Sorry all! I have no idea why it is posting the picture sideways. It isn't sideways on my computer.

KS, I saw your post within 4 mins after you posted. I can't wait to see the well. I hope you are not having issues with loading a pic. Still waiting......lol
jin

Your picture didn't show up.

Nope, the gremlins are hard at work, I'm afraid. We'd love to see the picture though.

I can't see any picture at all.

Ah ha! For some reason it posted correctly this time (I didn't do anything differently). Oddly, I still see the sideways photo when I look at this thread on my computer, but not on my phone! Sorry everyone!

Comtesse, I wish I were based in Europe! In fact I have just returned to the states, but had a wonderful time in France. I'm constantly scheming about ways to get over there for longer periods. This time I was there for a month -- it helps that I know people who provided me with a place to stay for a big part of that trip, and for the rest I stayed in cheap hotels and a very inexpensive (and rustic/charming) Air BnB.

What a great idea!

This would have been an opportunity wasted if they hadn't done it, although now I'm wondering whether the rose dies down each winter, Strasbourg being in northeastern France, near Germany. If so, it obviously grows back, and is a nice living presence amidst all the hard surfaces.

I can't believe the pic appears now before I wrote...how ?? That is so bizarre but I am glad you reposted it Bec I definitely will have a cranky neck. hahaha.
That is so cool to be in France for a month. The well look so special. I wonder how old it is ? It does look as if it belongs to rose / historical museum . Whoever did that makes it look more beautiful as an art or centerpiece of that street. COOL idea :)
I was looking forward to this as soon as I got off work and it is such a treat :)
Was the well dried up ? I wonder how old is the well ?
KS , thank you for sharing with us this precious pic. It is very unique and thank you for thinking of us . Yes, you are right ! I know I have never seen anything like that and perhaps many haven't either.

jin

Comtessa, great detective work !!
I felt as if I was in France looking all around on Google Earth. Ya, I was looking at Cafe Rohan and a few stalls. Building structures if the white building and behind bit looks like a church.
You took my hand from Geography to History. That's is amazing. I am surprised that they never planted that very special rose by Cafe Rohan or well. I have not read the Wikipedia you link yet being still asleep drinking my first cup of coffee.
Thank you for putting all the details into the thread combined. It is very interesting story. That is a lot of researching you did and spend a good deal of hours. Excellent research !!!

jin

So now you have me obsessed with sourcing Prince Camille de Rohan! I would love to get him! I sent a Facebook message to Antique Rose Farm in Snohomish, Washington, to see if they have it.

Steph, Roses of Yesterday and Today has this rose.

Yay! Thanks!

Oh wow, I went away and did some things, and came back to an astonishingly rich thread! You all are amazing detectives. Perhaps I ought to grow Prince Camille de Rohan as well! Monarda, that is a lovely altarpiece. There is another beautiful altarpiece, this one by Martin Schongauer, at the Dominican church in Colmar (about an hour south of Strasbourg) depicting Mary resting on a turf bench surrounded by roses. I wish I could have gotten a closer picture!

P.S. I saw wells that were somehow capped off and used as planters all over Alsace -- I'm not sure how they did it exactly. This was the only one I noticed where someone had the brilliant idea to put a rose in it.

We were really sorry to have missed Colmar. Next time -- I hope & I'll keep my eyes out for capped wells, too.

Thanks for those details Comtesse! I happen to have a soft spot for "bitchy" roses. ;) The color on Prince Camille de Rohan looks fabulous.

Oh, boy: Prince Camille de Rohan! -- the rose, I mean. I think I also found out more about the guy. This is him: Camille Joseph Philipp Idesbald Fürst, of Rohan-Rochefort-Montauban, as portrayed in 1845.

He was born in 1800 in Brussels into a branch of the noble Rohan family and died in 1892 at the Chateau in Sychrov, Czech Republic, where he created a fantastic garden, whose beauty is reputed to have been the inspiration for Antonin Dvorak's violin concerto.

After the French Revolution the family emigrated to Bohemia and were accepted into the Habsburg nobility. From his uncle, Charles Alain, Camille inherited the French title of Duke and the Habsburg title of "Prince" (which the uncle had received as an officer in the Austrian army in the campaign against Napoleon). According to the Czech wikipedia (translated by Google), Camille preferred to be known simply as Kamil Rohan:

He became renowned as a philanthropist and patron, focused on botany , led the Czech Society for the Improvement of Horticulture in Prague, and rebuilt the English-style park at his Sychrov chateau . He received a number of awards during his lifetime, including honorary citizenship of the City of Prague. The City of Prague (1861), the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Grand Cross of Leopold's Order, and was also a hereditary member of the Chamber of Deputies.

***

A wiki footnote refers to the following article:

Mžyková, Marie. "I Am Not the Duke, I am Rohan: Notes on an Aristocrat's Life." In: Aristocratic Families and Their Residences in the Bohemian Paradise: Proceedings from Scientific Conference held on 24 - 25 April in Turnov . State Regional Archives in Litoměřice for Pekař's Society of Bohemian Paradise in Turnov, 2009 p. 52-59.

"Bohemian Paradise" is the name of a region near Prague, I gather. Camille Rohan's uncle, Charles Alain, had bought the Sychrov property in 1822 and initiated renovations to the castle, with his heir Camille continuing the work in gothic revival style.

Thank you for sharing all these pics and history! Its so neat to learn about faraway places!

Monarda, thank you for posting the art. I think I was side track several times during my first cup of coffee or must have a few zzzz's. . but I sure miss your post until I got home late after work.
Comtessa, Monarda and KS , thank you posting pics and enriching us with rich history of that place . It is very interesting and educational thread . This time I was sharing it with my DH who felt same way as Jjkoc .

jin

I find it entertaining to research these guys -- I didn't know anything about him or the Rohan family at all until just now. It makes me want to go to the Czech Republic, which I never did before and also to see the rose. So many of the old European roses are named by and for Bonapartists -- because Vibert -- though not all. Thank heavens it all happened long enough ago that we don't have to take sides and can just appreciate the roses.