MOLSHEIM AND MUTZIG
Wine Road, Bugatti and World War in Alsace
One of the first stops along
the Alsace Wine Road south from Strasbourg (see Route
des Vins Alsace),
the walled city of Molsheim dates
from Roman times and expansion in the
14th century with its medieval stone walls, an ammunition storeroom
and Blacksmith’s Gate
remaining from the period, but much
of Molsheim’s
notable early history comes from the 1500-1600’s during the religious
struggles between Catholics and Protestant reformers. Lutherans took
firm hold in Strasbourg and monastic orders of Benedictines and Carthusians
escaping to this nearby refuge, while later came Jesuits and Capucines.
One
of the former monastery buildings in Molsheim now serves as museum
to
the town’s other claim to fame as the first home of the Bugatti
automobile. The French Revolution brought industry to Molsheim alongside
religion. Ettore Bugatti built his first cars in this small Alsacian
community.
The Bugatti Foundation, a museum dedicated to the car
maker and his family is located in a priory building of a former Carthusian
monastery, the Charterhouse with
remaining
cloisters and monk's cells, along with the Art and History Museum
of Molsheim. The former Bugatti Factory is about a kilometer
out of town, closed in 1956 and is now used to manufacture aeroplane
brake
parts. They have a few Bugattis on display at the Bugatti Foundation,
though while documenting the car marque’s history the foundation
is not really an auto museum. If you want to ogle more of the classic
vintage cars, you can go to the automobile museum in Mulhouse to the
south
(see French
National Auto Museum Mulhouse) or see the Bugatti Streamlined
which inspired the TGV (see Cite du Train Mulhouse).
The Town
Square of Molsheim is typical of a medieval period French Alsacian
village, with a town
fountain,
a boulangerie for morning pastry and a beer garden style restaurant,
with the most distinctive feature, the Metzig, or "Great Butcher's
Shop",
a Renaissance era building with double stairway, and clock figurines.
If you're looking for a colorful wine country stay, there is really
only
one hotel on the center square in Molsheim, often fully booked. If you're 
not
reserving ahead and find it is, a check of a listing at the tourism
office
will often show rooms available in the nearby village of Mutzig five
minutes away, which has two quaint hotels on its own town square. One
pleasant
Bavarian style Bed & Breakfast directly on the square and the more
Alsatian L'ours
de Mutzig Hotel across the square. There are several wine vineyards
for exploring around these two towns, and the less heard of Mutzig has
its own special
place in Europe’s turbulent political history. A
few kilometers outside of the town center in the low rolling hills at
the edge of the Vosges Mountains is the curiously unique World War One
fortress of the German kaiser (see Kaiser
Wilhelm II Fort de Mutzig). © Bargain
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Alsace
Wine Route
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