Ancienne Douane

The Ancienne Douane (Old Customs House) stands at 1 Rue de la Douane on the quay of the River Ill, on Strasbourg's Grande Île in the Grand Est region of France. It was built in 1358 as a warehouse and customs hall for goods arriving by river, and for centuries served the city's trade on the Rhine route, with the ground floor used for storage and the upper floors for trade and civic functions. The long, steep-roofed building with its stepped gables is typical of the late medieval commercial architecture of the Upper Rhine, and it is one of the major examples of non-religious Gothic building in the city. The hall was altered over time and was damaged by the bombing of 1944, which destroyed much of the structure. It was rebuilt after the war on its original plan using the surviving stones and façades. Today it hosts temporary exhibitions and cultural events. The ground floor opens onto a quay with a view of the water, and a terrace beside the building looks across to the Barrage and the districts that border the river. Visitors can see the exterior at any time and enter the interior when an exhibition is on. The Ancienne Douane stands close to the Place Gutenberg and the Musée historique, in a quarter that preserves the commercial character of the medieval city, and it is a reminder of the central place of river trade in Strasbourg's wealth. The hall was built in a period when the city governed itself as a free city of the Holy Roman Empire, taxing goods that moved along the Ill and the Rhine and storing merchandise before it was sold or sent on. Its robust masonry, large roof space and wide arched openings were designed for handling bulk cargo, and its position on the quay allowed barges to unload directly at the building. The long brick-and-stone form still dominates this stretch of the river and gives a clear picture of how the commercial centre of the medieval city worked.