head, was put on a slanderous person that was forced to go around the city sitting upside down on the back of a donkey, as punishment) is hanged on the right wall of the building. The government of that time has occupied the premises. Still today, meetings of the City Council and wedding celebrations are hosted there. The old city hall also houses the Historical Museum of Mulhouse since 1969 and is located at "place de la Réunion". This square was given this name because of the annexation of the Mulhouse republic to France.

Originally, the façade of the old city hall was painted red and gold by Christopher Bock. In 1968, the painter Jean Gabriel painted a decorative sham on allegorical prints of Henric Golrzius. Later in 1779, the paintings of the façade were restored by Theodore Andrew Genderich, then by the Parisian artists and Holfeld Lachaise in 1903 and finally by the German Ferdinand Wagner.

Adresse: 2, place de la Réunion

Bontourism®, the Art of Traveling to the Old city hall of Mulhouse​