Ancienne Brasserie Gruber (Parc économique Gruber)

English translation

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History

From 1855, the Brasserie Gruber, named after its founder David Gruber (1825-1880), was installed on route des Romains. The Gruber brewery was renowned for its beer brewed at low fermentation perfectly preserved in the brewery's cellars, supplied with ice. Thus refrigerated at constant temperature in underground galleries designed for this purpose, the beer was distributed directly by railway throughout the year. Purchased by the Fischer brewery in 1959, the site nevertheless closed in the 1960s and became a business park, shared today among twelve co-owners. In 2022, the entire business park comprises a dozen buildings over an area of more than 3 hectares, or half less than originally. Several hundreds of people frequent the park daily. The reading of the old site is still evident on the street, with the headquarters of the former brewery, in Louis XIII style (roof with Mansart design covered with slate, red brick façades with alternating courses of sandstone, and monumental porch on the gable) as well as with the identification of certain buildings or parts, such as the chimney of the former heating plant. Between the buildings, constructed according to a plan that can be likened to a double U, runs a paved roadway with, here and there, various parking areas and warehouses. For the most part, the site has been considerably altered from the 1970s onwards, after the sale of the buildings and their new functions; what remained as vestiges of the site are a few testimonies of the old activity: the loading quays, access to the railway, and also the ice cellars. Without great architectural value, warehouses and offices have occupied part of the old site. As for the headquarters of the former brewery on route des Romains, its façades have been only slightly modified, unlike its interiors. The underground galleries and ice cellars, excavated in loess, have not been modified except for the bricking up of certain parts for reasons of private ownership and safety; it should be noted their structural fragility, particularly under the main visitor parking. The buildings to the south are abandoned and in a state of advanced deterioration. Undeclared vehicle occupations, squats, illegal warehouses and neighbourhood conflicts considerably affect the organisation of the place. The ice cellars and underground galleries are rare and quite exceptional, attesting to the importance of this Strasbourg brewing site in the 19th and 20th centuries, and to the invention of its founder David Gruber.