Benfeld

Benfeld lies on the Ill in Lower Alsace, where the river waters the Alsatian plain between Strasbourg and Colmar. The settlement’s deepest historical horizon appears nearby at Ehl, where the remains of the Gallo-Roman city Ellelum or Helvetum survive as an archaeological site.

The core of Benfeld preserves a different register of civic life. Its Renaissance town hall is distinguished by mechanical figures dated to 1619. The result is a compact landscape in which Roman urban archaeology and early modern civic display can be read together.