The other side of Strasbourg

Hello and welcome to the latest blog from The Olivia Rose Diaries on Saturday 24th January 2026.

Strasbourg is a city with a long list of ‘must-see’ tourist sites. I apologise up-front as this blog isn’t going to be about them. I have decided that 2026 will be a year to step back and let the hoards of selfie-toting tourists pass me by, and instead I shall search out the quiet wonders of the backstreets. This is the reason why I find myself standing at the top of an old water tower in the Rue de Koenighoffen, not far from the railway station, rather than in the cathedral or wandering around the canals of La Petite France.

Looking at it from the outside this old monument is certainly more attractive than your average water tower but it’s what is on the inside that has drawn me here. The building, originally built in 1878, has been stripped out and repurposed and since 2014 has been home to the biggest private collection of African voodoo art in the world, with more than 1400 pieces on display. It has also cast off its lowly water tower status and is now known as the Chateau Musée Vodou.

I’ve always associated voodoo with zombies and witchcraft,but there is far more to it than sticking pins in dolls. Voodoo is an ancient belief system, centred around several hundred deities, who help people navigate their way through life, through the key moments of birth and death and everything in-between, with the aim of healing, nurturing and also maintaining harmony between the visible world and the invisible one. And the fact that they choose to do so in a fashion that seems quite outlandish to western eyes just makes it all the more fascinating.

This is Zangbeto, the guardian of the night, a spirit that acts as a secret police force in hunting down criminals, although I am not sure how ‘secret’ you can be in such colourful garb.

These intricate costumes are part of a ritual called the ‘return of the ancients’, where the spirits of the dead are called back to earth, deemed to be a necessary source of balance in human life. It has been known, for example, for a parent to briefly return to let the family know that they have safely arrived in the land of the dead.

And below are a selection of various exhibits that caught my eye. You can use your imagination to guess what they signify! Obviously you can’t have voodoo without a skull or two….

And so to my second destination, the vaults beneath Strasbourg hospital, and an ancient wine cellar that dates back to the fourteenth century. It’s rare to find the old and the new living so close together: below ground a celebration of the old ways, with production methods that haven’t changed in hundreds of years, whilst above ground the extensive buildings of the hospital, some of the architecture strikingly beautiful, contain cutting edge technology from the modern world.

It seems strange to find a wine cellar in such a location in the first place, but it was very much part of life at that time, providing wine for mass and daily meals for the people who lived and worked in and around the hospital for an astonishing six centuries. It was also believed to be good for the patients, a philosophy that one can only dream of in today’s modern hospitals. ‘Wine quenched thirst, relieved pain, and lessened hardship in expectation of better days to come’. The production of wine now operates on a commercial basis, run by a co-operative of wine growers, and you can buy a bottle to celebrate your visit.

Walking down the old stone steps the first thing that hits you is the distinctive aroma of fermenting grapes. Huge oak barrels fill the space, taller than a man, around 80 of them, the wood gleaming softly in the lamplight, some of them hundreds of years old and beautifully decorated with intricate carvings.

And right at the far end is the jewel in the crown, the oldest white wine still kept in a barrel in the world, a legendary vintage dating back to 1472 and still going strong.

It only comes out on special occasions: important local dignitaries enjoyed a sip in 1576 to honour a military pact with Zurich, in 1718 it was used to toast the re-building of the hospital after a fire, and more recently in 1944 when General Leclerc was treated to a tasting to thank him for liberating the city.

Lastly, a plaque beside an unassuming metal door provides a macabre insight into life in the fourteenth century. The room behind it was used by students to practise dissections, perhaps not so unusual in a hospital, but at that time such acts were prohibited by the Inquisition. The cadavers arrived under the secrecy of night, and were slipped in through a hatchway, an illegal and clandestine trade that carried heavy penalties for both those who supplied the bodies and those who required them.

And so ends the alternative tour to Strasbourg. Back out on the streets again we pulled on our woolly hats and mittens. Temperatures were barely above freezing, with a biting wind that chilled us to the core. It was not a day for meandering. In fact this turned out to be our last day of playing the tourist. A thick freezing fog blanketed the region for the next week, with visibility limited to a few hundred yards and sub zero temperatures that didn’t encourage extensive exploration. It was time to hunker down, spend lots of time with the dog and three cats we were looking after, and enjoy some indoor entertainment, most notably working our way through the entire dvd collection of Lord of the Rings, sustained by numerous cups of tea and far too much chocolate. That’s the thing with house-sitting in winter, you can never tell what the weather will bring, but a change is still as good as a rest as they say, and nothing is ever wasted.

Next week we head back to Le Shack, stopping off at the marina in Valence just for a few days to check everything is ok on Olivia Rose. We have been away from home for almost two months and have experienced a different life in that time, being in ‘normal’ houses with central heating, hot running water on tap and an indoor loo. I always wonder how it will feel when we return to our off-grid existence after a prolonged time away. Usually it’s fine, and we slot back very quickly into our version of ‘normal’. Let’s hope it works out that way this time.

See you soon.

MJ