At Les Deux Clefs, the sculpted dragon of the oriel, flanked by allegories of Temperance and Faith, watches over the mythical destiny of the two crossed keys.

Back in 1540, this was the village's main hostelry, the "Statthof zum Schwartzen Adler".
And it retained the sign of the black eagle up to the French Revolution.

When Alsace became French, the hostelry took the name "Les Deux Clefs" (The Two Keys), in an allusion to the two-headed eagle, the emblem of the Holy Roman Empire, which for the people of Alsace symbolised the keys to the past and the future.

The first renovation of the building was carried out in 1620 by Hans Uda, a master carpenter from Lorraine, whose wife was accused of witchcraft, and burned, in 1628.

The well-appointed, half-timbered house, with its oriel windows and lintels, was intended for distinguished guests, including delegates of the Decapole (a grouping of 10 Alsatian towns, into which Turckheim was incorporated in 1354) and rich wine merchants, many of whom were Swiss.

As an important stopping-place on the pilgrimage to Compostella, the hostelry was marked by a sculpted shell motif that can still be seen by present-day pilgrims.

The building remained in the hands of the Schubnel family for four generations before being sold to Johann Fischer for 1,000 florins.
Over the years it has had such illustrious visitors as Hortense de Mancini, Mazarin's niece (who stayed in room 3), Albert Schweitzer, Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny, General Leclerc and General de Gaulle.

Today, celebrities from the show-business world come to Les Deux Clefs in their quest for authenticity.

Each year, from 1 May to 31 October, starting at 10:00 pm, the town's night watchman recounts legends of Turckheim's imperial past, with its three gates and its historic buildings, of which Les Deux Clefs is but one remarkable example.