Walking tour: A cradle of Alsatian art

This is a circuit full of art. Two departures are available to choose from: - In Auenheim, at Henri Loux's birthplace, rue de l'Église near the town hall. - In Sessenheim, at the Goethe Memorial, rue Albert Fuchs on the D 737 towards Soufflenheim. Henri Loux, do you know him? His work is widely known through the "Obernai tableware sets" in which he immortalized the daily life of the Alsatian countryside of his time. He was born in Auenheim in 1873 but grew up in Sessenheim. The young Loux then studied decorative arts in Strasbourg and Germany. His style of painting quickly became very well known. He lived everywhere and died in 1907 in Strasbourg. He has produced 56 tableware designs, illustrated almanacs, brochures and packaging. In Rountzenheim, the neighbouring village, you discover another Alsatian artist: Alfred Marzolff, sculptor and medalist. He lived in Rountzenheim from 1914 to 1936, the date of his death, and is the author of some sixty works: statues, plaques and medallions, including, in Strasbourg, the Four Men of the Kennedy Bridge, in Sessenheim, the busts of Luther and Bucer, on the facade of the Protestant church, in Rountzenheim, the monument to the dead. In Sessenheim, your itinerary passes (round trip) to the Goethe Memorial, located in the former Napoleonic Guard Corps. Another start of the tour can be made here. The memory of Henri Loux remains vivid in the town but it is above all that of Goethe and his youthful idyll with Frédérique Brion that makes Sessenheim famous. The idyll was short-lived but it appears in many of the poet's compositions (Willkommen und Abschied, Heidenröslein...) From there you take the road to Stattmatten passing in front of the Protestant church where Frédérique's parents are buried, their steles are on the south outside wall. A little further on, a "Frederikensruhe" mound awaits you. He was frequented by the two lovers. Objects dated from 1000 to 400 BC have been found there. Stattmatten is a small village on the outskirts of town. According to a legend, it was founded by a Swiss family who, in awe, docked their boat near a bank overlooking a meadow (hence the name: Statt en den Matten). This small village, close to the Rhine, lived on fishing, boating and agriculture until the middle of the last century. There were even gold panners. On the way back to Auenheim, the path runs along a meander of the Moder. The river has become a forest course here. The surrounding fauna and flora are very rich: reed beds, willows... up to 20 different plant species at the are, an exceptional aquifauna: grebes, herons, egrets, star bittern. You have arrived in Auenheim. Route description: https://ignrando.fr/fr/parcours/68453-pr6-un-berceau-de-l-art-alsacien