Its history sits alongside that of the other mills in this quarter, and it is the only one of them still standing intact today.
History in brief
A real mill, for spices.
By the early 17th century, this quarter had several mills, mostly for grinding grain with the power of the fast-flowing water. On the branches of the Ill, one of them was used specifically for grinding spices, as well as dye woods and other colonial goods: the Würtzmühle.
“Le Moulin aux Épices” is the French translation of the building’s historic name. Today it is the name of an 82 m² apartment taking up part of the ground floor of the Würtzmühle, just above the water, with an open view of the Ill, its swans, its ducks and its tour boats. Here is the story of the building, and of the quarter around it.
Le Moulin aux Épices, in pencil
7 centuries
From the 12th century onwards, the city of Strasbourg began channelling the four branches of the Ill.
1619
The Würtzmühle was built between 1619 and 1621, the year it was completed.
1988
The Grande Île, Petite France included, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The mills of the Ill
Telling names.
A mill was named after whatever set it apart: a place, a family, a kind of goods.
The Spitzmühle
The mill at the Point
Spitz, the point: it is named after the spot where the branches of the river divide.
The Zornmühle · The Düntzenmühle
Mills named after their millers
Two names carried like a shop sign: that way people knew whose mill they were taking their grain to.
This is the one
The Würtzmühle
The spice mill
Würz, spice: the only one of the mills named after neither a family nor a place, but after what was ground to powder there.
The Moulin in its quarter
Petite France seen from the Pont Saint-Thomas: the Moulin in the middle, the waterfall to its left, the Pont Saint-Martin to its right, and the Ill flowing on either side of the building and underneath it.
Seven centuries
From the channelling of the Ill to today’s Moulin aux Épices.
12thcentury · the branches of the Ill channelled
The branches of the Ill are channelled, and the trades that live off the water gradually move in.
South-west of Strasbourg, the Ill, a river 217 km long, divides into four branches at the Ponts Couverts. Once channelled, they give fast, steady water: a powerful source of energy. The trades that cannot do without it settle there: fishermen, boatmen, millers and above all tanners, whose leatherwork needs constant rinsing. The branches are also home to many public baths.
Far from the grand houses around the cathedral, this is a working-class quarter of tall half-timbered houses and narrow lanes. People rarely venture into this tangle of hovels, sheds and workshops unless they have business there.
Fishermen and boatmen
Water as a source of food
The river trades: fishing, and also carrying goods by boat.
The millers
Water as motive power
The current, fast and steady, turns the wheels. Each mill holds its own branch of the river, and its own name, as we saw above.
And above all the tanners
Water for rinsing leather
Their work needs constant rinsing. The large open lofts still visible at the top of the façades are not there for decoration: this is where the hides were hung to dry.
The Zornmühle canal, seen from the Pont Saint-Martin, today.
1230the Ponts Couverts
The Ponts Couverts and their watchtowers close off the south-west entrance to the city of Strasbourg.
They are also what you see, lit up at night, at the very top of this page.
The Ponts Couverts by day, with their three watchtowers.
17thcentury · spices
The mills of Petite France crush and grind grain and spices with the power of the fast-flowing water.
On the branches of the Ill, each mill has a name, taken from a place or a family. And each mill gives its name to the canal it stands on, so the names of the mills and canals serve as landmarks for finding the streets. Only the Würtzmühle is named after what was ground there, spices, and it never gave its name to a canal. It stands right at the end of the canal of the Zornmühle (now gone). The names, above.
ArchivePetite France around 1850, lithograph by F. Baumann: three of the quarter’s mills can be seen, but not the Würtzmühle.
1619the Würtzmühlecompleted in 1621
Spices, dye woods and rare colonial goods.
As we have said several times already, Strasbourg’s spice mill is called the Würtzmühle in German. It owes the name to its original purpose: spices, dye woods and other precious goods from the trade routes were crushed, ground and milled there. This was rare and costly material, and it had to be ground to powder as close to the merchants as possible.
The building stands on piers in the water, which lets the river flow between them. The raw spices were delivered by boat. Hence its position: not on the bank like the other mills, but above the water.
1619–1621Construction period, according to the Bas‑Rhin departmental archives.
1519according to local tradition.
Both dates are in circulation; we have not settled the question.
1840–1902Making way for oil and chocolate
The new lives of the Würtzmühle
c. 1840According to the land register, the mill now belongs to the miller Charles May, who produces oil there. The May family also owns the Duntzenmühle.
c. 1900The chocolate maker François Schaal buys the Zorn mill and the Würtzmühle to set up the German branch of the Compagnie française des chocolats et des Thés there.
1902Traditional milling comes to an end in Strasbourg.
ArchiveThe Compagnie française des Chocolats et des Thés, set up in the mills of Petite France.Archive“Moulins et école St. Thomas”: the mills in the days of the chocolate factory, on an old postcard.
around 1980around 1980 · renovation
The architect Gérard Ecklé renovates the building and converts it into flats.
The Würtzmühle today, seen from the opposite quay: standing on the Ill, with the Pont Saint-Martin joined to it on its right.
1988UNESCO
Recognition: the whole of Strasbourg’s Grande Île becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The area known as “La Petite France”, including all the buildings around the canals, is part of it. Strasbourg was the first French city to have an entire urban centre listed, rather than a single monument.
TodayA holiday let
You can now stay in the Würtzmühle, in this apartment just above the river.
The exposed beams, the irregular rooms and the round arches in Vosges sandstone belong to the Würtzmühle. The fine old Indonesian parquet, the large stone flags from the Chapelle de Xertigny, the Moroccan copper and the beautiful old carved wooden doors, on the other hand, were found by successive owners in antique and second-hand shops, and they give the place its own particular character.
The centrepiece of the decoration is a mural seven metres by two, painted by the artist @William specially for this apartment, in the blues and golds of Asian temples, which always bring to mind the warmth of spices.
The origin of the name “Petite France” is less charming than it sounds. The quarter takes its name from a hospice opened on rue des Moulins to isolate people with syphilis, which at the time was called the French disease.
The mill no longer grinds anything: people sleep here, and the river runs past it and underneath.
