Château Burrus is a château in Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines, in the department of Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France. It was built in 1900 and has been listed as a historical monument since 1993.[1]

Château Burrus
The front elevation
Château Burrus is located in France
Château Burrus
Location within France
Château Burrus is located in Grand Est
Château Burrus
Château Burrus (Grand Est)
Château Burrus is located in Alsace
Château Burrus
Château Burrus (Alsace)
General information
StatusAbandoned
Address74, Rue Maurice Burrus
Town or citySainte-Croix-aux-Mines
CountryFrance
Coordinates48°15′46″N 7°13′26″E / 48.2629°N 7.2240°E / 48.2629; 7.2240
Completed1900
OwnerMaurice Burrus
Technical details
Floor count3
Lifts/elevators1
Design and construction
Architect(s)Jules Berninger, Gustave Krafft
Designated21 January 1993
Reference no.IA68007218

History

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Maurice Burrus

It was the family home of Maurice Burrus, a tobacco manufacturer and famous boss, built in 1900. During the Second World War, the chateau was requisitioned and transformed into a training centre for SS officers. It is in neo-baroque 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.[2] In 2022 a family bought the château and started renovating it.[3]

Architecture

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The chateau is in neo-baroque style like Opéra Garnier (1875) or Saint-Maurice church in Freyming-Merlebach (1913). The architects are two Alsatians who studied in Stuttgart and at the École des Beaux-Arts 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. It is in the centre of the chateau and opens onto all the rooms and all the floors.

The green room[4] 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[4] 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[4] 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.

References

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  1. ^ Base Mérimée: IA68007218, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French) Maison : Château Burrus
  2. ^ "Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines. Intervention au Château Burrus". www.dna.fr (in French). Retrieved 2021-09-21.
  3. ^ Malal, Sylvie (19 July 2022). "Haut-Rhin : la renaissance du château Burrus, à Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines, laissé à l'abandon depuis une trentaine d'années". France Info. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b c These names are not official; they are just names the urban explorers give.