Nearest station: Rothau
Nestled on the right bank of the Bruche, Rothau was the administrative centre of the Ban de la Roche domain. Le Ban, comprised of six municipalities, was acquired by Count Palatine Georges-Jean I from Veldenz in 1584. He introduced the Reform to the area in 1589. The Rothau and Waldersbach parishes were from that point on under the control of the Lutheran Church. Subsequent to the return of Alsace to the Kingdom France, administrative directives required from 1724 on that the Catholics and the Protestants of Rothau share the same church. This regime, referred to as “simultaneum”, was practiced in all Alsatian towns where the two faiths coexisted. A Lutheran Church was nonetheless built in 1863 based on blueprints drawn up by Louis-Michel Boltz, an architect from Colmar. View map