Maison Kammerzell, Strasbourg
A Gothic stone ground floor of 1467 carrying three carved Renaissance timber storeys, standing opposite Strasbourg Cathedral since the sixteenth century.
At a glance
Maison Kammerzell occupies the most photographed corner of Strasbourg’s cathedral square, at 16 place de la Cathédrale. The building visible today is the work of two distinct centuries: a stone ground floor in the late Gothic manner, rebuilt in 1467, and three richly carved timber-framed storeys added above it in 1589. It has been protected as a monument historique since 1929 and sits inside the Grande-Île, the island core of Strasbourg inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988. A restaurant and small hotel operate inside the protected building itself, which means the house is one of the few landmarks of its rank that visitors can enter simply by booking a table.
Key facts
- Address: 16 place de la Cathédrale, Strasbourg
- Earliest documented construction: 1427
- Stone ground floor: rebuilt 1467, the date engraved on the door pediment
- Upper storeys: three carved timber-framed Renaissance floors, added 1589 by Martin Braun
- Windows: 75 mullioned windows across the timber facade
- Protection: inscrit monument historique, 13 June 1929 (Mérimée PA00085098)
- Setting: Grande-Île of Strasbourg, UNESCO World Heritage since 1988
History
A building is documented on this site from 1427, at the edge of the square where Strasbourg Cathedral was still rising. In 1467 the ground floor was rebuilt in stone in the Gothic manner, and that date, engraved on the pediment of the door, is the oldest part of the fabric a visitor can read directly off the building today.
The house owes its silhouette to 1589, when Martin Braun replaced everything above the stone base with three new storeys of carved timber framing, lit by 75 mullioned windows. The result is a Renaissance merchant’s house planted on a Gothic foundation — two building campaigns 122 years apart, both still legible from the pavement. The current name arrived much later, from the Kammerzell family who owned the house in the nineteenth century.
The French state formally recognised the building on 13 June 1929, listing it in the Mérimée inventory of monuments historiques under reference PA00085098. Six decades later the entire Grande-Île around it entered the UNESCO World Heritage List, in 1988.
What you see
From the square, the elevation reads bottom to top as a compressed history of late medieval and Renaissance Strasbourg. The stone ground floor of 1467 is sober and Gothic, with the engraved date on the door pediment. Above it, the three timber storeys of 1589 do the opposite of restraint: every post and sill carries carving, and the 75 mullioned windows, their small panes set in leaded rounds, turn the whole facade into a grid of glass and sculpted wood.
The house gains from its position. It stands directly opposite the cathedral’s west front, so the carved timber facade and the pink sandstone of the cathedral share almost every photograph taken from the square — a pairing that has made Maison Kammerzell the standard shorthand for old Strasbourg.
Practical information
- Address: 16 place de la Cathédrale, 67000 Strasbourg
- Access: the facade is visible from the square at any hour; the interior houses a restaurant and a small hotel, so entry is through their service
- Website: maison-kammerzell.com
- Best viewed: from the west front of the cathedral, where both building campaigns — stone below, timber above — read clearly
Getting there
The house stands in the pedestrianised heart of the Grande-Île, on the cathedral square. Strasbourg’s central station is roughly a 15-minute walk west across the island, and the city tram network stops a few minutes from the square. Anyone visiting the cathedral is already there: the house faces it across the pavement.
Nearby
- Strasbourg Cathedral — directly opposite, across place de la Cathédrale
- Palais Rohan — two minutes south, between the cathedral and the river Ill
- Petite France — the canal quarter at the western tip of the Grande-Île, ten minutes on foot
Sources
- Ministère de la Culture, base Mérimée, notice PA00085098 — pop.culture.gouv.fr
- Archi-Wiki Strasbourg, “Maison Kammerzell” — archi-wiki.org
- Wikipédia, “Maison Kammerzell” — fr.wikipedia.org
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →📷 Diventa un fotografo di Cultural Heritage Online
Condividi le tue foto dei luoghi: restano pubblicate con la tua firma come autore. Più vengono viste, più ti fai conoscere — e presto un concorso premierà le foto più apprezzate.
Accedi o registrati gratis per aggiungere una fotoDo you manage this place?
This page is read by travellers and heritage enthusiasts who find it on Google. Keep it accurate — and make it work for you. Free for non-profit heritage institutions.