The Lipsheim tobacco dryer before it was dismantled in 2018. -

Ecomusée d'Alsace

  • Since this Monday, the 2020 heritage lottery is launched.

    Tickets, gate or scratch, are available.

  • Among the 18 sites selected this year is the Lipsheim tobacco dryer, currently disassembled in the Alsace ecomuseum, in Ungersheim (Haut-Rhin).

  • What does this building look like?

    What is it used for ?

    How much does it take to get it back on track?

    We have prepared a little cheat sheet for you to shine at the next family meal.

A lighthouse, a church, a temple, a viaduct and… a tobacco kiln.

Among the 18 main sites selected for the 2020 Heritage Loto, the representative of the Grand Est is not the most emblematic.

" What does it look like ?

This tobacco dryer is 14 meters high and has a width similar to a house, ”explains Déborah Schmitt, communications manager at the Alsace ecomuseum in Ungersheim.

Since 2018 and its dismantling in Lipsheim, this is where the building is stored.

In spare parts for the moment.

The 240,000 euros needed are guaranteed

“We had some surprises when we went to get him,” she continues.

The beams were in worse condition than expected and the € 80,000 envelope provided for the operation is no longer sufficient.

“Hence an appeal to the Heritage Foundation, which successfully transmitted the file to the lottery.

Thanks to the game, where tickets are available for 3 and 15 euros, the Alsace ecomuseum is guaranteed to receive the sum necessary for the restoration and enhancement of the monument.

Or 240,000 euros.

“As soon as we have them, experts will treat the wood, we will start the reassembly and we will redo the cob.

Then we will launch the museography by creating a floor.

This way, visitors will be able to climb up and see how the tobacco we produce dries.

"

The Lipsheim tobacco dryer is made of cob, a rarity.

- Ecomuseum of Alsace

The technique has been somewhat lost in Alsace, yet the first producing region of these green plants with large leaves.

"We no longer use the dryers since the 1990s," explains Eric Schaeffer, tobacco producer in Hilsenheim (Bas-Rhin).

“Before, you had to hang each leaf on a string, it made big garlands.

Now, once they are collected, usually from early July to late August, they are put in ovens for eight days.

The temperature is gradually increased, from 40 ° to 70 ° before taking them out and re-humidifying them a little.

Then we condition them and it goes.

»In Belgium regarding the exploitation of 4 hectares which he manages with his brother.

The once used dryer is still there.

“We destroyed it a bit to reduce its height.

We use it as a warehouse now.

The building was not made of mud, one of the specific features of the one selected by the Heritage Loto.

Culture

"Heritage must evolve and come to the aid of the community", according to Stéphane Bern

Strasbourg

"The favorite village of the French": In Hunspach, the inhabitants fear "to lose their soul"

  • Society

  • Heritage

  • Tobacco

  • Lotto