Tête grimaçante du Beffroi

Mutzig, a small wine town west of Strasbourg is known for its beer. But no more beer here for a long time.

Few people know this, but the inhabitants of the city are under constant surveillance; not by the city's cameras, but by a little man in the belfry of City Hall. He is nicknamed the "Rothüssmann". He is carved out of wood and measures about 70 cm (1972 - Raymond Keller and restored in 2001).

In the old days, this little grimacing head would stick its tongue out at passers-by every time the clock struck the hours and half hours. Today, the tongue is no longer sticking out, but it has been moving its ears since it was transformed in 1934.

The original (18th century) is in the Mutzig Museum.

There are two opposing theses to explain its presence

is it a Jacobin revolutionary's head that would remind us of the French Revolution?
or is it older and from the first building used as a town hall?

The weather vane at the top of the turret is decorated with a crescent moon in reference to the war against the Ottoman Empire. The head would then be that of an oriental man wearing a turban and not the Phrygian cap of the revolutionaries

DATAtourisme France