Château Burrus is a

château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...

Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is part of the arrondissement of Colmar-Ribeauvillé. Vosges and Jura coal mining basins#O ...

, in the department of

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It was built in 1900 and has been listed as a

historical monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

since 1993. Maison : Château Burrus

History

It was the family home of Maurice Burrus, a tobacco manufacturer and famous boss, built in 1900. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the chateau was requisitioned and transformed into a training centre for

SS officers The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It bega ...

. It is in

neo-baroque Neo-Baroque may refer to: * Neo-Baroque music * Neo-Baroque painting, a painting style used by Christo Coetzee and others *Baroque Revival architecture * Neo-Baroque film *the Organ reform movement The Organ Reform Movement or ''Orgelbewegung'' ...

style. Maurice Burrus belonged to one of the largest families of tobacco manufacturers. The factory was closed in 1947, and after Maurice's death in 1959, the building was sold to a religious congregation and then resold to private individuals. Today, the building has been abandoned and is often visited by urban explorers. In 2022 a family bought the château and started renovating it.

Architecture

The chateau is in neo-baroque style like

Opéra Garnier The (, Garnier Palace), also known as (, Garnier Opera), is a historic 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at ...

(1875) or Saint-Maurice church in

Freyming-Merlebach Freyming-Merlebach (; ) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is part of the agglomeration of Saarbrücken and Forbach.Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

and at the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

in Paris, Jules Berninger and his brother-in-law Gustave Krafft. The ground floor consists of eight rooms and a large hall. The hall features Ionic and Corinthian-style columns and is adorned with fake yellow

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

. It is in the centre of the chateau and opens onto all the rooms and all the floors. The ''green room''These names are not official; they are just names the urban explorers give. is adorned with mirror holders which considerably enlarge the room. It is adorned with a ceiling painted with a slightly cloudy sky. The ''red room'' is the most opulent, with its two fake red marble columns, its copper gilding which magnifies all the ceiling details, doors and walls covered in some places with red satin silk tapestries. The ''wooden room'' is, as its name suggests, all in wood from floor to ceiling and half of the wall covered with embossed cardboard tapestries. Renaissance-style furniture proudly stands in the room. Martial75-20150929101636.jpg, The green room Martial75-20150929104200.jpg, The green room Martial75-20150929103640.jpg, The doors of the red room Martial75-20150929103958.jpg, Columns in the red room Martial75-20150929101459.jpg, The wooden room Martial75-20150929101814.jpg, The hall and its fake yellow marble Martial75-20150929105152.jpg, The stairs and its large window Martial75-20150929110417.jpg, View of the glass roof from the first floor

References

Châteaux in Haut-Rhin Monuments historiques of Haut-Rhin {{HautRhin-struct-stub