Tours · Estrasburgo · Square
Place Benjamin Zix
Place Benjamin Zix is the postcard heart of the Petite France quarter, a tiny square where leaning timber framed houses and the grand Maison des Tanneurs mirror themselves in the green canals of the river Ill.
Sobre este lugar
Tucked into the western end of the Grande Ile, Place Benjamin Zix is the romantic core of the Petite France quarter and the single most photographed spot in Strasbourg. It was laid out in 1840 and named for a Strasbourg born painter and engraver who served as Napoleon's travelling draughtsman before dying young in Italy. For centuries before that, this was a working district of tanners, millers and fishermen, drawn by the fast flowing canals that powered their mills and rinsed their hides. The square is dominated by the Maison des Tanneurs of 1572, its airy upper galleries once used to dry animal skins, and ringed by steep roofed timber framed houses whose reflections shimmer in the water. Today the leather and mud have given way to cafe terraces and flower boxes, but the fragile sixteenth century townscape survives intact, protected since 1988 as part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Datos clave
- 1572 year — The Maison des Tanneurs on the square was built as the seat of the tanners' guild
- 1988 year — The Grande Ile, including Petite France, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site
- 39 years — The age at which painter Benjamin Zix, who gives the square its name, died in Italy
📍 Place Benjamin Zix, 67000, Strasbourg