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Saint Stephen's Church, Strasbourg

Monuments historiques of StrasbourgRoman Catholic chapels in FranceRoman Catholic churches in StrasbourgRoman sites in FranceRomanesque architecture in France
Église Saint Étienne de Strasbourg août 2018
Église Saint Étienne de Strasbourg août 2018

Saint Stephen’s Church (French: Église Saint-Étienne) in Strasbourg is located inside the catholic ‘Saint-Étienne’ college in Strasbourg, for which it serves as a chapel. Saint Stephen's is one of the oldest churches in Strasbourg. The crypt contains the remains of a fifth-century Roman basilica. The site was originally occupied by a Roman fort. A new church was built on the site in early in 717 by Duke Adalbert of Alsace, brother of Saint Odile, as part of a new convent, in which he installed his daughter Attala as the first abbess. The Church also served for many years as the episcopal seat for the north of Alsace. The church was rebuilt in 1220 in Romanesque-Gothic style. At the beginning of the 16th century, St Stephen's was a parish church, the parish of Stephen's being one of the nine parishes of Strasbourg. In 1534, as the reform was being introduced in Strasbourg, the parish of St Stephen's was transferred to St William's, on account of the opposition of the cannonesses of St Stephen's to the new teaching. In the seventeenth century Louis XIV closed the abbey and transferred it to the Visitandines to serve as a boarding school for young women, a function which continued up until the French Revolution. In 1714 the church was equipped with an organ by Andreas Silbermann, which is now in Bischheim. After the French Revolution, the building was used as a warehouse, then as a theatre. In 1802, the church was deprived of its tower and in 1805 this was transformed into a theatre. The college, of which the church now forms part, began life in 1861 as a 'Petit seminaire' (literally 'little seminary'), educating future priests as well as lay students. Allied bombing destroyed much of the building in 1944. Only the wide transept with its triple apse survived. In 1956, the ancient site was excavated and a Merovingian apse was discovered beneath the foundations of the old tower. In 1961, the nave was renovated, exposing the timber structures. The church was classified as a historical monument in 1962. In 2016, the monumental concert organ from the former conservatory located in the National Theatre of Strasbourg was moved into the nave in order to be used as a church organ. The instrument, a 1963 work by organ builder Curt Schwenkedel, had been out of use since 1995. It was entirely restored by Quentin Blumenroeder from Haguenau.As the Church is now part of a school, public access is only possible on special occasions, such as European Heritage Days. The school owns some valuable historical tapestries from the abbey church, some of which can be seen in the nearby Notre Dame museum.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Saint Stephen's Church, Strasbourg (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Saint Stephen's Church, Strasbourg
Quai Sainte-Attale, Strasbourg Centre

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Latitude Longitude
N 48.583333333333 ° E 7.7558333333333 °
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Collège Épiscopal Saint-Étienne

Quai Sainte-Attale
67085 Strasbourg, Centre
Grand Est, France
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Église Saint Étienne de Strasbourg août 2018
Église Saint Étienne de Strasbourg août 2018
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Musée archéologique (Strasbourg)
Musée archéologique (Strasbourg)

The Musée archéologique of Strasbourg, France is the largest of the numerous Alsacian museums displaying regional archeological findings from Prehistory to the Merovingian dynasty. It is located in the basement of the Palais Rohan. The museum goes back to the legacy of the historian Johann Daniel Schöpflin (1694–1771), who bequeathed his collection to the city of Strasbourg. The Société pour la conservation des monuments historiques d’Alsace (Society for the Conservation of the Historical Monuments of Alsace), founded in 1855, expanded and publicly displayed the municipal collections, of which a large number was however destroyed in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. During the reconstruction of the city and its museums, the musée archéologique moved to the premises that are still currently its own. In the 20th century, longtime directors Robert Forrer and Jean-Jacques Hatt worked on the systematic study of the Alsatian ground and the substantial enlargement of the collection. Between 1988 and 1992, the musée was thoroughly renovated. Its collections continue to grow steadily due to the numerous excavations made in and around Strasbourg since the beginning of the construction of the new Tramway network. The museum presents an overview of the human habitat in the region beginning with the earliest traces of Human dwelling and settling. A special focus is put on Argentoratum and its outposts along the Rhine like Seltz (Saliso). One of the museums most famous objects is the much studied stele of the legionary Caius Largennius. The museum also displays findings from the Gallo-Roman sanctuaries on the Mont Donon and in Mackwiller, as well as Merovingian findings made around Erstein.