Chapter 3: Strasbourg Squares and Suckling Pigs

Charming city squares may be a delight all over Europe, but I find Strasbourg’s squares, or “places” in French, exceptionally intriguing. There is the eye-candy-store mix of medieval half-timber, Gothic, Napoleonic, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and other architectural styles, cozying around stretches of cobblestone. In summer, there are the leafy vines tumbling down stone walls and the bright blossoms burgeoning from window boxes. In winter, the squares are festively decorated and crowded with wooden market chalets, in keeping with Strasbourg’s reputation as a Christmas capital. There are the inviting bistro tables and benches, which in non-pandemic times are peopled with coffee-, aperitif-, or mulled hot wine-sippers, depending on the hour and season. But the most compelling feature of Strasbourg’s squares is their lore.

I guess it stands to reason that over the course of the more than 500 years that many of these spaces have provided scenic backdrops for people’s everyday lives, they would accumulate a lot of stories—from the mundane to the dramatic, and from the factual to the fantastic. There is something marvelous to me about the idea that the timeworn walls of these public gathering places have stood as passive witnesses to the constantly evolving living conditions, fashions, world events, cultural trends, governments and approach to community in Strasbourg. I’ve made it one of my missions to learn the stories of Strasbourg’s squares, and I’d like to tell you about some of them, starting with a fun one today.

One of my favorites is the Place du Marché-aux-Cochons-de-Lait, the Square of the Suckling Pig Market. I liked it even before I knew its name. Admittedly, Suckling Pig Market Square is a bit kitschy, being near the Cathedral in a very touristy hotspot. Enclosed by postcard-perfect half-timber buildings, reached by narrow cobblestone allies, and featuring an old well, this square makes it easy to pretend you’ve stepped into medieval times. This area of town has been a commercial marketplace for at least the past millennium, and regardless of the era and the season, the energy here is buoyant.

The buildings of Suckling Pig Market square were erected in the Renaissance era, from the 1400s through the 1700s, and have been carefully maintained and restored through the ages. The most notable one is a multi-story half-timber building with two levels of grand open-air porticos—a rare style for an urban setting at the time. Built in 1617 on the foundations of an already 200-year-old building, the “Suckling Pig Market house” was erected and topped with a unique weathervane in the shape of an ornate shoe, alluding to an amusing old story.

In 1414, Sigismond, the King of Bohemia, visited Strasbourg and had a Cinderella moment. Sigismond was fond of women and partying, and Strasbourg was already a happening party town in those times, so he reveled in the moment. The story varies a bit according to the source. Sigismond either danced and caroused all night long, losing a shoe along the way, or he was roused from sleep by a group of ladies in the early morn and managed to stumble out without his shoes. Either way, our jolly Sigismond finds himself walking barefoot through the streets of Strasbourg on his way to an official event. Some of his local lady-friends step into a shop, probably on the ground floor of the former edifice located on rue de Maroquin side of the square and procure some emergency shoes for the king. And voilà: crisis averted. For some reason, this story so marked the town that a reminder of the famous shoe still adorns the square today in 2021.

Maybe another reason I like this square is because of my own random family story about babies and pigs. Just after the second World War in Germany, my father’s parents had lost everything. As they struggled to keep warm and find food in a Southern German village with a toddler, their second child (my father) arrived in bitter January. Their neighbors, a childless couple with means, entreated my Oma and Opa to give them the baby in exchange for a pig that would feed them and their toddler (my uncle) for a long while. I’m guessing that Oma and Opa considered the offer seriously, but it seems they ultimately declined. Hearing this tale repeatedly growing up, it took some time for me to emerge from an initial misunderstanding and literally years of musing that this would have made me: half pig.

Whatever it is about Suckling Pig Market Square, I like to walk through it whenever I can. And now that the outdoor bars and cafés are open again, I plan to channel my inner King Sigismund and toast Oma and Opa there this summer. Stay tuned for more stories of Strasbourg squares along the way.