Altorf (French pronunciation: [altɔʁf] ⓘ; German: Altdorf; Alsatian: Àldorf) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in the Grand Est region of northeastern France.

Quickly the village's history became intertwined with that of its Benedictine abbey which was founded in 960 by Hugues III of Eguisheim called l'Enroue (Raucous), Count of Nordgau and his wife Countess Hewilde.

Cyriac of Malaga, who had cured epilepsy of the daughter of the Emperor Diocletian in the 4th century, became the patron saint of the village and he is celebrated on 8 August.

Altorf was a place of pilgrimage for epileptics and people possessed with demons with many healings reported in the abbey archives in the 13th century.

The churches of Barembach and Grendelbruch, although relatively remote, were incorporated into the abbey by a papal bull of 1192 from Pope Celestin III which involved in particular the attachment of tithes.

In particular its properties along the right bank of the Bruche extending from the course of the Rothaine into the plain of Alsace were attached to the bishopric of Strasbourg in 1226, extinguishing the line of Eguisheim.

Economic and cultural power caused the shedding blood in Altorf in 1262 when the village and monastery were burned by the Strasbourgers who were in revolt against Bishop Walter de Geroldseck.

The Peasants' epic struggle (the Bundschuh or Deutscher Bauernkrieg), which had partly originated from the Holy Roman Empire in 1524, crystallized in Lower Alsace around Altorf, Dorlisheim, and Boersch.

The leaders of the movement were Erasmus Gerber and Georg Ittel, respectively from Molsheim and Rosheim, established themselves with a group of 1500 men at their headquarters in Altorf, from where the contagion spread throughout the province in a week with their troops raiding monasteries and mistreating Jews.

Father Nartz reported these events in his monograph of 1887: "From the first days of April, the Schultheiß of Rosheim: 'Ittel stood, with two townsfolk of Molsheim, at the head of the movement in the countryside.

From this number he chose messengers responsible to scour the area calling for men to convene on the plain of Altorf during the week of Easter.

Engaged by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus in the European politico-religious conflict in support of the German Protestant princes, they practiced a policy of terror against Catholics in the region (the peasants fled at the cry of "Der Schwedt kommt" (the Swedes are coming), terrified by the "Swedish torture" or Schwedentrunk which consisted of ingesting manure to suffocation).

The population of Altorf were almost exclusively Catholic at that time and so suffered from this presence as did Molsheim and Mutzig which was sacked in November 1632 with the help of Protestants in the neighbouring village of Dorlisheim who put ladders at the disposal of the Swedes to scale the ramparts.

The epitaph of the Abbot Matern recounts success in 1686 in bringing the inhabitants of the commune of Duttlenheim to the Roman Church by making them leave the "Luther sect".

The most notable works are those of the convent buildings and transept from 1715 by the Austrian Baroque master Peter Thumb, the construction of the organ by André Silbermann in 1723, and, from 1985 to 1991, a complete restoration under the supervision of the Parson Henri Host.

The Baroque reconstruction commissioned by Abbot Amandus (Amand Zimmerman) was conducted by the Austrian master Peter Thumb in 1715 for the convent buildings and 1724 for the choir and transept.

These works were completed in 1727 with stuccoed decor: a marble altar with carved figures depicting a miraculous cure of Saint Cyriac, imposing oak stalls, and then an organ in 1730.

[47][48][49][50] The porter's house guarding the entrance to the tithe barn is part of the church and the rectory of the few elements of the abbey that still exist today.

[36] The Church has in its inventory a tombstone bearing the image of the monk Conrad de Gougenheim, steward of the abbey in the middle of the 14th century.