Hunawihr

The village lies half-way up the slopes at the confluence of two watercourses. Surrounded by its little fortified cemetery, the fifteenth-century church emerges among vines that stretch to infinity. The pointed bell tower also served as a keep, where winegrowers could take refuge in case of attack. Hunawihr's old Alsatian houses mostly date from the sixteenth century. The winegrowers' dwellings limit ornamentation to beams, window frames and the gateway. Mansions, generally built in the nineteenth century, show much more demonstrative decoration. The building materials, however, remain the same across eras: flat scale tiles, white or oxide-coloured rendering protecting a wattle of clay and horsehair, oak, beech or fir wood for the skilfully arranged beams. The latter of course comes from the Vosges forests.

← Other sites in Haut-Rhin