Photo Trip
Soultz sous Foret & Hoffen, Department du Bas-Rhin,
Alsace, France on July 24, 1999
Contributed by John T. Halbert
[email protected]
7/26/99
Both Soultz sous Foret and Hoffen are very close to Wissembourg, which is the border with the state of Rhineland Pfalz, Germany. Soultz is 12 km (about 7 miles) south of Wissembourg and 20 km (12 miles) north of Haguenau in the Elsass (Alsace). It is about 22 km (about 13 miles) west of the Rhine river. Hoffen is about 10 km (6 miles) south of Wissembourg and 24 km (14.5 miles) north of Haguenau. It is about equidistant to the Rhine. Soultz is about 2 km (1.2 miles) north of the Rue de Vin (Wine Road) and Hoffen about 0.5 km east of the Rue du Vin (Federal Highway #263).
Both communities are in the Bas-Rhin district of the Alsace, just south of the Maginot Line where bunkers and underground tunnels and facilities still exist today. Both are near the Haguenau Forest - the location of major battles in both WWI and WWII.
Hoffen is a classic Alsace community along the Rhine, full of picturesque half-timbered homes (Fachwerk homes) that date back to the 1600-1700 time period. It is a “strassen dorf” or street community - meaning the houses are built parallel to the main street (as opposed to a kirchen (Church) dorf where the houses are built in a circle with the church as the center. The community today has about 1,000 inhabitants. The town is built upward on a hill from Le Seltzbach, a creek that comes from Soultz and heads east to the Rhine, entering the Rhine near the village of Seltz.
Fachwerk or half-timbered homes are known as the original mobile homes. The critical part of the homes were/are the heavy wooden beams and braces which could be moved from place to place in horse drawn wagons. The walls were made from a mixture of clay, cow manure and straw - all of which was abundantly available. People could pick up their homes and move depending on political pressures in time of wars. Most Fachwerk homes along the Rhine are in their 2nd or 3rd locations - not the original locations.
Soultz was remarkably empty of Fachwerk homes. I was not able to find out why, but I suspect at this point that these classic homes were victims to wars, as homes, schools, the city hall and all are fairly nondescript standard buildings. [This was later confirmed by Jean-Claude Streicher, a historian of the area, who wrote: “Your relatives (were) astonished not having seen in Soultz a lot of typical Alsacian Fachwerkhouses. The answer is : they (had) been destroyed at the end of 2nd Word War during the fightings between the Germans and the Americans. See the photo gallery of the web site (http://www.knanah.com/txmilmus/36division/archives/moder/jumpoff.htm)...”] The churches are both relatively new also (1800s) in both communities - compared with the majority of churches in this region which go back to the 1600s.
Soultz apparently has a history back to 1274 when it first became a village. My French is lousy - and until I can talk with the local historians, this is my guess from reading one of the signs at the local school next to the city hall: Soultz became an imperial village (ville) in 1346 under Emperor Louis de Basiere (??). It was part of “Roi de France” in 1630, when the protestant school was founded by Baron de Fleckenstein. In 1726 the church was part of the protestant grouping under Hanau (a city near Frankfurt, Germany) which was at that time connected with Royal marriages of Lichtenburg (Alsace) & Hanau. In 1726 the population of Soultz was about 2,000 persons. (This is taken from the sign written in French that is readable with a magnifying glass.)
Soultz sous Foret photos.
1.
The town sign just off the Rue du Vin (Federal Highway 263) on highway D28 (department of Bas-Rhin highway) atop a hill about 2 km from Soultz center. The small fleck to the left of the red geraniums is the protestant church steeple. Soultz sous Foret is in a valley created by Le Seltzbach (Seltz Creek). The view is toward the west, and the forested hills in the backbround are the beginning of the North Voeges Region National Park (which adjoins the Pfalzerwald, the largest national park in Germany to the north).
2.
On the D28 highway entering Soultz, the view is mostly of the new expansion area of the community with the old part of the town being around the two churches. You can see the steeples just to the left of the sign.
3.
A chamber of commerce type sign which establishes Soultz sous Foret today as a center of commerce for the North Voeges Park region.
4.
A flower bedecked bridge which crosses Froeschwillerbach River on the D28 Highway.
5.
Reverse view of the bridge showing Froeschwillerbach River.
6.
A gasthaus (restaurant/tavern) that dates back to the mid-1800s, along Froeschwillerbach River and the bridge.
7.
A historical sign/business display board for the Protestant school at Soultz, which provides some history and an artist’s portrait of the school located next to the city hall - as it appeared in the 1700s. You can see the modern school in the background that exists today.
8.
An enlargement of the artist’s conception of the protestant school.
9.
City Hall in Soultz and the location of the community tourist information center as it exists today. Behind this building is a large Fachwerk (half-timbered) that I suspect may have been the old city hall. It is still in use by the city.
10.
Close up of the entrance to City Hall with a city crest clearly visible on the balcony above the entrance.
11.
View of the Protestant and Catholic Churches from along a branch of Le Seltzbach, with a grassy flood plane across the creek.
12.
Exterior of the Catholic Church on the main steet (Rue du Fleckenstein).
13.
Alter in the Catholic Church.
Photos of Hoffen.
1.
The protestant church on the main street in Hoffen, erected in 1871.
2.
Another view of the front of the Hoffen Protestant church.
3.
Two Fachwerk (half-timbered) homes behind the church.
4.
Fachwerk homes in front of the church on the main street.
5.
Typical Fachwerk homes on both sides of main street heading north from the protestant church.
6.
Another view of Fachwerk homes, a couple of blocks north, above the protestant church.
7.
Fachwerk homes atop the hill in Hoffen, where the road goes west to the main highway and extends in the residential areas to the right of the large oak tree in the middle of the road.
8.
A typical home and barn (bauernhof) in Hoffen, this one at the top of hill on main street where the main road turns left to go to the main highway.