Station district tour

By way of introduction...

The current station district was integrated into the fortified city between 1374 and 1390, when the surrounding wall was enlarged. It is organised around three main thoroughfares, which already existed in Roman times, whose names still evoke those of the three former outlying districts that made it up: the Faubourg National in the southwest, the Faubourg of Saverne in the centre and the Faubourg de Pierre to the east.

In the 19^th century, the station became the centre of a new mixed-use, newly cosmopolitan district, made up of investment properties, social housing and different types of businesses. Since the 1990s, it’s also been a place defined by its thriving cultural activity, including museums and exhibition spaces (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Stimultania, and more), performance venues (Laiterie, TAPS, Espace K, and more) and creation spaces (Bastion 14, Graffalgar, Fabrique de Théâtre, and more).

Stop 1

Central Station

The siege of Strasbourg in 1870 interrupted trade via the railways. The need to re-establish these economic ties led the German authorities to quickly begin building a new central train station.

In 1883, the new building opened out onto the city via a semicircular plaza.

It is three stations in one: one station for passengers, one station for freight, plus a marshalling yard.  The functional complex, designed by Berlin architect Johann Eduard Jacobstahl, is structured in a horseshoe shape around the main hall leading to the platforms. The station is designed in a rich Neo-Renaissance style, featuring low-relief sculptures of Alsace and Lorraine, lands of the Empire.

Originally full of trees, the plaza now combines plants with 5 pedestrian walkways radiating out symmetrically. Since 2007, the station has been adorned with a spectacular glass-and-metal cocoon that serves as an entrance and walking area, a key element for providing a smooth experience in any large contemporary station.  Designed by Jean-Marie Duthilleul, these enlargement and modernisation features help absorb the traffic flows of new travellers and improve the integration of the different modes of transport available at the station.

Stop 2

ENSAS

Founded in 1922, the National School of Architecture of Strasbourg (ENSAS) was located in the Palais du Rhin until 1987. It was then transferred to the station district, in an old car garage from the 1930s, with modernist architecture. The building was transformed and converted by architects Guy Clapot and Yves Moretti.

In order to provide the students with larger premises, an extension to the school was built in 2013. Designed by Marc Mimram, this new building, called "La Fabrique", is in the form of a stack of three offset modules. This contemporary extension was linked to the old garage, itself redesigned in 2014, by a footbridge encased in glass.

Stop 3

The Old Synagogue

Due to the increasing size of the Jewish community in Strasbourg, a large synagogue was built in 1898, larger than the one located at the time on Rue Sainte Hélène. Built on the location of the former wheat market, the new synagogue stood out from the rest of the city’s architecture due to its monumental architecture. Designed by architect Ludwig Lévy, the pink sandstone building took inspiration from the Romanesque style of Rhineland cathedrals, with its bold 54-metre-high octagonal tour, turrets, high arcades and façade embroidered with a large rose window. It could host up to 1,600 people.

Following the de facto annexation of Alsace into the 3^rd Reich, the great synagogue was burned by a group of the Hitler Youth during the night of 30th September 1940, and then completely demolished in 1941. The site is now commemorated by a plaque. After the void left by the Second World War, the reconstruction of a synagogue was considered a priority, and it was built alongside Contades Park in 1958.

Stop 4

The Olympe de Gouges Media Library

Construction of the “new central library” began in January 1973, and it was inaugurated in October 1975. The modern building, designed by architect Paul Ziegler, sits adjacent to Saint Jean Church with its 18^th-century presbytery and park, now forming an ensemble that combines heritage with contemporary style.

In 2012, the media library changed its name in tribute to Olympe de Gouges, a writer who penned the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen in 1791. The media library is also home to the "Gender Equality” space, a resource centre specialising in gender equality and LGBTQ+ issues. This space raises the awareness of the general public and professionals, through a collection that covers every area of knowledge concerning gender equality, in sociology, philosophy, history and economics.

The Olympe de Gouges Media Library is the 2^nd-largest library in Strasbourg’s network of media libraries in terms of surface area, volume of the collections and number of loans.

Stop 5

Hôtel Graffalgar

On this corner building, built in 1875, featuring a red brick siding, intriguing sleeping travellers are painted with India ink and glued onto the façade, creating a trompe l’œil effect with the cornice. This poetic, hyper-realistic collage, made in 2018 by Charles Levalet, harmonises with the surrounding urban landscape and announces to passersby that this former residential building was converted into a hotel by the Les Agenceurs firm in 2014.

Each room is unique, personalised by artists who were given carte blanche to express their creativity. A stronghold of alternative Strasbourg, this venue supports urban art in Strasbourg, especially showcased on Rue Déserte and the adjacent streets. A multitude of ephemeral artworks, created legally or illegally in the urban space, surprise curious passersby walking past a wall or along a pavement and reflect the multifaceted practices of artists: graffiti, painting, collage, stencilling, mosaic, and more.

Stop 6

Sainte Aurélie Church

Original for its double patronage in the Middle Ages, this parish, made up of market farmers, was referred to for the first time in 801 as Saint Maurice Church, before permanently adopting the name Sainte Aurélie in 1324. In 1523, the parish converted to Protestantism and appointed the Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer (1491-1551) as its pastor. Except for its Romanesque clock tower, the old church was fully rebuilt in 1765, acquiring a façade with a triangular pediment topped by a wide Dutch gable.

Inside, the huge nave features an altar and a pulpit decorated in gold and silver, as well as galleries adorned with painted canvases, which make this church one of Strasbourg’s few religious buildings in the Louis XV style. The organ, built in 1718 by the famous organ builder André Silbermann, features a remarkable Baroque organ case painted in white and gold, still housing 520 original pipes.

