Lycée International des Pontonniers, Historical high school in France

The Lycée International des Pontonniers occupies a complex of three old buildings along the Ill at 1, rue des Pontonniers, near Strasbourg Cathedral. The main building, completed in 1902, has a historicist facade borrowing from 15th- and 16th-century Germanic architecture, with woodwork from the demolished Katzeroller house and an oriel partly dating from 1589.

Franciscan nuns settled here in 1299 at the convent Sancta Clara in Undis; after 1681 Vauban lodged regiments in the deserted convent, and from 1792 to 1870 the barracks housed General Eblé's pontonniers, whose 400 Dutch bridge-builders worked in the icy Bérézina in November 1812. The city demolished the barracks and built a model girls' school, completed before the 1902 term; in 1918 it became a state lycée de jeunes filles and since 1979 the international lycée.

Six international sections—English, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Russian—serve the families of European institutions and multinational firms based in Strasbourg. Pupils also study Arabic, Latin, Portuguese, Turkish and, since 2004, Chinese. The building itself teaches local art: enamelled tiles inside the entrance portal show the destroyed Katzeroller house, and the oriel by the staff room partly comes from the bakers' guild stove of 1589.

The school sits at 1, rue des Pontonniers in central Strasbourg, a short walk from the cathedral, along the Ill. It is a working secondary school, so the courtyards and buildings are not open to visitors during term time; the decorated street facade and the entrance portal can be seen from the public road.

The facade on Rue des Pontonniers reuses wood panelling taken from the Katzeroller house, and enamelled tiles inside the entrance portal show that demolished building. The oriel above the teachers' room partly comes from the bakers' guild stove of 1589 in Rue des Serruriers.