Eglise des Récollets

The Church of the Récollets, dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, was part of the convent complex which was located between the rue des Récollets and the southern ramparts. The present buildings to the right of the church must be disregarded, as this space forms the former cemetery. The Franciscan community settled in Rouffach around 1250 in a property that had just been offered to them. The primitive church, built between 1280 and 1300 underwent several transformations. It is one of the very few mendicant churches in Alsace to have been preserved with its exterior pulpit. The building adjoining the choir is the sepulchral chapel with a vault and funerary monument built in 1606 by Count Manderscheid-Blankenheim, Grand Bailiff of the Mundat and brother of the Lord Bishop. Inside, in the choir, there is a high altar from the beginning of the 18th century, a time of interior restoration of lesser quality. Remains of 14th century stalls and an 18th century fresco depicting the martyrdom of Saint John Nepomucene. In the nave, a large collection of funeral slabs from the 13th to the 18th century from the site, one of which from 1291 bears one of the oldest inscriptions in Old German from the Rhine region. Very beautiful armoured copies of the commanders of the Teutonic Order (1576-1716), an order that obtained by concession the use of the rear bay of the church as a private chapel. In a niche on the south aisle is a Deploration of Christ from the early 16th century, part of an old Way of the Cross (now in the Musée Unterlinden in Colmar).