Stop 7

Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

The Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCS) opened in 1998, on the rehabilitated site of the former municipal slaughterhouse. The museum is architecturally notable for its huge, glazed nave, which is like an “indoor street” leading off into the various exhibition spaces.  It is the centrepiece of the building designed by Adrien Fainsilber, which plays with perspectives of the water and provides a wide variety of views of the historic city.

Place Jean-Hans Arp, onto which the museum opens out, pays tribute to the Strasbourg artist who was a leader, first of the Dada movement, and then of surrealism, and whose artworks are displayed at the MAMCS. A place for meeting and living, this square is also an iconic part of urban culture, with its skateboarders and rollerblade skaters, as well as street art.

Stop 8

Building at 28 Boulevard de Lyon

In 1903, the industrial construction firm Ihm und Weber commissioned architect Ferdinand Kalweit to design an office building and a warehouse annex. With a composite architectural approach, the building is inspired by curvy plant shapes and Art Nouveau, which can be seen in the stone and in the ironwork of the balconies. The firm’s sign was displayed in large letters under the pavilion roof, at the corner.

At present, only a sculpted figure depicting a metalworker above the entrance hints at the building’s industrial past. On the façade of the warehouse, which is completely covered in red brick siding, a mural by the artist Japu representing basketball players makes reference to the fact that in the 2000s, the building housed a sporting goods store. Now converted into a third-place venue, it adds to the district’s dynamic vibe.

Stop 9

Katholischer Bahnhof

1 boulevard de Lyon

At the end of the 19^th century, the City developed a social and public health policy through a major programme to build social housing for low-income people. Completed in 1908, the Katholischer Bahnhof workers' housing estate was designed to house the railway employees belonging to the Catholic rail workers’ union.

This block of 27 terraced housing buildings provided 274 inexpensive housing units, grouped around an inner courtyard accessed through four large archways. It is one of the oldest social housing developments in Strasbourg. The architect, Albert Nadler, made skilful use of different colours, alternated the volumes and included façades featuring Dutch gables in a Neo-Renaissance style, to give the Katholischer Bahnhof a look that is both monumental and picturesque.

Stop 10

La Laiterie

The name of La Laiterie refers to 60 years of milk collection, pasteurisation and distribution at the gateway to the city centre.

It all began in 1915, when the Central Dairy of Strasbourg was established in a former brewery. On the eve of the 1^st World War, the cooperative was supplying dairy products, in particular to disadvantaged schoolchildren. Starting in 1924, the milk, collected in the surrounding area, was pasteurised on-site and then bottled and distributed. This industrial activity continued until 1979.

In 1994, La Laiterie was converted into a busy venue for creating and spreading culture, right in the middle of a working-class neighbourhood. Divided up into several buildings, this lively place, conducive to artistic exchange, is made up of theatres (TAPS, Espace K), an exhibition room and a concert hall (Laiterie, Molodoï) as well as offices and rehearsal studios for the theatre companies (La Fabrique de Théâtre), open to a wide range of artistic activities.

Stop 11

Water Tower - Voodoo Museum

Part of the railway complex, the former water tower of the train station was built in 1883. It served as a reservoir for the steam locomotives. In the beginning, this massive, octagonal pink-sandstone tower held 4 large steel tanks, with a capacity of 106 cubic metres each, doubled in 1897 due to an increase in traffic.  The Berlin-based architect Johann Eduard Jacobsthal rested the heavy weight of the tanks on the thick outer walls, which widen as they get closer to the ground. The last level was built with a lighter, brick and metal structure, with walls featuring wide openings. The water tower was also used by the railway workers, who, as of 1891, were able to take baths in it.

Starting in the mid-20^th century, electricity was used to power locomotives instead of steam, and the water tower was abandoned. After its purchase in 2005, the space was converted into a museum, giving it a new lease on life: now it's the Voodoo Museum, one of the largest private collections of West African voodoo objects in Europe.

Stop 12

Kriegstor

After the annexation of 1871, between 1875 and 1884, the German authorities began building new urban fortifications to enable the integration of new districts. The new surrounding wall, 11 kilometres long, is made up of high walls and embankments, containing a series of powder kegs and open barracks. Along the wall, some fifteen civilian and military gates can be found.

The Kriegstor (“war gate”) is the only surviving monumental gate. From an architectural point of view, it is a pastiche of a medieval fortified castle, surrounded by crenelated towers and opened up by 4 arched passageways equipped with portcullises and reinforced doors used only in the event of a siege. In front of the structure is the glacis, a vast 600-meter area designed to force the enemy to advance into the open. Planted with trees and turned into a park, it now forms a greenbelt separating the station district from the suburbs.

Etape 13

Bastion 14

Other fortifications have been partially renovated, such as the Bastion 14, located at the end of Rue du Rempart. A former military construction that was part of the fortifications built in 1870, the bastion was turned into an arts residency in 2003. It now houses some twenty shared studios, provided by the city to professional artists, through a call for applications that’s redone every year. A panel comprising experts and artists from Strasbourg’s visual arts scene selects artists from a large number of applicants.

Two common spaces and an international residency are also part of the initiative, which falls under the scope of the city’s policy to support the local art scene. Led by the Department of Visual Arts, Illustration and Literary Life, Bastion 14 is now a space for life and creativity that is well integrated into the neighbourhood, easily identifiable by the colourful flags on its façade, in sharp contrast with the original military architecture.

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This tour was developed by the 5^e Lieu