Spiral

Renaissance Staircase, Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg, France

Spiral staircase designed by architect Hans-Thoman Uhlberger, about 1579, in Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, in Strasbourg, France. The museum is located in two buildings of the Œuvre Notre-Dame, which has been responsible for  construction, maintenance, and revenue collection of Strasbourg’s Cathedral since the 13th century.  Opened to the public in 1931, the museum highlights Middle Ages and the Renaissance arts from the Upper Rhine, including statuary and stained glass from the Cathedral, furniture, decorative arts, tapestries, and paintings. Don’t overlook the museum if you visit Strasbourg.

From the museum’s website: “This remarkable spiral staircase is contemporary with the Renaissance wing of the Notre-Dame church. Testimony of the virtuosity of the architect Hans-Thoman Uhlberger, it is characterized in particular by its hollow core and its two internal ramps animated by a helical movement. It presents the same curious mixture of flamboyant tradition and Renaissance taste as the rest of the building. Under the internal ramp and the vault, the moldings represent gnarled branches in the late Gothic tradition.”

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