Église Saint-Maurice

The Église Saint-Maurice is the nineteenth-century neo-Gothic parish church of Mutzig. Mutzig is a small town on the Bruche, a short drive north-west of Obernai, at the point where the valley opens from the Vosges toward the Alsace plain. The two towns are easily visited together.

The church was built in the later part of the nineteenth century, in the years when the Gothic revival shaped much of religious architecture in Alsace and across Europe. It follows the form of a classic basilica, with a nave and two aisles, a polygonal choir and side chapels, and its tall bell tower is the dominant feature of the town's skyline, high enough to be the highest in the Bruche valley. The style uses pointed arches, ribbed vaults and slender windows, but it is the work of a single period rather than the product of centuries, which gives it a unity that older churches rarely have.

The interior fittings are part of that unity. Altars, pulpit, stalls and other furniture were made in a consistent neo-Gothic style by the Klem workshops of Colmar, a well-known firm of church furnishers of the time, and the result is a church where the architecture and furniture belong to the same design. Visitors who are used to Romanesque and medieval churches will find this a different experience, closer to the nineteenth-century idea of what the Middle Ages looked like.

Mutzig itself has other attractions. The town is known for its brewery, whose beer is one of the best-known Alsatian brands, and for a former armoury that produced weapons for generations. On the hills above, a large German fortress built before the First World War, known as the Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II or Fort de Mutzig, is open to visitors in season, and gives a very different view of Alsace's history.

From Mutzig it is an easy trip to Obernai itself, with its market square and half-timbered houses, and to the Mont Sainte-Odile, the hilltop convent that dominates the region. The church suits architecture enthusiasts and travellers who like to see a place beyond the main tourist circuit. Opening times can be limited, so check locally before you visit.